Monument record 1160/143/4 - Medieval and post-medieval activity, Sheep Street

The earliest activity found during archaeological excavation was a possible late Saxon or Norman cellar. During the 12th and 13th centuries there was intensive pit digging, suggesting the frontage was not occupied by buildings. A well, constructed in the mid 13th century and in use until the late 14th century, perhaps served a nearby property. Cottages were established on the frontage in c1540. Clay extraction pits were excavated in the late 17th century to serve some of the county's earliest clay-pipe makers.

{1} Excavation C12th Norman pits. Isolated pit in Trench 1 and three large pits in the frontage area. One could have been a medieval cellar, the others were less regular and filled with domestic refuse, but could well have been dug to extract good quality clay. C13th and C14th pits, irregular in form. Not thought to be connected to extraction as dug into ground previously disturbed. The pits contained domestic refuse. Features included medieval wells. The C14th was marked by the excavation of a construction pit closely associated with a stone-lined well. The pit was sub-circular, roughly 3m in diameter, and had steep sides reaching to a flattish base at a depth of 1.3m at the east side. The well was built into the western side of the pit and contained ironstone stonework. The well was 1.15m wide x 1.55m long and excavated to a depth of 1.2m. Ironstone wall 4.5m long. Function unclear, but appears to have been disused by the end of the C14th along with the adjacent well.

Features included a mid to late C16th cottage at 46 Sheep Street, extending into what later became Wells Yard. Walls of an ironstone-built cottage were revealed, including a rear extension. Behind the cottage was a well pit with a roughly circular ironstone well within it. Internal width of 1.1m. Probably served the cottages along the C16th Sheep Street frontage, and possibly the successor to the medieval well excavated.
Industrial waste products for C17th clay pipe manufacture had been recovered in small quantities in the east of the property, but expansion of the garage in 1937 had eradicated all but the most substantial features at the rear.
An irregularly-shaped pit 4.82m x 3.75m, probably for clay extraction. The fill of the pit contained a large assemblage of waste from clay tobacco-pipe making, including fragments of muffle as well as the pipes themselves. Suggests the close proximity of a workshop in the C17th.

<1> BROWN J., 2005, The Archaeology of 46-50 Sheep Street, Northampton 2003-2004 (Report). SNN105353.

<1> BROWN J., 2006, The Archaeology of 46-50 Sheep Street, Northampton 2003-2004 (Article). SNN112207.

Record last edited

Dec 8 2020 9:45AM