Ufford, Cambridgeshire (NGR TF 094040)
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Ufford today is a small linear village lying on limestone at between 21m and 46m OD, approximately 10km north-west of Peterborough. Prior to HEFA, the only known archaeological finds comprised a concentration of Roman material, including a silver spoon, discovered casually by the landowner in an arable field south-west of the church (recorded in the SMR for Peterborough Unitary Authority).
Local Information Websites
2005
Fourteen test pits were dug by HEFA pupils in Ufford in September 2005. Roman pottery, abraded and clearly derived from ploughsoil, were discovered in the upper levels of TPs 05/12 and 05/13 in the south of the village near to the earlier find-spot of Roman material, confirming occupation at this date in this most elevated part of the settlement. Evidence for activity in the late Anglo-Saxon period came from opposite ends of the village, including a couple of sherds of Stamford ware from TP 05/7, in the garden of Ufford Farm at the far northern extremity of the present settlement. Although these came from relatively high levels which also produced pottery of Victorian and later date, their presence is nonetheless potentially significant, and this area will be investigated further in the future. Particularly notable also was the absence of any evidence for occupation in the area east of Ufford Hall which appeared on superficial examination likely to be one of shrinkage, as it contained earthworks comprising platforms and hollows suggesting of former house sites divided by low linear features reminiscent of toft boundaries, in a block between two areas of current occupation. However, TPs 05/14, 05/6 and 05/15 all revealed the same pattern, with an almost total absence of cultural material (except for slag) above natural. In fact, none of the test pits between 05/3 and 05/7 produced any evidence for activity predating the later post-medieval. Initial inferences must include the possibility that Ufford in the late Anglo-Saxon, and possibly right through the Middle Ages, was arranged as two separate small foci of settlement, rather existing as the planned linear village which is evident today.
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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!). |
2006
Nine test pits were excavated in Ufford in 2006, continuing investigations started in 2005 and bringing the total over two years to 23. Particular attention was directed in 2006 to the centre of the present village, which test pitting in 2005 indicated might be largely unoccupied prior to the eighteenth century, and its northern end where late Anglo-Saxon pottery was rather unexpectedly discovered in 2005. As in 2005, no test pits in the centre of the village, either side of Ufford Hall, produced any finds pre-dating c. 1700: with 10 test pits now excavated in this part of the settlement all showing this same pattern, it is reasonable to surmise that it is very unlikely that this part of the settlement was in existence during the medieval period, and that the planned linear nucleated village we can see today is an artefact of relatively recent development. The discovery, as in 2005, of Roman and late Anglo-Saxon material in the area south-east of the church, and in the garden of Ufford Farm at the far northern end of the village adds weight to the suggestion that settlement at Ufford may have comprised two separate nodes during both the Roman period and the later Anglo-Saxon/early Norman period. A paucity of pottery dating to between 1100 - 1450AD, when pottery was widely used and taphonomically durable, from the Ufford Farm area, may be significant and might be interpreted as evidence of very much less intensive use, possibly even abandonment, of this area in the high medieval period. This contrasts with the area around the church, which seems to experience consolidation, even expansion, in this period. A solidly constructed wall revealed in test pit UFF06/1 at Ufford Farm, built of local stone with at least two courses and one right-angled turn surviving appears to predate the present farm buildings, was provisionally interpreted as the remains of either a building or a boundary wall of late Anglo-Saxon or late medieval date.
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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 |