CTRL Archaeology Digital Archive

From 15 September researchers around the world will have access to data from one of the biggest archaeological projects ever undertaken in the UK, thanks to a collaboration between archaeologists from the Archaeology Data Service at the University of York and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link project. This utilisation of the world wide web will enable researchers to study the findings online and for free from anywhere in the world.

The CTRL is Britain's first major new railway for over a century, and will run between St Pancras Station in London and the Channel Tunnel near Folkestone. The first section of the high speed rail link through Kent opened to commercial services in autumn 2003. The full link will be completed to London St Pancras in early 2007.

For over ten years, archaeologists employed by the CTRL project have been investigating the archaeology of Kent, Essex and London. Work in advance of construction has revealed an impressively rich array of information.

The vast range of data produced during archaeological works will be placed on the ADS in a series of phases. The first phase, now available on the ADS, relates to Section 1 of the high speed rail link (fig 1). It comprises details of evaluations and fieldwork, interim reports, site plans, artifacts and environmental databases. More information will be added as further elements of fieldwork are completed from North Kent to London St Pancras, and as the detailed analysis work progresses.

Over forty excavation areas were carried out along this first 46km stretch revealing a wealth of data including the first Neolithic longhouse to be found in Kent (fig 2), Bronze Age ring ditches, Iron Age settlements (fig 3), a Roman villa, a Romano-British cemetery, two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries and a medieval moated site.

Though the ADS has been working

Fig 1: The CTRL screen.

Fig 2: Recording the soil sequence which overlay the neolithic longhouse at White Horse Stone.