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Rectory Farm Ditched Enclosure, Godmanchester
History of Ditched Enclosure
At Rectory Farm, Godmanchester, is an enclosure of 16 acres with an entrance to the north-east and 24 massive timber posts spaced around the inside of the perimeter. There is evidence of late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age activity. (Defending Cambridgeshire, M Osborne, 2013)
That Stonehenge would have to have been quite a distance from its location for the solstice alignment to not cross the meander in the Avon is not necessarily an objection. We can distinguish between general solstitial aspects in the Early Neolithic and precise solstitial alignments only occurring later, at the end of the Late Neolithic, in the Stonehenge landscape at least, even if it is not the case elsewhere: the summer solstice sunrise alignment built into the Early Neolithic trapezoidal enclosure at Rectory Farm, Godmanchester, for instance, is ‘impressive in its precision’ (Ruggles 2019, 77). It seems more likely that a combination of features, mostly natural, some artificial, combined to place Stonehenge where it is, in a landscape already rich with meaning. (from Army Basing Programme, M Leivers 2021)
According to H J M Green, Godmanchester, 1977, this site was inhabited throughout the Roman period in at least five phases.
Roman villa at Rectory Farm, Godmanchester (mid 2nd cent. plan)
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