Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire (NGR TL 458518)
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This large village lies immediately south-west of Cambridge at c. 88m OD on the east side of the river Cam. It has seen much growth over the last 150 years and now extends for more than a mile along a road linking adjacent city satellite settlements around the periphery of Cambridge. Several Roman and prehistoric sites and extensive remains of field systems have been recorded around the village. The church and many of the older houses are located on the western edge of the present settlement near the river, while the tithe map provides evidence for a large green occupying the triangular area between Woollards Lane, the High Street and Tunwells Lane, and extending north to encompass High Green. Prior to HEFA, the earliest areas of settlement at Great Shelford were thought to lie west of the church and around Granham's manor, beyond the north east limits of the present village, with late medieval expansion colonising the margins of High Green.
Local Information Websites
Great Shelford Village Website
2006
15 test pits were excavated by HEFA pupils and university students in Great Shelford in 2006. Two of these (GTS/06/2 and 10) produced pottery of 1st to 2nd century AD date. This can tentatively be used to suggest that that activity in the early Roman period may have focussed in this area, near the later church. The same area produced pottery of late Anglo-Saxon date. In addition, GTS/06/13, within the area of High Green, also produced late Anglo-Saxon pottery including two large adjoining sherds of the Thetford ware 90cm below the surface in undisturbed levels with no later material. Pottery of 11th to 16th century date was derived exclusively from pits along, and north of, the High Street, near Buristead Road (where the association of this name with 11th century shelly wares is possibly of interest), with an absence of material from intervening pits (GTS/06/3 and 4) perhaps hinting at the presence of 2 separate nodes of activity at this time. The Buristead Road area produced no finds for the later period (post c 1400), with pottery of this date derived instead from pits further south, including GTS06/3 and 06/4, perhaps suggesting the appearance, or coalescence, of a more nucleated settlement extending east from the church area. A picture of gradual late medieval expansion east is given some support by the presence of post-medieval pottery in this area.
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Pottery Report |
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Test Pit Location Map |
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Photographs: To view photographs from your field academy, type the following address into the address bar at the top of your browser window: http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/aca/******/ (Replace '******' with the unique six-character code you were given for your site during the field academy. Important Note: Make sure you write your code in capital letters. And don't forget the forward slash at the end of the address!). |
2007
Eight test pits were excavated in Great Shelford in 2007 by university students adding to the 15 excavated in 2006. The earliest ceramic finds recovered were dated to 850-1100AD, from test pits GTS/07/3, GTS/07/5 and GTS/07/6. Considered together with the evidence from 2006, the focus of activity in the late Anglo-Saxon period appears to be in two areas, one immediately south of the church and the other 200m to its north-east. The distribution of ceramic material in 2007 adds support to the possibility previously advanced that these may be two separate foci of activity. Notably, the northernmost one of these is an area identified in the Village Design as lying within a large green. Activity in the 11th-14th centuries appears to have expanded out from these areas. There was notably less ceramic material of post-1400 date recovered, possibly indicative of some contraction of settlement in the later medieval period.
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Pottery Report |
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Test Pit Location Map |
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Photographs: To view photographs from your field academy, type the following address into the address bar at the top of your browser window: http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/aca/******/ (Replace '******' with the unique six-character code you were given for your site during the field academy. Important Note: Make sure you write your code in capital letters. And don't forget the forward slash at the end of the address!). |
2008
Eight new test pits were excavated in Great Shelford in 2008 by university students, adding to the twenty-three excavated in previous years. Most of these were sited in the area around High Green, in the north of the present village, c. 700m north-west of the church. Just one small (2g in weight) sherd of pottery predating the Norman Conquest was recovered, suggesting that this area is extremely unlikely to have been intensively occupied at this time, although it may well have been cultivated, with the presence of the recovered sherd resulting from manuring of arable fields. This is in notable contrast to the volume of ceramic material recovered dating to between c. 1100 - 1400, which convincingly indicates that this element of the settlement is a post-Conquest extension to an earlier settlement (possibly comprising two separate foci) to the south-west. The inference of post-thirteenth-century decline, noted in 2007 was supported by data from the excavations of 2008, with almost none of the pits producing any ceramic material at all from this period. It now seems clear that Great Shelford experienced considerable contraction in the later medieval period, particularly in the then relatively newly established High Green area.
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Pottery Report |
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Test Pit Location Map |
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Photographs: To view photographs from your field academy, type the following address into the address bar at the top of your browser window: http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/aca/******/ (Replace '******' with the unique six-character code you were given for your site during the field academy. Important Note: Make sure you write your code in capital letters. And don't forget the forward slash at the end of the address!). |
2010
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Pottery Report |
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Test Pit Location Map |
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Photographs: To view photographs from your field academy, type the following address into the address bar at the top of your browser window: http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/aca/******/ (Replace '******' with the unique six-character code you were given for your site during the field academy. Important Note: Make sure you write your code in capital letters. And don't forget the forward slash at the end of the address!). |
2011
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Pottery Report |
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Test Pit Location Map |
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Photographs: To view photographs from your field academy, type the following address into the address bar at the top of your browser window: http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/aca/******/ (Replace '******' with the unique six-character code you were given for your site during the field academy. Important Note: Make sure you write your code in capital letters. And don't forget the forward slash at the end of the address!). |
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Pottery Distribution Map |