Roman quarries unearthed at Barrington

CEMEX have uncovered the remains of two Roman quarries at their chalk quarry in Barrington, Cambridgeshire. The 1,800-year-old finds were unearthed during an archaeological survey prior to extraction in a new area of the quarry.

As part of the site’s planning conditions, an archaeological team from Cambridge University had been keeping a watching brief during overburden stripping operations to formally identify and excavate any features that could be of archaeological interest.

When two dark areas were discovered in the chalk further investigations revealed these to be ancient, beehive-shaped, small-scale quarry workings that had been used to excavate a local hard chalk building stone known as ‘clunch’, before being backfilled with soil. Fragments of pottery found at the site allowed the archaeologists to date the workings back to Roman times.

Although there is no evidence of any substantial ancient structures at Barrington Quarry, the archaeologists say the discovery is consistent with other finds, such as drainage and boundary ditches, that have been unearthed elsewhere in South Cambridgeshire.