Monument record 1641/12 - Extra-Mural Settlement North-West of The Romano-British Town at Irchester

Archaeological excavation prior to the development of Victoria Park partially revealed a western suburb of Irchester Roman town. It revealed the remains of stone buildings and associated features in a row of rectangular plots adjacent to a metalled road. The majority of the Roman pottery appears to date from the 1st to the 3rd centuries AD, with a focus on the 2nd century. No late Roman deposits were found, and there was a single early/middle Saxon sunken-featured building.

{1} Archaeological evaluation, comprising fieldwalking, geophysical survey and trial trenching, was undertaken across a series of arable fields to the west of the Roman town. Fieldwalking survey identified a dense scatter of mostly late 2nd-4th century pottery in the northern part of the field, associated with discrete limestone scatters corresponding well with the results of the geophysical survey which identified a droveway entering the eastern side of Field 2 before bifurcating into separate routes. A series of enclosures occupies the space between the two roads. The trial trench excavation revealed enclosure ditches, stone boundary walls. Trial trenching of a number of the roadside ditches to the west of the walled area was largely inconclusive as to the likely period in which the road system was first established but indicates that they predated the third century (Northamptonshire Archaeology Unit 1991). Beneath a dense surface concentration of pottery and limestone rubble identified by fieldwalking was found an east-west running ditch and the base of a T-shaped corn drier. The overall state of preservation is average to poor with disturbance by plough marks and modern field drains. Within the limestone rubble was the complete lower stone of a rotary quern.

{2} Additional geophysical survey was undertaken to establish the extent of the extra-mural settlement identified by the 1991 evaluation. A track or droveway enters Field 2 from the east and continues for a short distance before bifurcating into separate routes. Besides the arm which heads to the north-west there is an enclosure containing a roundhouse. Within the area between the two droveways are the overlapping systems of at least two series or phases of ditched enclosures.

{8} The extra-mural settlement area stretched from the west of the walled town for at least 500m across Field 1 and apparently terminating at the western boundary of Field 2. This area of settlement has been located from cropmarks and geophysical survey work. Extra-mural settlement was probably established prior to the construction of the town defences as the geophysical survey showed the defensive ditches clearly truncated the existing land plots, boundaries and roads.
The settlement appears to follow a road on an east-west orientation which divides at the eastern boundary of Field 2 to form a fork to the north-west and the south-west. Between the road fork, further land plots were identified, at what appeared to be the western limit of the extra-mural settlement. The extra-mural settlement is probably much more extensive, as can be seen on the geophysical plots, but is sealed by the surrounding subsoil. Those features which were revealed demonstrate the site was a well established settlement.

{9} A suburb or extramural settlement lay to the north-west of the Roman town on the west side of a small dry valley. It comprised a series of rectangular plots defined by boundary ditches, lying to the north of a metalled road. Adjacent to the roadside, mainly on the north side, were the remains of stone-walled buildings that probably formed houses or workshops set end on to the road in plots that were up to 20m wide and extended for at least 45m from the road frontage. Much of the structural remains that were visible survived as fragments, but two stone buildings were largely uncovered, and reburied after recording, and the remains of a further three buildings were partially exposed. The walls comprised generally un-mortared roughly worked limestone and ironstone blocks, up to 0.2m high.

The outline of an almost complete building was identified that comprised partly stone walls and partly robber trenches. The building was 24m long x 8m wide and aligned roughly north-south, with the south end forming a frontage lying oblique to the Roman road 3m away. A gap in the south wall facing the road may have been an entrance. The remains of pebble and limestone surfaces were found inside and outside the building. The building contained two small sub-rectangular stone structures and associated burnt, ashy spreads.

Domestic occupation in this area was at its peak in the later 2nd century, with the pottery including quantities of samian and Nene valley wares, but although there may have been a decline following the construction of the town defences, there was still activity in this area through the 3rd and into the 4th century.

The route of the Roman road was identified in all of the drainage trenches either as remnants of surface or the roadside gullies. It meandered gently over a distance of 160m in a north-east to south-west alignment, corresponding closely to the route of the road identified in the geophysical survey. The road surface, 6-7m wide, consisted for the most part of a thin fragmented layer of small pebbles, gravel rounded limestone and ironstone chips. The roadside gullies were narrow and V-shaped.

To the south and west of the suburb the watching brief located isolated lengths of ditch systems, perhaps remnants of small enclosures or flanking trackways, along with pits and a stone-lined well. These fragments are probably the remnants of domestic settlement largely lost to later ploughing, with the pottery indicating a peak in the later 2nd century, as seen in the western suburb, but with activity again spanning the 1st to 4th centuries. It suggests that there was a steady
tailing off of settlement that extended up to O.9km to the west of the town

<1> Dix B.N., 1991, Archaeological Evaluation at Irchester, Northants, 1990-91, p.33 (checked) (Report). SNN1694.

<2> Holmes M., 1991, SMR Report Form, (checked) (SMR Report Form). SNN48843.

<2> Dix B.; Masters P., 1992, Geophysical Survey at Irchester Roman Town, Northants, p.3 (checked) (Report). SNN62722.

<3> Taylor J., 2000, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Irchester (Roman), Section 3.1 Communications (checked) (Digital archive). SNN100749.

<4> Dix B., 1992, Recent Work in Northamptonshire Archaeology, P.121 (checked) (Article). SNN104441.

<5> Shaw M. (Editor), 1992, CBA Group 9 Report for Northamptonshire Archaeology Unit: Contracts Section, p.38 (checked) (Newsletter). SNN48018.

<6> SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF ROMAN STUDIES, 1992, Britannia, p.285 (checked) (Journal). SNN107048.

<8> MORRIS S., 2007, Iron Age and Roman Landscape at Victoria Park, Irchester, Northamptonshire: Updated Project Design, Assessment Report, p.8 (checked) (Report). SNN106041.

<9> Morris S.; Meadows I., 2012, Iron Age and Roman Landscapes at Victoria Park, Irchester, Northamptonshire: Excavations September 2004 to May 2005 (Report). SNN108056.

Record last edited

Mar 26 2020 12:05PM