Roman cemetery centred on Great Chesterford Recreation Ground and Bowling Green, 'Eastern Cemetery', Great Chesterford (EHER 83360)

Evidence for a Roman cemetery to the east of the 4th century walled town comes primarily from an antiqurian excavation by Lord Braybrooke in 1846 whereby at least 30 inhumation burials and 55 buried vessels (possibly cremations, though likely a total figure including offertory vessels) were recorded. The precise location of the excavation can not be confirmed, but is thought to be centred on the modern recreation ground and bowling green where further human remains were recorded in the 1970s. A second group of dispersed inhumations is further evidence for funerary activity to the east of the Roman town, but may not have been part of this formal urban cemetery. Some of these burials have been chance discoveries of human remains whilst others are in situ burials in groups of two.

The evidence for cemeteries to the east of the town consists of two discrete groups of burials. This record draws together the archaeological evidence for a Roman cemetery to the east of the town, in chronological order of discovery. It also provides links to relevant records where you can find more information on each discovery. The first group comprises at least thirty inhumation burials and 55 buried vessesls (it is not clear if this represents 55 cremations or simple the total number including offertory vessels), which had been excavated in 1846 by Lord Braybrooke (Hon. R.C. Neville); see EHER 46232. Also at this location, a large quantity of human bone was recovered during a watching brief in 1972 during a watching brief for a new bowling green. Two inhumation burials, one in a wooden coffin, were also recorded in an exploratory excavation on an undisturbed part of the site following the watching brief. See EHER 13916. A second group of dispersed inhumations is further evidence for funerary activity to the east of the Roman town, but may not have been part of the formal urban cemetery described above. The records for these burials are signposted below in the chronological order of discovery: At sometime before 1806, an inhumation was found in the top of a pit beside the Newmarket Road. See EHER 83454. Possibly in 1848, in a garden ‘within and near the centre of the city’, Braybrooke found two human skeletons unaccompanied by grave-goods. See EHER 83453. In the 1870s, Professor T. McKenny Hughes undertook excavation on the rubbish pits exposed in the parish gravel pit and recorded three human skeletons near the bottom of one of the pits. See EHER 13960 (see also note in the record on the conjectured location of the finds). In 1967, two skeletons and 1st- to 2nd-century Roman pottery were discovered by workmen digging a drain trench approximately 73m to the south-west of Crown Cottages, Newmarket Road. See EHER 83427. In 1968 and 1978, possibly during a watching brief, human remains and pottery were recovered from the gardens between Newmarket Road and Carmen Street. See EHER 4961. In 1971, during the cutting of a sewer trench, three human burials (two female and one child) and two horse burials were recorded. However, these are considered to be likely Anglo-Saxon in date. See EHER 13857. In 1995, a watching brief recorded a complete human skeleton of a young female woman and fragments of a second human skeleton. See EHER 14926. Human remains were recorded in a trench adjacent to Fag End Cottage (now Weaver's Cottage), Carmen Street. See EHER 83448. The year of discovery is unknown. During the laying of a sewer in the rear garden of Poplar Lodge, a whole human skeleton was uncovered. See EHER 14143. The year of discovery is unknown. Note: The mapped extent of this cemetery is loosely based on the figure in source <2> and has been determined by the mapped location of the above records, for which is provides a bounding outline. It does not reflect a definitive maximum extent of the cemetery, but rather it aims to provide a broad grouping of funerary activity to the east of the town. It is an interpretation of the available, sometimes uncertain, evidence. Given the two burial groups described above, the evidence may represent more than one cemetery, or, perhaps more likely, a cemetery and instances of dispersed, isolated burial. The burials discussed above have also all been given a broad 'Roman' date (excluding the possibly Anglo-Saxon burials, EHER 13857) and a more thorough understanding of the character of the cemetery/cemeteries would benefit from more refined dating material, which for the above records, was not always recorded when the discoveries were made.