Past Events

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Excavation at Wimpole Hall July 1999


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In July 1999 the Group excavated the brick foundations of a substantial 18th century 'Summer house' in the grounds of the National Trust owned Wimpole Hall near to Cambridge. The site was one of a pair of Summer houses whose location was known from parch marks in the current grassland. Design plans and drawings from the early 18th century of the proposed buildings showed multi angle buildings which did not correspond to the square outline of the parch marks. No drawings or paintings exist showing what was actually built, but it is known that they were built circa 1721 and deliberately destroyed circa 1767 when landscaping of the park was done.

The excavations revealed brick foundations for a square building approximately 6 metres by 6 metres which had a depth of 1.2 metres and were up to 1.0 metre wide. These substantial foundations probably indicate that the house was more than single story.

Sparse evidence of the walls etc was found, but fragments of window glass and a few pieces of structural limestone suggest that the house was substantial. Two small finds were of particular interest, the first the broken base of a typical 18th century glass black bottle lying in the demolition rubble, possibly deposited by one of the demolition workers after he had drunk his pint of ale. The second was an unusual find of a Neolithic tanged flint arrow head probably redeposited when the site was covered over with earth during the subsequent landscaping.

Excavation at Wimpole Hall July 2000

Following on from the Groups excavation In July 1999 of the brick foundations of a substantial 18th century 'Summer house' in the grounds of the National Trust owned Wimpole Hall near to Cambridge (see 1999 Excavations), The Group was again invited to Wimpole Hall by the National Trust to locate and excavated one section of the extensive garden walls that bounded the gardens that existed in in the late 18th century and which were replaced by open parkland when the estate was landscaped.

Also a section of old trackway that served the hamlet that was moved when the estate was set up was excavated.

When the garden walls were demolished the contractor was scheduled to remove all trace of them so that subsequently no parch marks would show up in the grassland that replaced the gardens. However it was not known whether the foundations were actually removed.

Our excavation showed that indeed virtually all the wall and its foundation was removed. A most surprising discovery was that in the garden the flower beds had been dug out to a depth of around 4 feet and the clay soil replaced with a more fertile soil.

Excavation at Wimpole Hall 2005

magnetometer survey

A magnetometer survey was taken of the area of the fountain and drains.


The site of the fountain shown on the 1707 drawing by Kip. This is the view from the east of the outer brick wall and later central drain.


View of the later central drain built when the fountain went out of use.

Wimpole Hall is 1 mile off the A603 approx 9 mile from Cambridge and 7.5 miles from Royston at Grid reference TL 336 510


 

Excavation at Wimpole Hall 2006 - Fountain and drains

Overview

For the seventh year running we have been invited by The National Trust to carry out an excavation at Wimpole Hall near Cambridge starting on Saturday 15th July 06 as part of National Archaeology Week, with the excavation open for viewing by the public. Excavation will be carried out on Saturday 15th, Sunday 16th, Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd. The site will also be on view throughout this period but no excavating will be done except on dates given.

Excavation will be directed at establishing the water source and drainage of the circular fountain shown on Kip’s drawing of 1707. See below, centre of formal garden. The outer wall of the now demolished 18th century garden fountain that was in the formal garden of the hall was found during excavations by CAFG in 2005.

Results of geophysical surveys made in 2005 will be used as a guide to suitable targets. The relationship of the fountain to features possibly belonging to an earlier garden will be examined.

16th July 2006

So far we have found two sections of the foundations of the outer wall on the Northern side of the Fountain pond either side of  the centre line of the gardens. The section in between is missing and appears to be where the pipe feeding the Fountain/Pond entered. No pipe remains but as this was probably lead and valuable it would have been salvaged at the time of demolition of the Fountain/Pond. Adjacent to this entry point, but not directly connected to the outer wall foundations, are the foundations of an approximately square brick enclosure, which seems to be either a sump or an housing for control valves etc.

  1. Outer wall sections
  2. Presumed entry point for feed pipe
  3. "Sump" enclosure

Notice gap between outer wall on right and Sump wall.

The above site can be compared with magnetometer survey and excavations made in 2005.

29th July 2006

Further work over the weekend of 22/23rd has now revealed the full extent of the walls of the Sump enclosure, and exposed the water inlet pipe.

  1. Inlet pipe with lead reducing flange nailed to "tree trunk" wooden pipe.
  2. Central gap in outer curving fountain pond walls.

Inlet pipe further excavated, revealing small diameter lead pipe (A) on left which has flange on lower right end (B), not now connected to main inlet pipe (C) but may have been in past.

See also single brick course shelf (D) running around enclosure which may have supported a wooden cover.

Other points of interest are:-

  1. Small flange pipe of inlet appears to have been sawn at end, so what was connected to it and between it and entrance to the Main pond? Was there a control valve there? Did the enclosure have other function?
  2. Why is the enclosure so large and substantial?
  3. Did the enclosure have a brick roof?
  4. The brickwork of the outer walls of pond are in Flemish Bond, but the walls of the enclosure are a mixture of Flemish and English bond. This fact plus the enclosure is not integral with the pond outer wall probably indicates that the enclosure was built later than the pond outer wall and by a different builder.
  5. A small fragment of a wood plank is at the bottom of the existing excavation in the enclosure (beneath plastic sheet in photo). No theories yet on what it might be, we need to do more excavation.
  6. What was function of small lead pipe (To left in above photo)?

We will be doing further excavation over weekend 29/30th July when some of these questions will hopefully be resolved

August 2006

The wooden inlet pipe with Lead reducing flange has now been removed and will be conserved by The National Trust. The pipe was a tree trunk with hollowed out centre approximately 10cms diameter matching the smaller diameter of the lead flange. Note the close fit of the surrounding brickwork around the wooden pipe and that the pipe is sitting on a natural clay base which shows that the pipe was in place before the enclosure wall was built. Excavation of the enclosure has been made down to the natural which is Clay there being no brick or other base lining. The pond interior has also been taken down to a similar clay natural.

Numerous small fragments of wood were found lying on the bottom of the enclosure. These are are possible remains of a cover that rested on the ledge protruding from the inner edge of the enclosure.