The Roman foundations of Cambridge
A short distance from the centre of Cambridge, sandwiched between the M11 motorway and Girton College on the Huntingdon Road, a 22-tonne mechanical digger and a dozen men and women in high-viz vests are working a field under a big East Anglian sky.
The stubbled soil is criss-crossed with dozens of short, shallow trenches dug to a mathematical pattern; from the air, it must look like the board for some giant, fiendishly complicated parlour game. In fact, this is the site for most of Cambridge University’s future growth: soon this 120-hectare field will house research and development facilities, academic buildings, accommodation for 1,500 university staff and 2,000 postgraduates, 1,500 private homes, a school, shops and public open spaces …