Monument record 3507/1/12 - Late Iron Age and Roman activity, South of Hardwater Road

Two excavation areas 50m apart recorded Roman activity, beginning with a pit alignment and developing into early to middle Roman routeways with associated ditches, later modified by a late Roman routeway in the southern area. Nearby cropmarks revealed a separate rectilinear Roman field system, including a sub-rectangular enclosure and a circular watering hole, which appeared coincidental rather than functionally related to the excavated features.

{1} Two small excavation areas, 50m apart, recorded Roman activity of uncertain function but are not thought to be remains of a domestic nature such as a possible settlement. The earliest remains in both excavation areas comprised a north-west to south-east aligned pit alignment. The next remains found seem to date to the late Iron Age/early Roman period with a fragmentary ditch aligned north-east to south-west in the southern excavation area. In the early to middle Roman period, a north-west to south-eastern routeway was recorded have in both excavation areas.

In the southern excavation area, the junction of the two routeways and pit alignment coincided and were recorded within the southern excavation area. The features seem to date from the early to late Roman period. They were comtemporary and constructed to complement each other as the flanking drainage ditches from both routeways were linked. In the early Roman period, the features had a T-shaped arrangement in excavation over a 35m by 12m area, with two entrances on its south-eastern and south-western sides but were seemlingly blocked off on the north-eastern side and with only a small entranceway on the south-western side. This layout was maintained in the middle Roman period, except the north-eastern side which was open. In the late Roman period there was a pebbled surface/routeway aligned north-east to south-west which cut the former early to middle Roman routeway. It was recorded for more than 25m and continued to the north-east To the south-east, a north-west to south-east ditch was probably contemporary.

In the northern excavation area, apart from the early to middle Roman routeway, the only two dateable feature were a middle Roman and a late Roman ditch.
An isolated sub-rectangular enclosure was recorded as a cropmark c100m to west of the routeway junction. The enclosure was located on top of a pit alignment, but neither feature seems to have respected each other and so the positioning seems conindental. The enclosure formed part of a more extensive rectilinear Roman field system observed as cropmarks and also in excavations in an adjacent quarry to the north-west. A circular cropmark within the western side area of the sub-rectangular enclosure was examined and it was proved to be a watering hole with a cobble platform on its side.

<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.53-56 (Monograph). SNN116677.

Record last edited

Feb 9 2026 8:58AM