Post-medieval deposit and pit, on land west of the playing fields, Newmarket Road (EHER 83362)

Trial trenching in 2017 recorded a post-medieval accumulation deposit and an exceptionally large pit which was too large to be fully excavated, and which may contain a chalk deposit as seen in other excavations in Great Chesterford.

November-December 2017. Watching brief. Two layers of post-medieval/modern make-up/accumulation were recorded in all trenches apart from Trench 5 which was in a large ground hollow made by early 20th century sand/gravel quarrying in the southwestern corner of the development site. A large post-medieval pit was recorded in Trench 3, though the full extent continued beyond the trench. The pit had two distinct fills, the earlier of which comprised a compacted layer of chalk and mortar mix. Due to the depth of the feature it could not be excavated, and as such it is unclear if the deposit belonged to another feature or was a lining to the base of the pit. Several areas of compacted chalk have been previously identified in Great Chesterford as layers within Roman pits/shafts/wells (Medleycott 2011b, 49). A large, probably post-Roman, pit spanned most of the length of Trench 4 and cut through the Roman road (EHER 49078). Due to the depths involved, it could not be bottomed, but was excavated to a depth of 0.6m. <1>