Redevelopment of brown-field sites around Cambridge is relentless. The redevelopment of the Bourn Airfield site, a few miles west of the city, has started in earnest; 3,600 new homes are planned, with about 40% of those ‘affordable’. As with Urban & Civic at Alconbury and Waterbeach a ‘master developer’ model is being used, and the major infrastructure is being built before the houses. And like Alconbury and Waterbeach, the features that defined the airfield are disappearing fast; the runways with their concrete now removed are becoming just ghostly shapes.
As always, the first thing that has to be done is the archaeology. There are signs all over the site of a rich prehistoric past.
