The project outcomes, apart from reports, are two interpretation boards,
and two accompanying leaflets. The first half is done: there is a board
up in the Cherry Hinton Hall lakeside area (look out for it if you are
at the international folk festival held in the park every July), about
'The Lost Mills of Cherry Hinton', and there is an accompanying leaflet
at the tourist board and council offices in the town. The second board
and leaflet are at the research and design stages.

The students from St Bede's school, which is local to the site, have
done most of the practical work for the project, under instruction from
experts such as qualified archaeologists, and use it as extension and
enrichment work for their studies, in volunteer time. The 2XL group of
students, as the gifted and talented group at the school, pull all the
threads together and finalise the designs.

The first half of the project, looking for the 'Lost Mills' was very
successful. Via several test pits, and training in archaeological
techniques, the students found evidence for what is likely to be several
mill buildings on the site. Four mills were mentioned in Cherry Hinton
in the Domesday book, but the sites had never been found. Mapwork, found artefacts, and pottery identification confirmed the theories. The
results are presented on the board and leaflet.

The history of the Hall and gardens is the subject of the second half of
the project. The estate was in its heyday when the estate was sold in
1870, on the death of its founder, about 30 years after the Hall was
built.

The Hall is a mock Tudor Victorian building, originally with many
outbuildings, a walled kitchen garden, sweeping drive, flower gardens
and parkland. There is much for the students to research for the second
board and leaflet, which will concentrate on the estate in 1870,
compared with the present day. The school students have already found an
original tree tag for a 'Cox's Orange Pippin' apple tree from the
Victorian orchards. The project will finish in the next few months, and
we hope the second board and leaflet will be in place in 2007.