Monument record EXG 162 - Possible earthworks

The resistivity results appeared to confirm the presence of archaeological features as seen on the aerial photographs. These being a roughly circular feature surrounded by a ploughed-out bank. This in turn appears to have been surrounded by a ditch. To the northern side of the circular feature there appeared to be a banked enclosure, which given the low resistance readings was thought to have itself been ditched. The north-western section is unclear on aerial photography, invisible on the ground and was not surveyed.
A further bank, not subjected to geophysical survey runs in a curve north-west to south-east on the main feature. This continues into an irregular shaped field and on into the lane leading to Exning.

On the north edge of the main feature is a sunken area associated with a former watercourse which may represent a former mill pool.
Four main areas of high resistance were noted from the resistivity survey. The largest immediately north-east of the circular feature and within the larger enclosure, which it was thought could indicate a building platform, although no building debris was noted in this area. This possible building platform was not surveyed in its entirety and therefore its length cannot be determined. Its width is approximately 15 metres. It appears to cut across the probable ditch line. This was thought suggest a later feature overlying the possible ditch. Three smaller areas of high resistance were noted immediately west of the large feature. These were all small and all appeared to be in or under the probable ditch.

That excavation did not reveal the expected ditch was concerning and presented the team with a conundrum. The explanation for a lack of any any excavation features may possibly lie in a similar site identified by aerial photography at Swaffham Bulbeck, some 6 miles south. The Swaffham Bulbeck site appears on aerial photographs as a classic motte and bailey, although little is visible on the ground. In 1990, Tempus Reparatum, as part of a wider program of excavations in and around Hare Park in the parishes of Bottisham and Swafham Bulbeck, placed three trenches across the potential motte and bailey, which revealed nothing. The excavators consulted with the county archaeologist and the archaeologist from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, they confirmed that the low banks were not man made and came to the conclusion that the crop marks were a geomorphological anomaly (S1)