Roman ditches and pits at Carmen Street, Great Chesterford (EHER 83361)

Watching briefs on the laying of sewage pipes and power cables recorded ditches and pits.

1968 and 1978. Watching briefs. Five features were recorded during watching briefs on the laying of sewage pipes and power cables. Feature 1. A gently sloping ditch, 1.75m wide, located in both 1968 and 1978. The upper 1.12m consisted of dark stony soil, while the lower fill was a green cessy silt. A few fragments of late 2nd- to early 3rd-century pottery were recovered. Feature 2. A pit 0.65m wide and at least 1.25m deep, sited next to F1. Contents identical to F1. Feature 3. A straight-sided pit or ditch 4m wide, augered to a depth of 3m. Not observed in sewerage trench or in property on the opposite side of the road, so most probably a pit. Feature 4. An area of compacted flints and lump chalk set in a trench 2.2m wide. Two pieces of red tesserae and fragments of Roman tile recovered. Feature 5. Clearance work prior to the building of a new house on the east side of Carmen Street, coupled with the cable and sewerage trenches, revealed a V-shaped ditch 1.75m wide and 1.12m deep. This ran for a distance of 27m northwards before turning through 90º and heading eastwards. Pottery suggests a mid-2nd-century date. At the same time a record was made of finds from the gardens of the houses between Newmarket Road and Carmen Street, see EHER 4961. <1>