Monument record 2148/2/1 - Late Iron Age enclosure, Clay Lane

Cropmarks of a rectilinear enclosure identified on aerial photographs. The south-west corner of the enclosure was investigated under a watching brief in 1980. A small rectangular feature was found inside the enclosure. Only a single sherd of Iron Age pottery was recovered.

{1} Enclosure 3 is thought to be earlier than enclosure 1. Late Pre-Belgic date. A single large ditch enclosed an area of C. 40m by 40m. Within the enclosure, a gully delimited an area c. 10m by 10m. It may have represented a stockpen or a structure of which no other evidence survived.

{3} A group of contexts forming the large enclosure ditch. The fills were markedly difference from others on site suggesting deliberate backfilling. Within the enclosure was a gully enclosing an area c.10m by 10m. No internal features were found but shallow features could have been lost to machine-scraping before excavation. An alternative explanation was that this deature was as drainage gully around a stock pen. The small amount of pottery was similar to that of late pre-Belgic forms found elsewhere on the site.

<1> Windell D., 1983, Clay Lane 1980: Interim Report - An Iron Age and Roman Rural Settlement at Clay Lane, Earls Barton, p.38 (checked) (Article). SNN40207.

<2> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs, Used with NMR & CUCAP collections (Photographs). SNN104822.

<3> Windell D., 1982, Excavations at Clay Lane 1980 Level III: Structural Evidence, p.58 (checked) (Report). SNN75685.

Record last edited

Oct 12 2020 10:12AM