Monument record 1393/0/1 - Site of Roman settlement, Great Cransley

Part of an enclosure was visible as a cropmark. Subsequent archaeological investigation identified further evidence of settlement

{1} Part of an enclosure visible on aerial photographs

{2} Enclosure (SP 83467747) E of Allotment Spinney, on sand at 107 m above OD. Air photographs show somewhat indistinctly a sub-rectangular enclosure, orientated E-W, 50 m long & 25 m wide, with a markedly
curved E end. The interior is occupied by a circular feature. At least two possible linear ditches are visible to the SW.

{4} Geophysical survey identified an area of settlement comprising several sub-rectangular enclosures located either side of a broad ditched trackway.

{6} Excavation of the pipeline trench identified the remains of four sub-rectangular enclosures and two parallel ditches likely to have bounded a trackway. A stone-lined well lay within one of the enclosures. The fill of the well contained pottery, hearth waste, quern fragments and animal bone, including a horse's head. A number of limestone cobbles were probably derived from a low limestone wall that had surrounded the well.

<1> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs, NCCAP:SP8377/2 (Photographs). SNN104822.

<2> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1979, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.28/Site 2 (checked) (Series). SNN77380.

<3> HYLTON T.; MASTERS P., 1998, Empingham to Hannington Anglian Water Pipeline, Northamptonshire Section, Archaeological Evaluation: Stage 1 (Report). SNN63049.

<4> Walford, J.; Butler, A.; Mudd, A. & Harding, J., 2006, AWS Empingham to Hannington Pipeline: Archaeological geophysical and metal detecting surveys Phase 1 August - September 2006, p. 64-67 (Report). SNN108019.

<5> Carlyle S.; Clarke J.; Chapman A., 2011, Archaeological Investigations Along the Route of the Empingham to Hannington (Wing Extension) Pipeline Rutland and Northamptonshire January 2008 to July 2009 (Report). SNN108656.

<6> Carlyle S. Clarke, J. and Chapman, A., 2017, Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlement along the Empingham to Hannington Pipeline in Northamptonshire and Rutland, p. 64-67 (Monograph). SNN110605.

<7> Royal Air Force, Vertical Aerial Photography, AP (RAF VAP F21 540/RAF/1312, 0160-61) (Photographs). SNN104890.

Record last edited

Jan 22 2024 11:47AM