Monument record 5354/2 - Site of middle Iron Age/Roman settlement, west of Newton Road

Area of enclosures and associated features identified by geophysical survey. Subsequent trial trench excavation identified a middle Bronze Age ditch which was truncated by a middle Iron Age to early Roman linear settlement, although some of the anomalies highlighted by the geophysical survey were not found, likely due to heavy ploughing.

{1} Part of an extensive Iron Age to Roman settlement which extends beyond the study area to the west.The part of the settlement identified during the survey is predominantly linear in form with a string of roundhouses and small square enclosures tightly clustered along a forked boundary ditch. A substantial break in the line of the ditch, c30m wide.
A set of parallel linear features, spaced at c5m intervals, extend north-westwards from the linear boundary and another set occur to the south-east.

{2} Archaeological trial trench excavation generally confirmed the results of the geophysical survey, although the parallel linear anomalies were not identified in any of the trenches that intersected them. The earliest feature was a ditch dated to the middle Bronze Age by 17 sherds of pottery. It was truncated by the Iron Age/Roman settlement. The main feature of the settlement is the boundary ditch which forms the skeleton of the layout; aligned south-west/north-east in the east and north-east/south-west in the west. While the changing alignments and pottery suggest multiple phases of
activity with some original characteristics retained, the settlement structure is aligned to the Middle Iron Age sub-circular enclosures and roundhouses suggesting inception during this period. The break in the ditch identified by the geophysical survey was found to be real.

Pottery from this phase of settlement dated from the middle Iron Age to the Roman transitional period, although the main phase of settlement appears to have been in the middle Iron Age period with a greater focus on agricultural activity in later phases suggesting that the focus of occupation shifted.

Cotswold Archaeology, 2023, Images and GIS Data from an Archaeological Evaluation East of Rushden, Northamptonshire 2018-2019, https://doi.org/10.5284/1103282 (Digital archive). SNN114784.

<1> Walford, J, 2017, Archaeological geophysical survey of the proposed Rushden Eastern SUE development site, Northamptonshire, September 2016 to August 2017 (Report). SNN112344.

<2> Newman, J, 2019, Land East of Rushden (SUE) Rushden Northamptonshire: Archaeological Evaluation, September 2019 (Report). SNN112343.

Record last edited

Apr 23 2025 6:43PM