This well-produced collaborative volume (with 12 subsidiary authors and two illustrators) presents – very timeously – the results of the 2018 excavation of c.4.5ha of development land on the outskirts of Ely. While intermittent use is attested from the late Neolithic, the periods dominantly represented extend from the middle Iron Age to the late Roman/early Saxon eras.
This account is easy to navigate, dealing in successive chapters by period and type with the negative features (primarily enclosure ditches, which dominate the structural record), then the artefacts and ecofacts, before a concluding discussion.
The volume is well illustrated (much is in colour) with clear tables and an extensive bibliography, though commendable speed of production has perhaps been at the cost of a final edit, for example, of parts of the discussion. Varying usage of Highflyer Farm over time is melded with earlier results from nearby dominantly agricultural sites on the periphery of Ely and in the wider region.
Review by Ian Ralston
Iron Age and Roman Settlement at Highflyer Farm, Ely, Cambridgeshire, James Fairclough, Archaeopress, £30, ISBN 978-1789698428
