Monument record 3678/0/1 - Iron Age and Saxon activity, north of Great Byards Sale

Geophysical survey identified a possible pit alignment aligned north-east to south-west. During subsequent archaeological trial trench excavation three pits were excavated; all were shallow and badly eroded. Iron Age pottery was recovered from all three. Archaeological excavation exposed two further pits in the alignment as well as an Iron Age four-post structure and a Saxon pit.

{1} Geophysical survey along the route of a proposed access track identified a row of five small positive anomalies, suggestive of pits. It is possible that these could represent part of a prehistoric pit alignment, but certainty is impossible with so few anomalies in such a narrow strip of data. Two other possible pits lie a little further to the east and one other lies near the southern end of the area.

[2} Archaeological trial trench excavation was undertaken in 2018. A double width trench targeted the suspected pit alignment. The trench fully uncovered one small pit and partially two much larger ones. All three pits were very shallow, with the deepest only 0.36m deep, and had probably been significantly truncated. However, pottery was recovered from all three pits; six sherds of later middle to late Iron Age pottery from the smallest and a small number of non-diagnostic iron Age sherds from the other two. Animal bone was also recovered from two of the pits.

{4} Archaeological excavation ahead of development identified five pits, three of which had already been investigated during the earlier evaluation. Eight sherds of Iron Age pottery were recovered from the lower fill of one of the newly identified pits. Adjacent to the pit alignment was a four-post structure, also dated to the Iron Age by a single sherd of pottery. A fifth posthole lay adjacent to the south-east corner. A shallow pit lay to the south. It contained heat-affected material including a single sherd of early/middle Saxon pottery and a small piece of tap-slag.

<1> Walford, J, 2018, Archaeological geophysical survey at Jack’s Green, King’s Cliffe
Northamptonshire (Report). SNN111551.

<2> Shipley, A. and Cronogue-Freeman, C., 2018, Archaeological trial trench evaluation at Jack's Green, Kings Cliffe, Northamptonshire, August 2018 (Report). SNN111552.

<3> Crank, N. (Editor), 2019, South Midlands Archaeology (49), p. 78 (Journal). SNN111755.

<4> Douthwaite, A, & Reid, A, 2019, Archaeological mitigation works on land at Rockingham Forest Park, Wansford Road, King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire, February-March 2019 (Report). SNN111932.

<4> Finn, C, 2020, Archaeological mitigation on land at Rockingham Forest Park, Wansford Road, King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire, https://doi.org/10.5284/1083484 (Digital archive). SNN112459.

Record last edited

Feb 25 2025 8:10PM