More information : TL 379358 Manyons Farm: Excavations within the former nucleus of
Barkway village prior to the laying of a gas pipeline in 1980 revealed four periods of occupation:
Period 1: Pre Saxo-Norman. An early soil horizon containing a single
Iron Age sherd and overlain by Period 2 features.
Period 2: Saxo-Norman, ca.1000-1150. Part of the foundations of a
large rectangular building, 20m x 13m, dated by three sherds of
developed Saxo-Norman pottery from a post-hole. There was also a
shallow sub-rectangular pit in this period.
Period 3: Mid-late C12th. Mainly indicated by finds, but two of the
post-holes of the Period 2 building suggest its use in this period.
South of the building, a wedge-shaped oven was revealed associated
with developed Norman pottery. A cess-pit was found 20m North of
the building.
Period 4: Post-Medieval. A map of ca.1805 shows lanes and small
fields in the area. A shallow hollow way was cut by the pipeline
trench.
The lack of late Medieval occupation suggests that the
village shifted away from this site. In the C16th-C17th, the
development of the London-Cambridge turnpike, now the B1368,
provided the reason for the lineation of Barkway on its present
site.(1) |