Archaeology at the Old Unwin’s Site, Impington Lane 2009
The county of Cambridgeshire is rich in Iron Age and Roman archaeology. Cottenham, Oakington, Milton, Landbeach and Chesterton all have significant remains. Histon and Impington, however, did not. A few sherds of old pot, a scrap of leather in a ditch and the faint impressions of ploughed out Iron Age barrows and Roman ditches discerned from aerial photographs, was all we had. Yet, this area was well populated by Iron Age farmers. Later Roman Villa farms apparently had homesteads distributed every kilometer or so across their lands. Logically, those missing remains must have been somewhere. The evidence pointed to their destruction as the medieval villages of Histon and Impington grew. And then – the old Unwin’s site became available for development!
Shortly after its centenary in 2003, the family firm of Unwin’s Seeds closed. The large site off Impington Lane was sold and about two years later outline planning permission was given for housing. After the factory, offices and greenhouses were levelled, but before building began, the area was excavated by what most remember as the Cambridgeshire County Council Archaeology Field Unit. The most westerly section, behind Glebe Way, was looked at first and revealed very little. During the following Summer in 2009, the central part of the site came under scrutiny. At end of the two week dig, the writer was given a brief tour of the site. At this point the official preliminary report had not been written. The following is a copy of the visitor report written for Impington Parish Council. Our guide was Chris Thatcher, Site Director of Oxford Archaeology East (latterly Cambridgeshire County Council Field Unit before being outsourced).
Description of Area – The area excavated is less than a hectare of well drained sand and gravel on the north side of Impington Lane adjacent to the medieval boundary with Histon (recently moved down to Glebe Road).
The site had been cleared of half a metre of topsoil and builder’s rubble, which was stored in large mounds nearby. As one looked NW from the boundary hedge with Impington Lane, one could clearly see the 20th C foundations of Unwin’s Offices. With the top soil removed, a grid of EW/NS grey soil discolorations were revealed. The archaeologists had cut deep, regular trenches, of just over 1m depth, across these soil discolorations. In addition, there were apparently random, shallow and deep pits pockmarking the site.
Iron Age round house drip gulley.
Preliminary Findings – At the west end of the site a curved drip gulley of an Iron Age Round House, cut by two (?) phases of Roman ditching, had been excavated. The diameter of the drip gulley indicated that the structure was more likely to be a dwelling than outbuilding. No obvious post holes were found. The drip gulley was a very obvious feature (suggesting that the building was in use for a significant time?). Random pits dug nearby revealed Iron Age pottery including high quality examples imported from Gaul around 100BC (see CN article Aug 20th 2009). Some bone was found but little other organic remained. (Plant and animal matter is more likely to be preserved in water-logged, low oxygen environments than in the sandy well drained conditions of the Unwin’s site.) There was no obvious Iron Age midden (waste pit).
The grid like soil discolorations were a series of Roman ditches rich in pottery and other artefacts dating from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Except for a Roman sherd embedded in the wall of an excavated ditch, artefacts had been removed for further study. The unexpected richness of the site had reportedly blown the ‘finds analysis budget’!
Close to Impington Lane, near a Roman post hole, a shallow pit revealed a cache of oyster shells. Whether the remains of a picnic hastily buried or some kind of offering is unclear. (Would evidence of being opened suggest probable consumption?) 21.08.2009” Report ends.
Before William Unwin first erected out-buildings on this site, it was purely agricultural land. Part lay in Histon and the rest, east of a now culverted boundary ditch, lay in Impington. The factory site occupied an old enclosure (small field) called Ratcatchers in 1806. (Maybe the old ditch was a haven for rats – the modern Brook certainly is!) Only the foundations of the 1930s factory building appear to have caused damage to the Iron Age and Roman remains. This, plus the absence of Saxon and medieval finds, suggests the absence of settlement from 500 AD to 1900. What gives the writer a frisson of wonder is the possibility that Impington Lane, running as it does parallel and within a meter or so of the Roman boundary ditch, could be a 2000 year old remnant!
Histon and Impington Village Society 