Monument record 10034 - Iron Age settlement, Knotwood Fields Farm

Geophysical survey and trial trench excavation identified a number of enclosures, boundary ditches and a roundhouse of a probable Iron Age farmstead or settlement. Summary from record 10034/0/1: Curvilinear feature with a maximum internal diameter of 15m. Evidence of metal working being carried out nearby. Summary from record 10034/0/2: A ditch aligned north-west to south-east. Summary from record 10034/0/3: Two curvilinear ditches may be part of a roundhouse with an internal diameter of c 9m. Another ditch was located immediately to the north. Summary from record 10034/0/5: A curvilinear feature with a projected internal diameter of 15m

1} Geophysical survey identified a number of features of potential archaeological significance including curvilinear and linear anomalies.

{2} The evaluation recorded a number of curvilinear ditches, which most likely represent small enclosures and/or roundhouses. Pottery dating from the Iron Age was recovered from the silted fills of these ditches. Broadly contemporaneous boundary ditches, containing pottery dating to the Iron Age, were also identified. These features probably relate to settlement activity and land division, focused at the north-eastern end of the site.

Finds included pottery dating to the mid-late Iron Age, slag, fired clay, crucible fragments and fragments of hearth/furnace lining and a flint flake. The finds indicate metal working activity was being carried out nearby, possibly within the enclosure.

<1> STRATASCAN, 2015, Knotwood Fields Farm, Towcester Road, Milton Keynes:Geophysical survey (Report). SNN110169.

<2> Brown, R., 2015, Land at Knotwood Fields Farm, Old Stratford, Northamptonshire: Archaeological evaluation, (checked) (Report). SNN110272.

<3> Cotswold Archaeology, 2022, Site Images and Data from an Archaeological Evaluation at Knotwood Farm Fields, Old Stratford, Northamptonshire, 2015, https://doi.org/10.5284/1095488 (Digital archive). SNN114244.

Record last edited

Mar 24 2025 11:52AM