Monument record 4696 - Neolithic to Iron Age Activity, west of Wootton Road

Two ring ditches were recorded as cropmarks from aerial photographs in 1969, although only the southern one was subsequently recorded during the National Mapping Project. Geophysical survey and trial trench excavation undertaken in 2018 identified the two large ring ditches, as well as a small ring ditch, a pit alignment and other features. The southern ring ditch may be a late Neolithic henge, while the northern ring ditch may be a Bronze Age round barrow.

{1} Two ring ditches photographed in July 1969 by N.Cross of UNAS.

{2} Mention has been made of two ring ditches photographed by N.Cross. One of these is almost certainly the remains of a windmill (R.M.Taylor).

{3} Possible ring ditch at SP771548. Air photos are said to show cropmarks of two ring ditches; a later authority has suggested that one of these is the site of a windmill, but this is doubtful.

{4} Geophysical survey undertaken in 2018. Two large ring ditches each around 32m in internal diameter were spaced c150m apart and could either represent henges or large examples of round barrows. Both may have internal features. West of the southern ring ditch is a much smaller ring ditch, c9m in diameter. The pit alignment lies to the north of the northern ring ditch and contains at least eighteen pits aligned south-east to north-west over a distance of c70m. Further linear ditches and a part of a possible square-ended enclosure adjacent to Wootton Road were also identified.

{6} Trial trench excavation was undertaken in 2018. The larger ring ditch at the south of the area was found to have a 3m wide ditch which was at least 1.15m deep, but the base was not reached during the evaluation. This ditch was recut by a broad flat-based ditch. The tiplines of the earlier ditch fills appear to indicate the presence of a former internal bank. Four flint flakes dated to the Neolithic/early Bronze Age and animal bone were recovered from later fills. The northern ring ditch was much more shallow and may be the remains of a Bronze Age barrow; a flint flake and some tiny pieces of possible Iron Age pottery were recovered from the ditch fill . A small ring ditch, measuring 14.5m in diameter was also identified, no finds were recovered but it may also date to the late Neolithic-Bronze Age periods. The north-west to south-east aligned pit alignment was targeted by three trenches.

<1> Brown A.E. (Ed.), 1970, Archaeology in Northamptonshire 1969 (Air Photography), 4/.32 (checked) (Article). SNN58608.

<2> Brown A.E. (Editor), 1972, Archaeology in Northamptonshire 1971, p.60 (checked) (Journal). SNN59984.

<3> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1982, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.121 Site 4 (checked) (Series). SNN77382.

<4> Walford, J, 2018, Archaeological geophysical survey of land south-east of Grange Park, Northampton, July-August 2018, p. 5 (Report). SNN111553.

<5> Crank, N. (Editor), 2019, South Midlands Archaeology (49), p. 79 (Journal). SNN111755.

<6> Elston, J & Morris, S, 2018, Archaeological trial trench evaluation on land south and east of Grange Park, Northampton, August 2018 (Report). SNN112413.

Record last edited

Feb 3 2025 8:03PM