Abstract

In July 2013, two archaeological trenches were excavated on Saffron Walden Common
by 30 local sixth-form students in a programme of excavations funded by the Heritage
Lottery Fund ‘All Our Stories’ scheme and supported by the AHRC Connected
Communities theme under its Cambridge Community Heritage project. The
excavations were planned and supervised by Access Cambridge Archaeology in
collaboration with Saffron Walden Museum. The trenches were sited over a feature
identified during geophysical survey by Tim Dennis of the University of Essex, which
crossed The Common on the approximate line of the outer castle bailey ditch proposed
by Steven Bassett in 1982, but not previously proven. Over a period of 5 days, the
excavations exposed two parts of a cut feature which proved to be a ditch with 12th
century pottery in the base. The excavations thus provided firm evidence, for the first
time, for the position and line of the outer castle bailey in this area.