More information : (Centred TL 145974) 'Lynch Farm': RB Complex of ring
ditches, enclosures, pit alignments, tracks and ditches. (1)
A large area of arable land. Any former occupation has been
destroyed by the plough. Perambulated only in parts. No surface
finds made. (2)
Two seasons excavations have taken place in three areas of the
extensive Lynch Farm complex.
TL 142972. A pre-Roman settlement is being destroyed by gravel
working. In and beside a large pre-Roman ditch were set two
cremation burials in vessels closely resembling those recovered
from the Longthorpe kilns.
TL 145976. Pits and ditches, although damaged by ploughing
yielded evidence for occupation throughout the third and at
least the first half of the fourth century. An adjoining
cemetery, containing one cremation and at least fifty
inhumations, presumably served the farmstead. Many of the
burials had been in wood coffins and two were in stone cists.
TL 149977. Emergency excavations revealed more third and fourth
century agricultural features. These included a timber framed
aisled workshop, corn driers, numerous drainage channels and a
stone revetted basin 13m by 35m. Metal working furnaces of
various types were found within the workshop which itself overlay
two early Flavian pits.
Further evidence of early military occupation in the form of a
series of V-shaped ditches which turned a rounded corner.
Industrial connections with the military site at Longthorpe seem
quite possible. The footings of a Romano-Celtic temple four
metres square and constructed of a single layer of pitched
limestone were uncovered. While the SW and NE corners were
solidly enough built, the south and east wall lines were carried
through in rubble and debris derived from some demolished Roman
building. Painted wall plaster, fragments of opus signinum and
pieces of tile were the main constituents. The temple was almost
certainly of timber construction with the central chamber
surrounded by a timber verandah. A substantial regular building
of coursed, dressed, stone was located during fieldwalking. (3-7)
Lynch Farm Roman site. Two phases of ditches have been traced,
forming two sides of a temporary camp. (8)
Excavations on the main 'defensive' quadruple linear ditches
proved them to exhibit great variation in profile. Lack of
dating material from the lower filling prevented any estimate
of their period of construction, but judging by pottery in the
top filling they appeared to have been filled in deliberately
sometime after the mid-2nd century. An entrance has been
located, and excavation is proceeding with the hope of tracing
timber gateworks. (9)
Full report of excavation of farmstead and cemetery, with
description of finds and discussion of results.
TL 144975 Work on the western limb of the lake area revealed an
oval pit 2.0m long, 1.3m wide and 0.7m deep which produced
quantities of highly decorated pottery and flints of the Beaker
period about 1600 BC. Charcoal, associated with the pottery,
is yet to be dated.
To the west of this pit an enclosure 29.0m by 18.0m was
excavated by sections. The ditches were on average 1.3m wide and
0.8m deep. The enclosure was probably of Iron Age date.
Part of an adjacent pit alignment was also examined, but no
dating evidence was recovered. (10-11)
|