ENN107665 - Land Off Farthingstone Road, 2014 (Trial trench)

MOLA Northampton was commissioned by CgMs Consulting to carry out an archaeological trial trench evaluation on land at Farthingstone Road, Weedon, Northamptonshire. Thirty trenches were excavated to gather sufficient information regarding any archaeological remains present, and to investigate possible archaeological features identified by a geophysical survey. Three trenches contained a small number of ditches and gullies with dated finds suggesting a succession of field boundaries, erosion gullies and drainage ditches dating from the 11th to 13th and 15th centuries. Archaeological features corresponding to geophysical anomalies comprised two ditches and a natural gully feature. The remaining archaeological features recorded in these trenches were not identified by the survey due to limited sediment textural differences between clay feature fills and the Lias clay substrate, and masking effects of ridge and furrow. No archaeological features or deposits were found in the remaining 27 trenches with features identified by the geophysical survey as potentially archaeological consisting of a number of natural features such as ironstone beds and lateral contacts between different geologies. The enclosure ditch identified by the geophysical survey appears to be a composite of archaeological and natural features rather than a single discrete feature, although it is also equally possible that it may just be a poorly preserved ditch and related to medieval activity at the Old Priory site nearby. No evidence for settlement was found in any of the excavated trenches. Information from OASIS Online Form.