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Summary - not yet available

Monument Type(s):

• BUILDING (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• PIT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• HUT (1st century AD - 1 AD to 100 AD)
• BLACKSMITHS WORKSHOP (2nd century AD - 101 AD to 200 AD)
• FURNACE (2nd century AD - 101 AD to 200 AD)
• ROAD (2nd century AD - 101 AD to 200 AD)
• DITCH (2nd century AD - 101 AD to 200 AD)
• GRAVEL PIT (2nd century AD - 101 AD to 200 AD)
• RAMPART (4th century AD - 301 AD to 400 AD)
• TOWER (4th century AD - 301 AD to 400 AD)
• TIMBER FRAMED BUILDING (4th century AD - 301 AD to 400 AD)
• GATEHOUSE (4th century AD - 301 AD to 400 AD)

Associated Events:

• Excavations at St Ann's Lane, Ermine Street, Godmanchester, 1972

Full description

1. Excavations by HJM Green, in St Ann's Lane, on the line of Ermine Street. During the C11 and C12 a timber framed building straddled the crown of the abandoned road. At the W end of the building was a group of shallow pits. In the C13 and C14 the site of the building was covered by rubbish pits.

2-3. The Roman evidence from the site comprised four phases of activity from the 1st century to the 4th.

The earliest feature consisted of a wicker and daub hut approximately 10m in diameter and dated to the early 1st century AD.

The second phase consisted of the construction of Ermine Street. Measured 9m in width at this point, it was flanked by roadside ditches 13.7m apart. Gravel pits were also noted.

Phase 3 features included the construction of a timber framed building used as a smithy. The building had an open front containing a bowl shaped smithing furnace, four shaft furnaces for smelting bronze, iron and crucibles. Two phases of rebuilding were recorded and evidence of a fire that ulitmately destroyed the building that apparently devastated several parts of the town in the 2nd century.

Phase 4 dates to the 4th century when a timber building that had replaced the earlier smithy was demolished in favour of the north gate that lay outside the initial area of excavation. Portions of the retaining wall for the rampart were exposed. Further excavation the following year identifed two projecting towers, presumably part of the defences.

<1> Webster, L.E. and Cherry, J., 1973, Medieval Britain in 1972. Med Arch 17: 138-88, p. 169 (Article in serial). SCB7301.

<2> Lyons, A., 2019, Rectory Farm, Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire: Excavations 1988–95, Neolithic monument to Roman villa farm EAA 170, site 7 (Monograph). SCB68805.

<3> Green, HJM. & Malim, T., 2017, Durovigutum Roman Godmanchester, site 7 (Bibliographic reference). SCB53376.

Sources and further reading

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