Monument record 3619/8 - Possible medieval/post-medieval plot off Mill Lane

Trial trench excavation identified a small number of medieval ditches and a pit. A probable tenement created during the late medieval period extending back from Mill Lane.

{1} Trial trench excavation was undertaken on the south side of Mill Lane. The medieval features comprised ditches, and a pit or ditch. All were located in the south and west part of the site, indicating that the village had spread to this point by the 13th century. The low level of artefacts recovered and generally pale soils indicate that this may well have been confined to fields or enclosures used for non-settlement type activity. This might include ‘dirty’ or ‘smelly’ trades, such as smithing, tanning, leatherworking, etc. or they may simply have kept livestock on this steeply sloping ground. A small curving feature may have been a structure.

A concentration of features in the north-eastern part of the site may be a late to post-medieval plot leading south-eastwards off Mill Lane. Within the plot there were three cobbled surfaces and a stone drain. The plot is likely to have extended as far back as the large boundary ditch in Trench 5; it contained contemporary and later material and recent aerial photographic surveys show the boundary in use until very recently.

The composition of both the cobbled surfaces indicates an external use and they may have been associated with a structure fronting onto Mill Lane, with the drain in Trench 2 leading waste water off the cobbles in Trench 7. There is a gap of approximately 10m between the surface in Trench 7 and the Lane, enough space for a building.

The cobbled surface extended across and beyond the limits of Trench 7. There was also a stone-lined drain or small culvert. The sides were constructed of angular blocks of limestone, roughly-hewn to form a channel and capped with flat roughly-squared slabs of limestone. No finds were recovered from the fill of the drain.

Two large pits provide evidence for possible post-medieval industrial activity in this backyard plot. They were between 13m and 18m in diameter and although the bases were not reached will have been considerably deeper than 1m (hand-excavation depth).The larger of these, although not fully excavated, contained abundant weed seeds, suggesting the land around and nearby was not tended, and small burnt concretions indicative of burning at high temperatures. Possible uses include an industrial feature backfilled with waste products and other detritus, or a quarry pit backfilled with, amongst other things, waste products of high temperature firing being carried out nearby. The edge-of-village location and proximity to a watercourse, make this land ideal for an industrial purpose. The other smaller pit had an as yet unknown function.

<1> Finn, C., Ladocha, J. and Muldowney, M., 2015, Archaeological trial trench evaluation and earthwork survey on land at Mill Lane, Isham, Northamptonshire July 2015, checked (Report). SNN110265.

Record last edited

Feb 25 2025 8:02PM