Monument record 726/20/6 - Roman settlement, Tove Valley Business Park

An archaeological watching brief and a small salvage excavation were carried out during groundworks at Tove Valley Business Park, Towcester in August 2003. A number of heavily truncated ditches and pits in one area of the site were of Romano-British date, 2nd to 4th centuries AD, and probably represent either part of a minor settlement or the periphery of a larger one.

{1} An archaeological watching brief and a small salvage excavation were carried out during groundworks at Tove Valley Business Park, Towcester in August 2003. A number of heavily truncated ditches and pits in one area of the site were of Romano-British date, 2nd to 4th centuries AD, and probably represent either part of a minor settlement or the periphery of a larger one.

To the south there was a linear ditch, 0.35m wide. It was cut by a curvilinear ditch, 0.45m wide which may have formed the northern end of a small enclosure lying largely outside the development area.

A cluster of three small pits lay just to the north. One pit contained fired clay but no datable finds. Individual pits lay along the north western part of the site; they all had some Roman pottery within their fills.

To the north there was a further isolated ditch aligned east-west. To the north of this were remnants of a series of linear and curvilinear ditches on a general east-west alignment. Ditch 25 was traced for 17m and contained Roman pottery. Shorter lengths of parallel ditch lay to the north and south of it. To the north of these there was a curving ditch with a series of three shallow gulllies to its immediate north. At the northern end of site C there was a more substantial ditch aligned north south. Parallel to this and slightly to the east were two other short lengths, again suggesting that further lengths had been lost to truncation. The alignment of the ditches suggest that there might have been two or more phases of ditch system.

<1> Lewis, B., 2003, Archaeological Watching brief at Tove Valley Business Park, Towcester, p.3-4 (unchecked) (Report). SNN104577.

Record last edited

Sep 8 2020 1:17PM