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Summary - not yet available

Monument Type(s):

• DITCH (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• TOWN DEFENCES (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Associated Finds:

• HUMAN REMAINS (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• SHERD (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Associated Events:

• Excavation of Swavesey Village Ditch, 1984

Full description

1. Wide wet ditch, mostly filled in, with modern rubbish on top. The point where it turned could not be observed because the site was being developed, but local knowledge has it that there were wet patches in the field to N before factories were built, which no doubt joined this ditch with the castle moat. Evidently this is part of the Medieval town defences.

2. Gives account of the history of Swavesey as a fortified Medieval planned market town.

3. Two sections excavated on the suggested course of the ditch, as defined by Dr Ravensdale during his historical survey of the village. Both of these proved to be on the line of the ditch. Third section was cut through what appeared to be a similar earthwork running S from this ditch along the E edge of Thistle Green. Trench I ... revealed a shallow flat bottomed ditch some 2mdeep and 8m wide with steeply sloping sides ... The pottery suggests a C15 date for the most recent cleaning of the sides and the latest silting. The rest of the fill ... filled the ditch almost to the level of the 2 slight banks on either side. Finds from this deposit included fragments of animal bone and pieces C12 -C13 pottery. Second Trench opened ... This bank ran parallel to, and 3m from the lip of the Mod ditch. Third Trench ... showed that the line of the Medieval ditch had converged with the Mod drain. The section of ditch and bank between the castle and the N side of the industrial area is well preserved, with the bank surviving to a height of 4m and a width of 7m. Dr J Ravensdale in his paper on the history of Swavesey, suggests that the defensive works including the bank and ditch and the castle were probably dug in the last quarter of the C13: 'When the de la Zouch's corn was burned, the church was also attacked and the chest rifled. One is tempted to imagine that the defences of Swavesey were, like those of Burwell and Rampton in the previous century, merely an emergency measure against the threat from the Barons in the Isle of Ely possibly after the assault and burning of 1267.' Dr Ravensdale has also found a reference in a C14 rental to the earthwork, confirming that it was n use then. Dr A Alderton, Fenland Research Project, sampled the marly deposit and the clay filling above it. Supported the interpretation of the use of the ditch, and that it had been partly filled with stagnant water for much of its life.

4. LiDAR data from the area around Swavesey has identified the line of a ditch along the proposed path of the village ditch to the south and east of the village.

<1> Shepperson J, Information from finder (Verbal communication). SCB14132.

<2> Ravensdale, J. R., 1984, Swavesey, Cambridgeshire: a Fortified Medieval Planned Market Town. PCAS 72: 55-8 (Article in serial). SCB10934.

<3> Haigh, D., 1984, Excavation of the Town Ditch at Swavesey, 1984. PCAS 73: 45-53 (Article in serial). SCB10968.

<4> SW Cambridgeshire project 2014 (NHPP), 2016, LIDAR TL3669 DTM 16-OCT-2010 (Geospatial data). SCB47965.

Sources and further reading

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