Description

In June 2006 an archaeological evaluation was undertaken by Channel 4’s ‘Time Team’ at two sites near the village of Stilton in Cambridgeshire (centred on NGR 517200 290000), to investigate the site of a possible Roman pottery kiln located on a fen island, and Romano-British deposits identified over 1m below the current ground surface in a drainage ditch known as Stilton Dyke.
The project was largely successful in achieving its stated aims through the recognition of a Roman pottery kiln, a tile kiln and another kiln-like structure which appeared to form part of wider ladder settlement along a Roman road branching off Ermine Street.
The wider settlement was identified through geophysical survey and the landscape study while the excavation was able to provide a date for the occupation between the early to mid 2nd century AD and the end of the Roman period.
The site was largely abandoned due to climatic changes and changes in sea level, but two inhumation burials and a large oval surrounding enclosure post-date the Romano- British settlement. One suggestion is that the oval enclosure was the site of a hermitage at this period, although no direct evidence was found to support this theory.