Monument record 1160/192/3 - Post-medieval buildings, Sheep Street

An archaeological test pit was excavated in advance of redevelopment of the area. A probable infilled post-medieval quarry pit was truncated by a stone building. A cellar was added later.

{1} A test pit was excavated in advance of redevelopment of the site. The only available area lay at the northern end of the site. The foundations of a stone built structure, c.2.65m wide and at least 1.8m wide cut through the backfill of a post-medieval quarry pit. The western wall foundations were constructed entirely of ironstone. They comprised two rows of roughly faced ironstone blocks set side by side with a combined width of c.0.55m. The blocks making up the western half of the wall were significantly larger than those in the eastern half. The foundations extended downwards vertically for c 0.55m although no foundation cut was visible.
The southern wall foundation comprised ironstone blocks, some burnt, laid approximately 3 stones wide to a width of c.0.78m. They were bonded with grey sandy clay. The ironstone blocks survived to a depth of 0.2m and sat on a further foundation raft of flat ironstone and limestone rubble which stepped outwards a further 0.28m. On top of the wall at its eastern end there was a partial line of surviving red bricks which may represent the remains of the former upstanding wall.
The main eastern wall foundations lay beyond the edge of excavation but the wider limestone and ironstone rubble raft was visible giving the east-west extent of the structure and suggesting that the surviving walls were forming a room c.3m x 2m.
No floor levels survived within the building but its interior had become infilled with a succession of layers. A possible brick lined pit was seen in section in the north-west corner of the building. It contained layers of ash and charcoal but did not extend in to the trench area and so its form and function could not be fully ascertained.
A short distance to the north of the section edge, a further brick wall was exposed when material from the section fell away from it. How this wall relates to the rest of the building remains unclear but it may have formed the northern wall for the room or it may relate to the brick pit.
A mixed layer of ironstone rubble was contained within the structure and presumably represents backfilling of the demolished building.
A brick structure, possibly a cellar, was added onto the western end of the building. The cellar was 1.99m long by 1.82m wide, and made from red bricks. The bricks were laid in rows, two bricks wide, with alternate courses showing headers and footers and were bonded with an orange brown mortar. The bricks abutted the building wall but had not been keyed-in. The cellar had been infilled with ironstone rubble which was not removed. There was no obvious entrance to the cellar and its small size and the way it had been appended to an earlier wall may suggest that it was not an integral structure and may have simply been a coal-hole or similar.
A brick wall had been appended to the southern end of the building wall, continuing its line southwards. It comprised two rows of red bricks laid side by side. They were laid with alternate rows of headers and stretchers and survived to two courses high, bonded with a hard light brown mortar containing flecks of brick and charcoal.
Bounded by the cellar at the north and the wall at the south was a surface of roughly made red bricks. They were set edge on but were not mortared in place and many were missing. A further patch of this surface was present to the north of the southern wall of the building, apparently overlying and therefore post-dating the destruction levels for the building.

<1> Bassir A.; Upson-Smith T.; Holmes M.; Walker C., 2012, Building Recording of the Former Fishmarket and 5 & 7 Sheep Street, Northampton, and Archaeological Evaluation of Land at the Northampton Bus Interchange, p.82 (checked) (Report). SNN108436.

Record last edited

Apr 11 2025 12:00PM