Martin Wells and his 13-year-old son Joshua, who live in Addison House, were digging a pond in their back garden when they stumbled across several large pieces of stone with unusual carvings on them buried among rubble.

After seeking advice from of local history and genealogy society Soham Roots, Mr Wells believes he may have uncovered ruins from an old chapel which once stood in Market Street or from Soham Abbey which was burned down in around 870.

"They are obviously from an old church or abbey as they look celestial," he said.

"They are decorated and carved into shapes. One of the biggest pieces looks like part of a window frame.

"One piece is so huge and I can only just lift it. It took two adults to get it out of the ground when we dug it up."

Mr Wells said he and Joshua, a pupil at Soham Village College, were amazed at their discovery.

He said he thought there could be even more pieces under the ground.
"We were quite surprised as it is obviously not the sort of thing you normally find in the garden," he said.

"There are probably more down there but we will leave them so future generations can dig them up."

Pictures of the stones have been sent to Chris Thatcher, an archaeologist at Cambridgeshire County Council, who will investigate their age.

Soham Roots researcher Julie Webb said it was unlikely the stones were part of Soham's old Abbey, which was built in 630 on a site somewhere between the town's present St Andrew's Church and White Hart Lane.

However, she believes the unusual objects could be ruins from a chapel which was in Market Street as early as the 13th or 14th century.

Another explanation is that they were stones from St Andrew's Church which were lost when the Victorians carried out restoration work between 1850 and 1880.

"It is an amazing find as there is a little bit of a mystery around how they got to be in his garden," said Mrs Webb.

"We do not think they look old enough to be from Saxon times when the abbey was built but it cannot be ruled out.

"We do not know what happened to the chapel and there was burial in Market Street so it is a possibility."