CULTURE INTERVIEW
Land of plenty With roots stretching deep into Fenland soil, archaeologist, author and Time Team star Francis Pryor MBE tells Louise Hoffman why Cambridge and its landscape mean so much to him
S itting in the stove-warmed country kitchen of Francis Pryor MBE’s Fenland farmhouse, a tree-hidden haven in the vast expanse of dyke-sliced fields, it’s easy to see why he has made this landscape his home. As we settle down at the table with cups of pot-brewed tea and freshly baked biscuits, goldcrests and wrens dance in the viburnum outside the window; acres of garden cloaked in autumn colour unfurling beyond.
It was back in 1992 that Francis and his wife Maisie Taylor – both eminent archaeologists – bought the land here in the Lincolnshire Fens, on which to build a home and dedicate themselves to gardening and farming. A passion for the former had been forged while living at their previous property, over the border in Cambridgeshire. But Francis’s bond with Cambridge and its surrounding landscape
18 JANUARY 2026 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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