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Cambridgeshire HERPrintable version | About Cambridgeshire HER
CHER Number:06987
Type of record:Monument
Name:Barway causeway

Summary - not yet available

Grid Reference:TL 537 756
Parish:Thetford, East Cambridgeshire, Cambridgeshire

Monument Type(s):

  • CAUSEWAY (Bronze Age - 2500 BC to 701 BC)

Associated Finds:

  • RING (Bronze Age - 2500 BC to 701 BC)
  • SHERD (Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age - 1000 BC to 401 BC)

Associated Events:

  • Excavation of Barway Causeway, 1934

Full description

1. Late BA pile causeway.

2. The existence of a causeway here was deduced by Lethbridge and Major Fowler. In 1932, piles from the causeway were causing the farmer difficulties with ploughing, so he decided to remove them. He uprooted a large number of great stakes, which he temporarily replaced in their respective holes, projecting above the ground, to show the course of the causeway, and had them photographed. Later excavation by Lethbridge took place near the river bank and revealed that the causeway was made of brushwood kept in place by occasional beams and stakes. Above this was a well-marked layer of fine sand. A large pot-sherd of late BA / early Iron Age type was found within the brushwood and a bronze ring was similarly located a short distance away. Objects of similar date were later found in the middle of the causeway.
Illustrations of ring and pottery attached to PRC.

6. A metalwork hoard dated to the later Bronze Age was found at Barway close to the Isles of Ely. It has been suggested of an association between later Bronze Age hoards and causeways connecting the Isle of Ely to the outsde world.


<1> Untitled Source (Bibliographic reference). SCB9879.

<2> Lethbridge, T.C., 1935, Investigation of the Ancient Causeway in the Fen between Fordy and Little Thetford, Cambridgeshire. PCAS 35: 86-9, (photo, ill) (Article in serial). SCB10582.

<3> Lethbridge, T.C and O'Reilly, M., 1936, Archaeological Notes. PCAS 36: 161-4, p. 161 (Article in serial). SCB10589.

<4> Salzman L.F. (ed), 1938, The Victoria County History of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. Volume 1, 283 (Bibliographic reference). SCB14629.

<5> CAAM 6 inch map (Map). SCB1754.

<6> Barrowclough, D, 2013, The identification of a Later Bronze Age Hoard at Barway, and Consideration of the Association between Metalwork and Causeways: PCAS 102. 29-36 (Article in serial). SCB38972.

Sources and further reading

<1>Bibliographic reference:
<2>Article in serial: Lethbridge, T.C.. 1935. Investigation of the Ancient Causeway in the Fen between Fordy and Little Thetford, Cambridgeshire. PCAS 35: 86-9. (photo, ill).
<3>Article in serial: Lethbridge, T.C and O'Reilly, M.. 1936. Archaeological Notes. PCAS 36: 161-4. p. 161.
<4>Bibliographic reference: Salzman L.F. (ed). 1938. The Victoria County History of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. Volume 1. 283.
<5>Map: CAAM 6 inch map.
<6>Article in serial: Barrowclough, D. 2013. The identification of a Later Bronze Age Hoard at Barway, and Consideration of the Association between Metalwork and Causeways: PCAS 102. 29-36.

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