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The Giant Returns The Eynesbury Giant returned on the day the Eynesbury Village Association (EVA) held their second St Georges Day event on Eynesbury Green. With roundabouts, children’s corner stall and a rock group - there was something for everyone to enjoy. The focus of the day’s event was the Eynesbury Giant - alias stilt walker Adrian - however James Toller was one inch taller. Adrian’s appearance gave everyone, especially the children, the experience on just how tall he actually was. The association say they wish to thank the 1st Neots Scout Group who volunteered to erect and dismantle the marquee and also Tesco for support and sponsorship which extends to their other activities, enabling them to provide affordable entertainment and a community voice with their newsletter. • EVA will hold their next community safety evening on June 20 at 7.30pm at the Church Walk Day Centre where representatives from local agencies will be present to answer and discuss problems and concerns residents may have. All Eynesbury residents are welcome. • Throughout the year, the association will organise social events, table top and craft sales and an intergenerational meeting. Full details of village happenings can be found on their website eynesburyvillageassociation.org Share A Journey Fed up of forking out - what seems these days - a small fortune in fuel to get to and from work? Well, now you have the opportunity to cut the cost to your purse or wallet. The free care-sharing service is a website provided by Cambridgeshire County Council and the Travel for Work Partnership called CamShare. It allows you to search for other people around your area who make similar journeys. Car sharing refers to two or more people sharing a car journey, rather than driving their own individual cars. With car sharing you have prior arrangements on how to share the journey’s cost and how to share driving responsibility. You can arrange to car share as little or as often as you like. Why should you share a car? There are three good reasons. • You save money: When you car share with someone you agree how you will split fuel costs. • Meet people in your community: It is a perfect opportunity to meet new people, and with over 2,800 members registered with the free online service, you are likely to find a car sharer nearby. • Help your local environment: Everyday there are 10 million empty seats on the UK’s roads. Car sharing means fewer cars on the roads, less air pollution and a healthier community. To join Cambridgeshire’s very own free car sharing service, simply register your journey on camshare.co.uk and contact those people in St Neots and surrounding area who share the same journey as you. Pictured are Damian Hemmings (Climate Change Team Leader) and Amy Jones (Business Manager). 6 Priorities June 2011
The Lost Archaeological Landscape of St Neots Mark is the manager of Pre-Construct Archaeology’s Central Office near Cambridge, www.pre-construct.com and Conference Secretary for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society www.camantsoc.org When I first began excavating in St Neots over a decade ago it was well known that the history of the modern town could be traced back to the 10th century AD when a small Saxon monastery was founded near to an ancient river crossing in what was then the parish of Eynesbury. The monastery and later town took its current name from the bones of St Neot, which had been acquired by the local monks. The town went from strength to strength developing considerably since the late 19th century with a very rapid expansion of the built environment post 1950 which is continuing today. The archaeology of the town was also fairly well known thanks in large part to the work of Peter Addyman in the 1960’s who went on to achieve more widespread recognition through his work with the Jorvik Viking Centre in York. My own work in the area which involves checking new development sites for ancient remains and recording them before they get built on had less than promising beginnings. Whilst the history and archaeology of the old town were considered highly important it had long been held that the ‘cold clay lands’ away from the banks of the River Ouse were inhospitable and largely uninhabited. Some of this ‘clay’ land next to the Station was being considered for housing and a new school. The local countryside was thought to owe its appearance to the post enclosure agricultural activities of Adam Love, who set up a farm there in the 1770’s, and his contemporaries. Consequently, when I was asked to evaluate the area the likelihood of finding anything interesting seemed fairly remote but then archaeology always has a tendency to crop up in the most unlikely places and this was certainly the case at Love’s Farm. The Loves Farm archaeological programme, commissioned and funded by the developers Gallagher Estates, eventually became the largest and one of the most important excavations in the region. We found the extensive remains of an agricultural community that had occupied the site for over 700 years from around 200BC to at least 6th century AD. From the scattered farmsteads of the Iron Age through the enclosed settlements of the Romano-British period and on into the Early Saxon period successive generations lived on this land, improving drainage, growing new crops, managing livestock, adding enclosures, buildings, roads (yes the Cambridge Road is over 2000 years old!) and monuments. We now know that the ancient St Neots countryside was once more densely populated than it is today and certainly not a barren empty wilderness as previously thought. Perhaps even more surprisingly we now know that farmers such as Adam Love did not inherit a blank canvas but rather worked within that ancient landscape maintaining and preserving elements of ancient field systems and track ways some of which may be thousands of years old but can still be seen today now that we know where to look. These fundamental changes in our understanding have implications that extend well beyond the St Neots area and are now making us review much that we thought that we knew about the past. This work has served to highlight current gaps in our knowledge and is helping us to restore the forgotten past of the Cambridgeshire clay lands. Mark Hinman, May 2011 Picture supplied by Mark Hinman June 2011 Priorities 7
Page 1 and 2: Bands In The Park Riverside Park, S
Page 3 and 4: The Chairman’s Column The Chairma
Page 5: Cross Keys Mews The Cross Keys Hote

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