Cambourne and Bourn Airfield
Archaeology and Development at Cambourne and Bourn Airfield
The Cambourne and Bourn Airfield area carries large-scale housing delivery on West Cambridgeshire clayland, a landscape long assumed to be archaeologically quiet and repeatedly shown not to be.
- Authority
- Greater Cambridge Shared Planning
- Landscape
- West Cambridgeshire boulder clay
- Common error
- Assuming clayland has low potential
- Cost driver
- Area of ground disturbance
The next decision
Bourn Airfield’s planning history illustrates why allocations, permission, detailed impacts and archaeological approvals must be checked separately.
Price the live phase, not the allocation boundary
Greater Cambridge Shared Planning identifies Bourn Airfield as a South Cambridgeshire 2018 Local Plan allocation with a 2019 supplementary planning document. The council announced formal permission in July 2024. Those planning facts do not establish archaeology clearance for every phase.
Issue the phase layout, levels, earlier evaluation and disturbance records. Separate airfield structures and services from any surviving buried evidence; neither ‘previously developed’ nor ‘greenfield’ is a sufficient scope description.
- Greater Cambridge Shared Planning: Bourn Airfield planning summary ↗
- Cambridgeshire County Council: Archaeological advice for planning developments ↗
Content updated .
The landscape
Boulder clay uplands west of Cambridge. For many years these claylands were treated as marginal, but sustained development-led fieldwork across the region has shown extensive later prehistoric and Roman land division and settlement on exactly this ground. Former airfield infrastructure adds localised truncation.
What it means for your development
The practical risk here is assuming low potential. An evaluation designed on the assumption that clayland is empty tends to produce a surprise at mitigation stage, which is the most expensive place to find one. Building the assumption of moderate potential into the programme from the start is cheaper than reacting to it later.
Continue
Sources and further reading
We use current public policy and guidance to keep this practical explanation grounded. Sources checked 19 September 2026.
- Archaeological advice for planning developments ↗
Cambridgeshire County Council
- Cambridgeshire Historic Environment Record ↗
Cambridgeshire County Council
Questions
Common questions on this
Is heavy clay really likely to contain archaeology?
Yes. Development-led work across the West Cambridgeshire claylands has consistently recorded prehistoric and Roman land use. Low visibility is not the same as low potential.
Project review
Developing at Cambourne and Bourn Airfield?
Send the planning position and the site plan. We will set out the likely archaeological requirement, the sequence and where the programme risk sits.