Roman pottery and Iron Age items found at Cambridgeshire housing development

Roman and Iron Age people were the first to settle in the area now known as Cambourne

Roman pottery and items from the Iron Age have been found by archaeologists at a Cambridgeshire housing development. Excavations at Burghley Green and Chivers Rise in West Cambourne have uncovered signs of the area’s history.

Archaeologists found signs of a 24m circular enclosure which was probably used by people in the Iron Age to manage livestock. The findings also included evidence of everyday life, including pottery, animal bones, and burnt stones that suggest the area was used for cooking.

One of the discoveries was a prehistoric 3m log ladder found at the bottom of a deep well shaft, believed to be one of the longest of its kind found in the UK. The well was inside a large watering hole that had preserved the wood through waterlogging.

Other finds also suggest the presence of early Roman activity. A small section of the excavations uncovering more than 780 pieces of pottery from this time period.

The team from the Cambridge Archaeological Unit investigated a five-hectare area at West Cambourne, uncovering more than 150 archaeological features dating back approximately 2,000 years to the Iron Age and early Roman communities.

Dr Matthew Brudenell, director at the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, said: “Iron Age and Roman communities were the first to permanently settle the Cambourne landscape. The excavations are helping us to piece together the ways they used the land for agriculture and settlement.

“Watering holes would have been an important feature for sustaining livestock, and the well-preserved example we’ve uncovered has incredible potential to tell us more about how the land was managed. The Romans constructed an intricate network of fields for growing crops around the landscape, suggesting they were able to exploit the heavy but fertile clays of the Cambourne area in new and productive ways.”

Tom Wheeler, land director for Taylor Wimpey East Anglia, said: “When constructing new homes, it’s really important to try to establish what was there before. Often, this can be easy to see, but sometimes we need to work with an expert team of archaeologists to dig a little deeper.

“It’s been fascinating to learn what the team has uncovered in West Cambourne. While the Iron Age and Roman communities had long since disappeared from sight, this discovery means it can be recorded in history as an early example of settlement in West Cambourne.”