Monument record 1737/0/26 - Possible Neolithic henge

Largely unexcavated prior to gravel quarrying. Undated Enclosure (Morphed Aerial Archaeology Interpretation): Crop/soilmark: Good quality photography

{2} Circular enclosure c70m in diameter. It occupies a slight rise in the gravel, surrounded by a greater depth of alluvium, which obscures part of the circuit. Its eastern edge is cut by a modern field boundary, beyond which its course is not discernable. The cropmark cannot be plotted very exactly, because it is known from oblique photographs only, and many of the landmarks have been quarried away. The area in which it lay was very incompletely excavated. Much of it falls in one of the largest gaps between trenches, although there are at least two cuttings in which parts of its west side may have been encountered. One trench exposed 5.50m of the rounded terminal of a ditch 2.30m wide and 0.80m deep indicating an entrance in the west side. Animal teeth and charcoal were recovered from the topmost fill. Other sightings were inconclusive.

The site of enclosure has been quarried away. It certainly pre-dated the late Saxon-early medieval alluviation and was probably cut by a Roman ditch. Enclosures of this size are most likely to occur in late 4th to early 3rd millenium enclosures like Flagstones on Dorset; in 3rd millenium henge monuments or late 2nd to early 1st millenium ringworks, though this latter option is unlikely.

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

<2> Harding, J. and Healy, F., 2008, The Raunds Area Project: A Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscape in Northamptonshire, p. 120 (Report). SNN106245.

Record last edited

Apr 27 2020 11:27AM