Monument record 3124/0/16 - Area of medieval quarry waste, north of Station Road

Earthworks identified from aerial photography. Interpreted originally as post-medieval buildings, geophysical survey and trial trench excavation found no evidence of them; the earthworks had been formed from quarry waste probably produced during quarrying for iron ore. Beneath the spoil was a possible disturbed grave and a gully

{3} A detailed earth resistance survey was conducted over approximately 0.3 hectares of grassland. The survey has not identified any archaeology on the site. Areas of quarry rubble are observed in the data, as well as an anomaly of natural origin.

{4} Trial trench excavation was undertaken in 2014. Trench 25 was located to investigate a series of earthworks listed as a post-medieval building. However, both magnetometry and resistivity surveys failed to find any evidence of the building. Instead, the earthworks were formed from dumps of quarry-waste spread unevenly across the site. Extensive ground disturbance was noted in this part of the field probably resulting from quarrying for iron ore. Backfill of this quarrying produced pottery dating to the 12th or 13th century. Beneath the quarry waste were two features. A grave-shaped pit contained a small quantity of disarticulated human bone and may be a disturbed grave. A north-south orientated gully appeared to follow a similar alignment as the part of the earthwork.

<1> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs, Used with NMR & CUCAP collections (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN104822.

<2> Prestidge, O.J., 2014, Geophysical Survey: Station Road, Irchester, Northants (Report). SNN111698.

<3> Richardson, T., 2014, Station Road, Irchester: Geophysical Survey Report, August 2014, p. 2 (Report). SNN111696.

<4> Morris, M., 2014, An archaeological field evaluation by trial trenching of land north of Station Road, Irchester, Northamptonshire, p. 7 (Report). SNN110196.

Record last edited

Oct 16 2019 11:12AM