Hinxton Road, Duxford, Cambs

English Heritage summaries. 2003/2004

Investigations on land to the west of Hinxton Road, Duxford, Cambridgeshire, took place on an area of raised ground overlooking a bend in the River Granta. They provided evidence for continuous human activity over a period of two and a half thousand years. The subject site lies c.100m south of one of the suggested routes for the Icknield Way and its proximity to a river crossing contributes to its strategic location.  The earliest remains included a Middle Iron Age stock enclosure, while the hilltop housed a single crouched inhumation burial and numerous cylindrical pits, within which ritual deposition took place. During the Late Iron Age this part of the site was enclosed by a series of re-cut ditches surrounding a rectangular shrine. To the south and east of this building was a burial ground containing at least twenty-four individuals: it continued to function into Early Roman times.

The Late Roman period saw the construction of a substantial building which may have survived until the Early Saxon era when the lower part of the site was occupied by a small farmstead. Three sunken-featured buildings and a post-built structure dating to the Anglo-Saxon period yielded a range of domestic artefacts associated with textile working. In 1086 the Domesday survey recorded at least three manors in Duxford and by 1200 it was a bi-focal settlement with two parish churches. The lower part of the site was probably in the ownership of the Church of St Peter. A substantial mortar mixer was constructed, perhaps to aid repair works to the church. By the 17th century there was a rectory on the site which was replaced in 1822. This building remained in use until it was demolished in advance of the archaeological excavation in 2004.

An East Anglian Archaeology (EAA) monograph is being prepared. Analysis of the data will address several important regional, national and local research aims, particularly in relation to its ritual aspects.

This page was published on 19/05/2008