Despite fairly miserable weather, and slate-grey skies promising no real let-up, it appeared that several Ely residents had also decided this was a worthwhile alternative to the usual Saturday routine.

"The reaction has been terrific," Alison Dickens of the Cambridgeshire Archaeological Unit told me. "There were at least thirty people queing up outside the gates before we opened up his morning and five hundred more have turned up since, and it's only lunchtime."

Channel 4's "Time Team" were in evidence in the shape of Phil Harding, but it certainly seemed that the crowd were there for the archaeology rather than the stars, and they will not have left disappointed. Tours led by members of the CAU explained the site and helped everyone make sense of the trenches and what, at first glance, simply looked like a badly ploughed-over field.

At the top of the site (roughly, a 180m x 25m long rectangle which starts at the Jewson gates and stretches up to the wall on the quayside) are the remains of houses dating back to about 1250, with possibly something even earlier coming up underneath. In the middle of the site is an area of post-medieval industrial activity which seemed to me to be fairly complex and is obviously the subject of some hard work and much speculation at the moment. But it's the river end of the site that has got the CAU buzzing at the moment.

In around 1200, the river was diverted from it's previous course (where it had run much nearer to Stuntney) to hold it's current position. The apex of the meander that flows into Ely touches the south-eastern edge of the site.

Here, three large channels have been uncovered, dating from 14/15th Century, pointing from the river in the direction of the city centre. In the dark earth you can make out the shadowed silhouette where a cambered jetty separated the channels. These jetties probably housed mini-cranes to help unload the flat-bottomed barges that travelled up into the channels.

Where the channels end, there is evidence of a very busy complex of workshops and studios, utilising the goods, the sedge, the clay, the cloth, etc, all working with the resources that were coming up the river. This period essentially represents Ely at the peak of it's wealth and status: a bustling Medieval city, topped by the focal point of the cathedral. Yet, it was much more than that; what the dig has uncovered is a thriving and industrious area away from the central eccliastical hub of the city, filling in a much richer and deeper background to a town which has only really increased in size since the middle of the 20th Century.

Seductive as this picture is, it isn't all there is to the site, for the most important find so far is the kiln. "It's the star of the site," said Alison.

"If we'd found nothing else, then this would've made all the effort worthwhile." In the midst of the workshops at the top of the barge channels lies an oval kiln, the only kiln of any date ever found in Ely. Babylon Ware, a red pottery fabric with a deep brown glaze, has long been associated with the Ely area but no-one had been able to pinpoint where it might actually originate from. Along with other varieties of pot, it now looks almost certain that that search is finally over. Similar pieces have been found across many counties and this increases Ely's reputation as a centre for much activity.

It paints an exciting picture of Ely in the mid 1400s as an important and burgeoning trading spot, using the fens as an almost limitless resource (before they were systematically drained and reclaimed for agricultural purposes).
The "Time Team" special featuring the Broad Street site will be shown on Channel 4 around Easter 2001.

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