Archaeological Investigations at Hatton's Farm, Longstanton, Cambridgeshire 1991

An archaeological field evaluation was undertaken across a c.80ha. site located on the eastern side of the village of Longstanton, Cambridgeshire. A variety of investigative techniques were employed (e.g. test pitting and transect fieldwalking). And their respective rates/biases are compared. In the course of this work, the site’s upstanding fieldsystems were plotted and its headlands sectioned. A windmill mound of that date, which seals a later Iron Age settlement, was discovered. Two previously known, major cropmark complexes were also investigated. Both proved to be primarily of Romano-British date, while including an Iron Age component. Apart from the evidence of these Iron Age and Romano-British sites, the main contribution of these investigations in relationship to the later prehistoric archaeology of the region is largely negative. In the report’s concluding discussion the results of the survey are compared with other recent investigations on ‘land-locked’ (inland from rivers and the fen-edge) gravel terraces within the clay basin north of Cambridge. It is argued that this region may not have been intensively settled/utilized until the later Iron Age