Monument record 726/0/3 - Roman features, including a substantial stone-built building with cellar

Romano-British wall, ditches and pits were identified during evaluation in 2012. Subsequent excavation in 2013 found a substantial cellared building built in the mid/late 2nd century with a later, less well-constructed annexe and oven/furnace. The structures were situated alongside a side street or alley.

{1} Archaeological trial trench evaluation was undertaken in July 2012. In the western half of Trench 2 were two intercutting pits, one containing Roman pottery dating to the C2nd or later. Both pits were only partly exposed so their full extent was not established. The pits were sealed by successive layers, one of which contained four sherds of Romano-British pottery.
To the east the layers were cut by a large foundation trench aligned north-north-west to south-south-east. It was more than 0.9m wide x 1.1m deep; only the western half of the wall foundation was visible within the trench. This was a substantial mortared limestone wall which survived to a height of c.1.1m x more than 1m wide. The foundations widened at the base suggesting that they once supported a substantial wall, possibly that of a building. Two to three coarses of roughly dressed limestone blocks survived on top of the foundations coarses. The backfill of the trench contained two sherds of C2nd or later Roman pottery.
Roughly parallel with the west-facing elevation of the wall were a gully and a small ditch. The ditch diverged slightly to the north-west, and was steep-sided with a V-shaped profile, 0.7m wide x up to 0.43m deep. Its fill contained late C2nd to C3rd pottery and Roman roof tile (tegulae). The gully had a steep-sided, flat-based profile, and was 0.46m wide x 0.17m deep.

{2} A substantial stone-built cellared building;

{4} Three complete pottery vessels were recovered from with the cellar of the ruins of a stone built Roman house. The house was set back 40m from the main road through the town (Watling Street) and was probably occupied during the late 2nd and 3rd centuries. The smaller (wide-mouthed and necked) jar was found stacked inside the larger one, alongside the decorated (rouletted) narrow-mouthed jar. All three plus other less complete vessels were found rather curiously with several cattle skulls, all lying within demolition rubble within the cellar. Although the vessels were utilitarian and simple in nature, in fact the kind of pots one would find in a typical household at the time, the curious arrangement of the pots and animal bones strongly suggests that this was some form of ritual deposit to mark the ‘closing’ of the old house.

{6} The substantial Roman stone building was built in the later 2nd century AD and lay in a back-plot, between Watling Street and the disturbed remains of the 2nd century defences, about 40m away from the projected street frontage. The stone-founded building replaced an earlier phase of building on this plot of which little remained. It incorporated a cellar formed of a double thickness of limestone walling set in clean blue clay that had been deposited both between the walls and outside the outer wall. The floor also consisted of a layer of blue clay 0.3m thick. The cellar had clearly been made waterproof with a lining probably intended to keep it dry, although it equally enabled it to hold water, as demonstrated during the excavations.
Demolition debris from the cellar included an unusual number of cattle skulls and at least six complete vessels dating to the 3rd or 4th centuries - mostly jars but also vessels that had been used for cooking. As well as the complete pottery vessels recovered from the building, finds included a piece of a face pot, a well-preserved Roman key, toilet implements and part of a ceramic Venus figurine. Many of the finds were exhibited at Towcester Museum. Post-excavation work continues and it is hoped the results will be disseminated during 2016.

{7} In Area 3 the early Roman remains were dominated by a fenced enclosure, oven, pits postholes, dog burials and occupation deposits. In the middle Roman period this area was dominated by a stone-built cellar and associated building. Three sides of the cellar were found creating a room 3m wide and at least 4.3m long. The structure appears to have 'tanked' perhaps to keep the cellar dry. The cellar appears to have been in use during the middle to late 2nd to early 3rd century AD. At a later date the function appears to have changed with a building constructed to the north-east of the cellar. At the south-east end of the building was a oven. Immediately south-east of the cellar and building was the metalled surface of a side-street or alley.
At some point in the late Roman period the cellar and associated building went out of use and were demolished. Possible 'closing deposits' of animal bone were identified. A number of pits were also excavated during this period.

<1> Carlyle S., 2012, Moat Lane Regeneration, Towcester, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Evaluation, p.9-10 (checked) (Report). SNN109163.

<2> Carlyle, S., 2016, Moat Lane, Towcester, Northamptonshire: Programme of Archaeological Observation Investigation, Recording, Analysis & Publication (Report). SNN110995.

<3> Cotswold Archaeology Ltd, 2016, Unlocking the secrets of the Roman Town (Website). SNN110997.

<4> Cotswold Archaeology Ltd, 2016, Pottery Vessels from Towcester (Website). SNN110996.

<5> Horne B. (Editor), 2014, South Midlands Archaeology (44), p. 33-4 (Journal). SNN109842.

<6> Horne, B (editor), 2015, South Midlands Archaeology (45), p. 48-9 (Journal). SNN111358.

<7> Cobain, S and Mudd, A, 2017, Moat Lane Regeneration, Towcester, Northamptonshire: Excavation Report (Report). SNN112323.

Record last edited

Jan 29 2021 2:38PM