ENN111403 - Earls Barton Primary School, 2024 (Observation)

{1} Between June and December 2024, intermittent monitoring monitoring and investigation was undertaken during development groundwork at Earls Barton Primary School. There were two discrete areas of development: a new car park and a new classroom block. {2} Radiocarbon dating was undertaken to refine the date and historical context of the late Saxon burh defences, investigating whether they were constructed during Edward the Elder’s reconquest of the Danelaw, in response to later Viking threats, or as a fortified centre of lordly power, trade and administration. It also sought to establish when the defences were abandoned, whether their decline was gradual or deliberate, and how long the earthworks remained visible before medieval land reclamation enabled settlement expansion beyond the former burh boundary.