More information : [Area TF 1661 3457] Possible Romano-British settlement
site. Small ditched enclosures and ditched causeway under grass.
Plotted from air photos. Site not visited (1).
In 1958 Romano-British grey ware was reported during drainage
works in the field to the south-east, at TF 168 343; (2) at
TF 1672 3427 (3). (1-3)
Two large fields are indicated by Mrs. Hallam (1). The northern
one shows no visible evidence of occupation and no finds were
made in plough. The southern, pasture field has artificial
ditches forming, with natural old water courses, a network of
small fields. All earthworks are crisply profiled without
silting or spreading and agricultural drainage of the 17th or
18th c.
The pottery site is under deep crop. (4)
TF 167 346 HORBLING, Fen Drove: Group of very small enclosures,
c. 1200 by 300 ft, extending from straight canal-causeway
feature in Horbling Fen (v. TF 13 NW, NE, 1635) SSE towards
drove to 1633, and another drove going E across the N of 1634S;
N under crop, S grass [RAF/2073/4188, very vague].
TF 168 343 HORBLING, South Forty Foot: Pottery found in draining
field (inf C. M. Aram, E. Midlands Arch. Bull. 1958). Suggestion
of ditched enclosures under grass [RAF/2073/1488, very poor]. (5)
The entire area is now arable land. The north fields are under
grass with the crop-mark concentration occupied by a large muck
heap. The southern part is ploughland but nothing of interest
was seen there. (6)
FEN FARM, HORBLING. Field/enclosure system, probably of RB date.
This site was visited in June 1999 by English Heritage field investigators during the course of the National SAMs Survey Pilot Project.
Due to seasonal vegetation growth it was not possible to undertake a measured survey, although a preambulation of the area was undertaken. The best preserved earthworks survive in a pasture field centered TF 1658 3449. They consist of a complex arrangement of well-defined meandering linear hollows (? former watercourses) and broad ditches (up to 6m across and 1m deep), some with low banks. Taken together these features seem to define a complex system of rectilinear enclosures of varying sizes and probably of more than one period. The latter would certainly help to explain why some of the individual plots or fields of this system are either very small or surprisingly narrow (ie the products of later subdivision or rearrangement). Although at the time of the visit much of the field was given over to un-mown hay, a number of less substantial features could just be made out; these include scoops and hollows, some of which may mark the sites of former buildings or yards. This field certainly requires a detailed measured survey, preferably at a scale of 1:1000. The surface of the adjoining field to the NNE (centered TF 1661 3468) was obscured by a cereal crop and no archaeological remains could be seen. The field to the NW (centered TF 1640 3471), in front of the farmyard and buildings, appears to have heen ploughed, however, surveyable lengths of banks still survive. The field centered TF 1619 3475, immediately S of the farmhouse, has been much more heavily ploughed although very slight and spread traces of former linear divisions are still discernible. (7) |