Monument record 3507/1/11 - Middle-late Iron Age settlement ('Settlement 10'), South of Hardwater Road

[Part of the Wollaston Quarry project] A middle to late Iron Age settlement recorded through cropmarks and geophysical survey. No excavation was undertaken and the settlement was preserved in situ. The settlement was a sub-square enclosure that comprised of a series of internal enclosures, ring ditches and adjoining paddocks. Sparse ditches nearby may or may not be related. A possible undated sub-rectangular enclosure to the north-west was recorded with no internal features. Nearby, a few Saxon pits were found to the north-east and the Pioneer helmet burial lies to the south-east.

{1} A large sub-square enclosure was recorded as both cropmarks and in a geophysical survey. This settlement was not quarried away and was left in situ. The enclosure measured 50m by 50m in area with a possible entrance in the middle of its north-western side. Within the enclosure in its western half, there were a series of joined features respecting each other. The western side seems to have contained at least two ring ditches with internal diameters of 12m and 13m and there were seemingly abutting two or more paddocks. This enclosure had similarites to the other three sub-rectangular enclosures excavated within Wollaston Quarry (Settlements 1, 2 and 5), which all date to the middle to late Iron Age period and do not continue into the early Roman period. It is also notable that all these four enclosures fronted onto a suggested major Roman routeway which seems to have its origins in the middle to late Iron Age period. These similarities suggest that Settlement 10 dated to that middle to late Iron Age period. Sparse ditches were recorded in the immediate area of the north-western and western sides of the enclosure but it is unsure if these relate to Settlement 10. The features to the north-west comprised three sides of a possible sub-rectangular enclosure over a 50m by more than 35m area. This had been partly recorded within the watching brief and partly within the geophysical survey. This possible enclosure was undated and seems to have agriculturual functions as no features were recorded within it. A few saxon pits were excavated directly to the north-east of this enclosure and the Pioneer helmet burial (9574/1/1) lay 30m to the south east of it.

<1> Atkins, R and Meadows, I, 2024, Neolithic pits, late Bronze Age/early Iron Age pit alignments and Iron Age to Roman settlements at Wollaston Quarry, Northamptonshire, P.53 (Monograph). SNN116677.

Record last edited

Jan 27 2026 11:33AM