Site Event/Activity record ESF22573 - Watching Brief - Pensilva, Fen Road, Pakenham

The footings for a lean-to garage attached to the front of a modern bungalow were excavated in the presence of the monitoring archaeologist. The site had high potential as it lies within an extensive archaeological landscapes in the valley of the River Black Bourne. The site lies adjacent to PKM033, an area containing several prehistoric and later features visible as cropmarks in air photos. The features were destroyed without record during gravel extraction in the mid 20th century. The projected line of three parallel ditches (cropmarks on the aerial photo) crosses the site. Evidence of an Anglo-Saxon settlement site (PKM028) has been recorded to the north west. The footings were 0.75m deep and the section revealed a soil profile consisting of 0.3m of a thoroughly reworked topsoil directly over the fine, orange gravel which made up the surface geology. The soil profile suggested that the ground had been disturbed/truncated during the construction of the bungalow and no intervening 'sub-soil' horizon survived. No archaeological features were observed within the trench, the upcast spoil was scanned for material but no finds were recovered. A rubble-filled soak away was observed in the western corner of the footing.