Monument record 1641/18 - Possible Iron Age Farmstead, east of Irchester Roman town

A rectilinear enclosure containing a number of internal features including a possible roundhouse has been identified by geophysical survey

{1} In Field 5 the ditched trackway runs past a probable Iron Age enclosure which may suggest that its origin was as an Iron Age droveway.
A prominent sub-rectangular enclosure lies in the southern corner of Field 5, adjacent to a continuation of the possible droveway, D6. The enclosure has several internal features, including ditches and pits, and seems most likely to date to the Iron Age. Towards the centre of the largest enclosure is a circular anomaly possibly representing a roundhouse. A second possible roundhouse was contained in one of the smaller enclosures to the north-east

{3} Considerable buried remains were detected including possible enclosures. Evidence was located of a large sub-rectangular enclosure, approximately 50m x 40m. Linear anomalies indicating sub-divisions are present within it.

{4} At Irchester Roman Town, a magnetometer survey to the north-east of the walled town located evidence of rectangular enclosures with roundhouses within them.

{5} Very little of the pre-Roman landscape can be identified with certainty from the geophysical survey, but the characteristic shape of middle to late Iron Age enclosed farmsteads is the exception. Within the area of the geophysical survey two examples may be present, one underlying the later Roman town (Fig 10, E1) and a second some 500-600m to the east (Fig 10, E5). Both comprise the characteristic sub-square enclosure within which it is possible to identify elements of circular structures (roundhouses) and animal pens.
The regularity of spacing between farmsteads has been recognised previously in the valley floor at Wollaston, where a wide floodplain existed and the farmsteads were positioned at the limit of seasonal flooding (Ian Meadows pers comm). At Irchester, no such wide floodplain existed and therefore a position on the valley side would ensure freedom from flooding, whilst enabling access to exploit the floodplain as well as the other areas. With regard to the spacing between the farms, it would suggest that here, as at Wollaston, the individual holdings may have extended about 250m to either side of the farm, although it is not possible to identify how extensive each holding was from the river up onto the drier land. This spatial density of the Iron Age farms accords well with Caesar’s description of the pre-Roman landscape being densely studded with farms, and the degree of regularity seen locally might even suggest some degree of central control or planning. The linear arrangement of Iron Age farms along the valley side might be part of a more extensive rural community, which constituted a pre-Roman ‘settlement’ that preceded Irchester.

<1> Soden I.; Masters P., 1993, Archaeological Survey at Irchester, Northamptonshire 1993: Irchester Heritage Park Car Park Stage 1, (checked) (Report). SNN1708.

<2> Soden I., 1993, SMR Report Form, (unchecked) (SMR Report Form). SNN49310.

<3> Pike, A (ed), 1994, South Midlands Archaeology: CBA Group 9 Newsletter (24), p.22 (unchecked) (Newsletter). SNN40019.

<4> Richardson M., 1993-4, Irchester (Irchester Roman Town), p.186 (checked) (Note). SNN104166.

<5> Butler A.; Meadows I.; Fisher I., 2010, Archaeological Geophysical Survey at Chester Farm, Irchester, Northamptonshire, p.13 Fig.7 (checked) (Report). SNN107215.

Record last edited

Aug 5 2021 11:48AM