Birmingham Archaeology excavations in Longstanton
In the past Birmingham Archaeology kindly gave LDHS the link details to their website. Unfortunately this archaeological unit was a casualty of the financial crash of 2008 and sadly the unit and its website no longer exist. They did kindly send us a copy of their written report for the archive but online access to the results of their work on Home Farm, Longstanton, has been lost. Below is an extract taken from their website when it was still in existence.
Longstanton, Cambridgeshire
Medieval Livestock Control
Birmingham Archaeology has been working in the area surrounding the village of Longstanton in Cambridgeshire, for over ten years. Settlement evidence has been found dating back to the Bronze Age and the aim is to produce a publication which incorporates the results of all past excavations.
The most recent excavations took place against the north-west edge of the village and uncovered a wealth of evidence relating to the establishment of fields systems and methods of livestock control dating back to the Saxo-Norman period.
The dominating feature on the eastern edge of the site was a large, northwest-southeast-aligned boundary ditch that was established during the 10th-11th century. This boundary was re-established during 13th-14th century with the re-cut of the ditch following the original very closely.
There was a clear division of activity between the eastern and western half of the site with the western half being dominated by Saxon enclosures and later medieval plough furrows. While the eastern half of the site contained the post-holes and beam-slots associated with several structures.
