Archaeologists from Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU) of the University of Cambridge have been excavating sites ahead of Hanson's Needingworth Quarry workings.  The archaeologists have previously discovered Bronze Age and Iron Age archaeology and evidence of the hunting of beaver and rare wetland birds such as Dalmatian pelican at Ouse Fen. These species once thrived in a huge natural wetland that existed before drainage – including Willingham Mere, a now disappeared lake.

CAU offered a limited number of places for local people to join an excavation at Willingham Mere, between Tuesday 31 May and Friday 10 June. I joined the dig on the 1st June for 3 days.

Day 1: After a quick tour around the site, some background information and a health and safety briefing from Robin Standring we (about 6 volunteers) were kitted out with trowels, gloves, buckets and knee pads - oh how did we need the knee pads! Prior to the main dig a large (~10x15m) area had been mechanically excavated down to a depth equivalent to Roman times (~35cm). Then the trench was stepped in some more and taken down another ~35cm which in this context is roughly iron age. A final step in and down (again about 35cm - in practise it was taken down to a context change i.e. a visible change in the ground colour/texture) took us onto Bronze age deposits. Most of the day was then spent digging through this wet, anaerobically preserved surface which even after 3000 years contains large pieces of intact branch, shells and even reeds! It didn't dawn on me how significant it is to be able to handle organic remains that are so incredibly old until that evening. As work progressed and we became wetter it become clear that Willingham Mere was re-asserting itself and would soon reclaim the lake bottom deposits we were uncovering.

Day 2: In the morning Dan showed a couple of us how to correctly plan in a section using a level, a tape measure and some bits of string. The basic idea is to use the level (a surveying tool) to give you the relative height of a piece of string, strung across the section of interest. You then measure the vertical and horizontal position of features in the section to the piece of string. These are drawn to scale on a large sheet of permatrace using an appropriate key and accepted annotations to describe features. After lunch I joined  team that was excavating a 2x1m test pit which was being sunk to see what lay beneath the preserved wood layer. As this was quite quickly filling with water it was decided to put a sump hole in one corner so that a pump could be used the following day to drain the rest of the site. In putting in this sump hole we went through to what appears to be natural a blue/grey clay.
 Later that day I found a very small fish bone, not very exciting you may think but it was probably 3000 years old and few animal bones we had found on the site -  at least so far.

Day 2 Evening: An event organised at the Willingham Baptist church (thanks Vicki). The talk, by CAU Executive Director Chris Evans, was very well attended and received. Chris gave a talk about how climatic changes had altered the environment of the fen edge over 1000's of years and introduced us to some of the work and discoveries he and his team had made over 30 years of investigation. After the talk there was an opportunity for attendees to see some of the finds from Willingham Mere and talk to the archaeologists. I think it was an excellent event.

Day 3: Starting to feel a little achey now! The morning started by draining out the sump hole we had dug the night before and then cleaning back the surface until we got to the grey/blue silt and clay that was described previously. I then planned in through the exposed 005, 006 and 007 sections. I was amazed at how long planning in the finds took compared to digging them. It must be a huge task on a large site with lots of finds!

All in all the 3 day dig was an excellent opportunity for amateurs or complete beginner archaeologists to get experience working with professionals. At times the digging was hard and certainly very dirty but was always rewarding.

The work at Willingham Mere is funded by a Knowledge Transfer grant from the University of Cambridge and with the support of Hanson, RSPB and A.G Wright & Son (Farms) Ltd.

Link:

http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/placestovisit/fendraytonlakes/b/fendraytonlakes-blog/archive/2011/06/02/willingham-mere-archaeology-days-one-and-two.aspx

http://www.itv.com/anglia/ancient-wetland08372/