This is our most excavated area having completed two, two week excavations on this field, one in 2018 and one in 2019. The 2018 excavation found that what originally appeared to be possible archaeology was, in fact, well laid stone surfaces, the stone undoubtedly coming from what were abbey buildings. However these were not deep enough to have formed a foundation layer.
Several drains of different sizes crossed the excavation area. One of them being around 1.2 metres deep and although truncated by later ditches would have been in access of 4.2 metres in width. In the bottom context of this ditch we had our first in-context find, a Lyveden/Stanion glazed jug (12th to 14th century) along with an intact cow skull. Finding the broken jug in the lowest context enabled the ditch to be dated and means that this ditch would have been in use when the abbey was in use.

Also excavated was a brick clamp with a circular shape on the geophysics which on excavation turned out to be, in the main brick wasters. Several complete bricks were in situ and their length/width/depth ratio would suggest that they were mid to late 16th century bricks, probably fired after the dissolution of Ramsey Abbey and possibly used to make walls to partition the manor house garden as shown on the 1705 estate map.
The 2019 excavation carried out to the west of the 2018 excavation opened an area of approximately 880 sq m. The excavation was targeted on possible archaeological features but, unfortunately, the resistance data turned out to be secondary and possibly tertiary backfill of either robbed out foundations or pits that had been dug for raw materials, clay and gravel. The excavated area did have several ditches one of which, before backfilling commenced, proved to be nearly 3 metres deep and could therefore be a pre-conquest ditch. This ditch did align with one, located to the east of the 2019 excavation, which had been partially excavated in an earlier excavation prior to a new school build some years previously.