Monument record 5339/1 - Possible Iron Age/Roman settlement

Possible Iron Age and/or Roman enclosures are recorded as cropmarks on EH Reconnaissance aerial photographs taken in July 2011. These may indicate a settlement and/or associated land division. Four conjoined rectilinear ditched enclosures are arranged north-east to south-west over an area measuring 165 metres by 90 metres. Each is slightly wider at the south east facing end. A modern filed boundary bisects the site. Cropmarks of pits may indicate features associated with the enclosures. Roman pottery was found just to the south east which could be connected with the site [HER 2146/0/1].

{1} Possible Iron Age and/or Roman enclosures are recorded as cropmarks on EH Reconnaissance aerial photographs taken in July 2011. These may indicate a settlement and/or associated land division. Four conjoined rectilinear ditched enclosures are arranged north-east to south-west over an area measuring 165 metres by 90 metres centred at SP 9990 6480. Each is slightly wider at the south east facing end. A modern filed boundary bisects the site. Cropmarks of pits may indicate features associated with the enclosures. Roman pottery was found just to the south east which could be connected with the site [HER 2146/0/1].

The site was plotted during the Northamptonshire NMP project but the 2011 aerial photographs add significant new detail.

{1a-2} As described at {1} above, four conjoined rectilinear ditched enclosures of probable Iron Age or Roman date are visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs and was mapped as part of the Bedford Borough NMP project. Located in two fields and bisected by a field boundary about 751 metres SE of Manor Farm and centred at SP 9914 64803, the ditch is up to 3.5 metres wide and encloses an area about 155 metres SW-NE and possibly up to 87 metres NW-SE at its widest end SW. Much of the SE facing side of the enclosure is not apparent, so the full extent of the cropmarks is uncertain. However, the ditch enclosure is subdivided into four contiguous enclosures, which progressively slowly widen outwards from the NE end and then flare outwards at the SW end: 37 x 51.5 metres, 33 x 52 metres, 32 x 62 metres and 42 x 82 metres. Several macula or pits of uncertain date and function are visible within the enclosures.

<1a> Oblique Aerial Photograph, NMR 27155/028 11-JUL-2011 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN111738.

<1> Oblique Aerial Photograph, NMR 27155_025-029 11-JULY-2011 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN111738.

<2> Bedford Borough Council HER, 1991, Georeferenced composite layer of vertical aerial photographs taken in 1991. Held by Bedford Borough Council HER (Archive). SNN111744.

<3> Bedford Borough Council HER, Undated, Bedford Borough NMP (Archive). SNN113023.

Record last edited

Feb 17 2025 6:43PM