Monument record 5681 - Possible Bronze Age round barrow and Romano-British Settlement, south-west of Bright Pitts Farm

Several phases of Iron Age and/or Roman ditched enclosures and boundaries are recorded as cropmarks on EH reconnaissance aerial photographs in July 2011. A complex arrangement of conjoined and overlapping ditched enclosures of various sizes and shapes, and dark patches of crop, extend over an area measuring about 100 metres by 100 metres and could indicate the site of a settlement and associated enclosures. To the north, possibly linked by a linear boundary, there are parts of two small enclosures each measuring about 20 metres across. Fragments of a long ditched boundary appear to extend west from the main complex and curves around what appears to be a three sided curved enclosure measuring about 15 metres across. To the east of the main complex of enclosures, there are further ditched boundaries which appear to define three conjoined rectilinear enclosures over an area measuring about 200 metres by 75 metres. Cropmarks indicate this eastern area was once covered by Medieval or Post Medieval ridge and furrow and it is possible that some of the the boundaries here relate to this much later phase.

{1} Cropmarks of irregular conjoined ditched enclosures along with other ditches. Also a ring ditch to the north-west and a series of parellel aligned north-south stream channels. NCCAP:TL0583/003 (+);

{4} Several phases of Iron Age and/or Roman ditched enclosures and boundaries are recorded as cropmarks on EH reconnaissance aerial photographs in July 2011. A complex arrangement of conjoined and overlapping ditched enclosures of various sizes and shapes, and dark patches of crop, extend over an area measuring about 100 metres by 100 metres and could indicate the site of a settlement and associated enclosures. These are centred at TL 0589 8318.

To the north, possibly linked by a linear boundary, there are parts of two small enclosures each measuring about 20 metres across. These are centred TL 0595 8334. Fragments of a long ditched boundary appear to extend west from the main complex and curves around what appears to be a three sided curved enclosure measuring about 15 metres across. It is centred at TL 0573 8340.

To the east of the main complex of enclosures, there are further ditched boundaries which appear to define three conjoined rectilinear enclosures over an area measuring about 200 metres by 75 metres. These are centred at TL 0601 8314. Cropmarks indicate this eastern area was once covered by Medieval or Post Medieval ridge and furrow and it is possible that some of the the boundaries here relate to this much later phase.

Parts of the main concentration of enclosures, centred at TL 0589 8318 were mapped during the Northamptonshire NMP project. The feature which appears on the 2011 photos as a three sided curvilinear enclosure at TL 0573 8340 seems to correspond with the location of a ring ditch mapped for the Northants NMP project but it is not clear if they are the same feature.

<1> Palmer R., 1992, Air Photo Interpretation Comments, TL0583a (checked) (Note). SNN44995.

<2> Taylor J., 1996, Iron Age and Roman Landscapes in The East Midlands: A Case Study in Integrated Survey, (unchecked) (Thesis). SNN108195.

<3> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs, NCCAP:TL0583/003 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN104822.

<4> Oblique Aerial Photograph, NMR 27161_039-043 11-JUL-2011 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN111738.

Record last edited

Feb 3 2025 8:06PM