Meadowcroft Hotel, Trumpington Road, Cambridge. An Archaeological Evaluation.

Résumé 0

An archaeological evaluation undertaken within the gardens to the rear of Meadowcroft, Trumpington Road revealed no significant archaeology. A single residual sherd of 14th century pottery from a buried post-medieval plough soilsuggests there may have been some medieval cultivation within this general area fronting Trumpington Road. The only 'archaeological' features revealed in three evaluation trenches were those related to late nineteenth and early twentieth century garden cultivation. However, an examination of the top of the 2nd Terrace Gravels of the River Cam afforded the excavators a better understanding of the nature and formation of this deposit. In particular, the 'marly horizon' on the surface of the terrace here was interpreted as a spring-fed waterlain tufa deposit associated with a calcrete also cementing parts of the underlying gravels and sands. These gravels overlying Gault Clay within the immediate vicinity of here may have formed a patch of damp ground unsuitable for agriculture or settlement during Later Prehistoric–Roman periods.