Monument record 5411/0/1 - Prehistoric Pit Alignment, Harlestone Road

Prehistoric pit alignment aligned north-west to south-east first identified as cropmarks on aerial photographs. 71 pits over a length of 193m were excavated prior to development. A small assemblage of early Iron Age pottery was recovered from nine of the pits. A further thirteen pits were excavated on the western side of Harlestone Road prior to development.

{1} Cropmarks; north-west to south-east orientated pit alignment crosses two fields; other insubstantial features are probably of geological origin.

{2} An area of anomalies indicating isolated readings as well as a single linear anomaly. Their nature and extent cannot be determined at this stage but may denote ditches and associated features.

{3} Geophysics survey confirms the presence of the pit alignment running north-west to south-east.

{4} Probable prehistoric boundary (Morphed Aerial Archaeology Interpretation). Crop/soilmark: good quality photography. NB. The National Mapping Programme interpretation did not appear to interpret this feature as a pit alignment.

{6} The prehistoric pit alignment which crosses the southern half of the western field surveyed was detected as a slightly sinuous, magnetically positive linear anomaly, aligned approximately south-east to north-west. The apparently continuous nature of this anomaly suggests that the gaps between individual pits may be smaller than 1m (ie. less than the spatial resolution of this survey).

{7} The pit alignment extends north-west to south-east for at least 250m; no finds were recovered from any of the excavated pit fills.
In Trench 5 the pit was sub-circular, 1.2m in diameter x 0.84m deep. It had a wide U-shaped profile, although the western edge was steeper than the eastern. The primary fill contained at least 50% ironstone, representing slumping of the sides after excavation. A possible ditch adjoined the south-western edge of the pit, although their relationship was not ascertained. This was aligned north-south, and at least 0.40m wide x 0.46m deep.
The pit within Trench 6 was 2m in diameter x 0.90m deep, with stepped edges and a flat base. The stepped edges are again indicative of erosion of the pit sides, suggesting that it was open for some time. There was also a high ironstone content (40%) in the primary fill. Adjoining the south-western edge of the pit was another pit, which lay close to the edge of the trench and was not fully excavated. No relationship could be established between the two pits, so it was not established whether one was a replacement for the other.
In Trench 11 the north-western edge of the pit lay beyond the trench, but it was at least 2.5m long x 2.0m wide x 0.90m deep, with an elongated irregular shape in plan. The edges of the pit were irregular and its base was flat. The form of this pit is unusual, the cause of which could not be determined by the evaluation. A further pit lay within 0.10m of the south-eastern edge of the excavated pit.
The pit alignment was shown to extend across the entire south-western corner of the site. The pits were probably more uniformly rectangular in plan when first dug, which would suggest that they were open for some considerable period of time, during which they eroded heavily. The fieldwork suggests that a phase of shallow, ditch-like re-cutting over the top of the discrete pits took place, linking some of them.
That no pottery was recovered from the excavated pits is not unusual for this monument type. Radiocarbon dates for similar features in the region suggest an early Iron Age date, although some are dated to the early middle Iron Age, as at Upton. Other possible related pit alignments are also recorded to the east, close to the Neolithic ritual complex on Dallington Heath.

{8} A 193m length of the pit alignment, comprising 71 pits, was excavated prior to development at Dallington Gateway. Worked flint and pottery was recovered from 27 pits. No discernable trend to deposition of flint, but there was a concentration of pottery from nine pits, which were located in the central part of the excavated length. The assemblage has been dated to the early Iron Age period.

{10} Trial trench excavation was undertaken on land at Whites Lane. One trench contained two pits that form part of the north-west to south-east oriented pit alignment.

{11} The overall quantity of worked flint, recovered largely from the fills of pits in the pit alignment through secondary deposition from presumed surface scatter, is far more than would normally be expected from the average pit alignment, reflecting the presence of nearby activity [at the Neolithic causewayed enclosure to the east]spanning the early Neolithic to late Neolithic/early Bronze Age. This preferred area around the causewayed enclosure, where people may have been living temporarily during communal gatherings associated with it, had generated a significant increse in the deposition of flint across the Dallington Gateway site at a distance of 0.7-1.1km away.

{13} The southern example of the two parallel pit alignments recorded on aerial photographs.

{14} A further eleven pits (in addition to the two excavated during the previous evaluation) were excavated prior to development on the western side of Harlestone Road in 2018. Pottery recovered from two of the pits broadly dated to the Iron Age. A small assemblage of late Bronze Age/Iron Age lithics, including cores, flakes and a bladelet, was also recovered

<1> Holmes M., 1992, Northampton, North-West Bypass: Archaeological Survey, Stage 1, p.6 (checked) (Report). SNN73443.

<2> Masters P., 1998, Geophysical Reconnaissance Survey at Dallington, Northampton, (checked) (Report). SNN57619.

<3> Masters, P., 1998, Geophysical Survey at Dallington Grange, Northampton, (checked) (Report). SNN42647.

<4> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs, NCCAP:SP7163/018 (unchecked) (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN104822.

<5> Blackburn D., 1999, Dyves Heath, (unchecked) (Typescript Report). SNN100648.

<6> Butler A.; Fisher I.; Walford J., 2012, Archaeological Geophysical Evaluation for the Dallington Gateway, Northampton May 2012, p.4 (checked) (Report). SNN109214.

<7> Walker C.; Wolframm-Murray Y., 2012, An Archaeological Evaluation of Land at Dallington Gateway, Northampton September 2012, p.11-12+20 (checked) (Report). SNN109265.

<8> Chinnock, C & Muldowney, M, 16/6, Archaeological mitigation at Dallington Gateway, Harlestone Road, Northampton August to October 2014 (Report). SNN111345.

<9> Crank, N. (Editor), 2017, South Midlands Archaeology (47), p. 42 (Journal). SNN111362.

<10> Crank, N. (Editor), 2018, South Midlands Archaeology (48), p. 54 (Journal). SNN111393.

<11> Chapman A, 2019, Flint deposition in the vicinity of the Dallington Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure, Northampton, p. 33-45 (Article). SNN111725.

<12> Johnson, F, 2017, Archaeological Evaluation Report: Trial Trenching: Land off Whites Lane, Harlestone, Northamptonshire (Report). SNN112121.

<13> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1981, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p. 99, Fig 78/Site 5 (Series). SNN77381.

<14> Telford, A, 2018, Archaeological Excavation Report: Land off Whites Lane, Harlestone, Northamptonshire (Report). SNN114367.

Record last edited

Feb 4 2025 7:26PM