Monument record 1602/2 - Possible Iron Age Farmstead

Two small investigations have been undertaken at the western end of the enclosures demonstrating a late Iron Age date for the features.

{1} To the east are amorphous soil disturbances.

{2} Trench 3 was sited on a slight earthwork nearby, where stone was being unearthed by the plough. A presumed enclosure ditch at the west end of the trench was found to be some 6m wide but only 0.4m deep where excavated. The stone was found to have derived from an Iron Age feature with a pitched stone surface, that lay just beneath the ploughsoil. The feature was cleaned and photographed but no further excavation took place.

{3} In September 1984 the field group team decided to investigate the Iron Age remains in Field 42 by stripping the topsoil off a quadrant of one of the enclosures. The internal area of the enclosure had been protected by silting and was largely filled with stone rubble and areas of pitched stone. A section was excavated through the enclosure ditch, 1.40m deep. In total, 863 sherds were recovered, showing a similar chronology to the pottery recovered from the enclosure to the west [1602/1]. The settlement appears to have been laid out in in the 1st century BC. Pottery of the earliest Belgic style of handmade jars appear to be the latest phase prior to abandonment, at sometime in the mid 1st century AD.

A significant number of unstratified late Neolithic/early Bronze Age flint artefacts were also found in this area.

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1950s/1960s, Ordnance Survey Record Cards, SP98SW3 (checked) (Index). SNN443.

<2> Jackson D., 1983, The Excavation of an Iron Age Site at Brigstock, Northants 1979-81, p. 19 (Article). SNN40196.

<3> FOSTER P., 1988, Changes in the landscape: an archaeological study of the clay uplands in the Brigstock area of Northamptonshire (Dissertation). SNN71342.

<4> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs, SP9284/04 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN104822.

Record last edited

Mar 14 2022 11:09AM