Monument record 5937 - Late Iron Age/Roman settlement, Darsdale Farm

A late Iron Age to early Roman rectilinear enclosure, boundary ditch and field system have been excavated at Darsdale Farm. Two isolated burials were also found.

{1} Cropmarks; rectilinear ditched enclosure with two parallel ditches adjoining & running north to south. There is a further north to south ditch further to the west; NCCAP:SP9971/009-11 (+);

{2} Small rectangular enclosure 40m wide identified in cropmark and confirmed with geophysics. Eastern edge of enclosure coincides with triple ditch system aligned northwest-southwest. Penannular ditch 15m diameter within the enclosure probably representing a round-house with entrance facing southeast, although a magnetometer survey failed to locate this feature. A line of possible pits orientated NE-SW runs to the southern part of enclosure. Fieldwalking evidence did not provide any clue as to date - no Iron Age pottery and slight density of Romano-British pottery would appear to be due to manuring scatter. Minor concentration of flint - only slightly denser than surrounding area.

{4} Excavation of part of the enclosure in 2015. Located within the northern part of Area 1 were the remains of three sides of a probable rectangular enclosure, with the northern arm lying beyond the area of excavation. The enclosed area was approximately 27m wide and was in excess of 35m long. There was no evidence of the roundhouse identified from aerial photography, which may indicate that it has either been ploughed out or was an anomaly with an alternative origin.

Remains of a co-axial field system, which comprised a series of rectilinear field boundary ditches and lengths of partial sub-divisions or drainage ditches. These were bounded to the east by a major linear land boundary, aligned near north to south. The multiple ditch recuts indicate that this was a long-lived landscape feature. At one stage it also incorporated a line of posts, with some 30 postholes surviving in intermittent lengths. Quantities of stone in the upper fills of parts of the ditch system may derive from an accompanying trackway or causeway.

Two isolated inhumation burials were identified: one, Burial 2, approximately 40m to the west of the enclosure, and another, Burial 1, around 80m directly to the south. Both were poorly preserved and appear to have been damaged by later ploughing activity but were aligned roughly east to west. A single sherd of pottery dating to the 2nd century was recovered from the fill of Burial 1 and it is thought that the east to west orientation of the burials indicates a Roman date. Samples of bone were sent for radiocarbon date analysis, though poor preservation of collagen meant that no dates could be calculated.

{8} Trial trench excavation to the north of the earlier excavation identified the probable northern arm of the enclosure and as well as ditches likely to be associated with the rectilinear field system. Pottery dating to the late Iron Age/Roman periods was found in some of the features.

<1> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs (Photographs). SNN104822.

<2> Parry S. et al, 2006, Raunds Area Survey: An Archaeological Study of The Landscape of Raunds, Northamptonshire 1985-94, p. 202-203/Site 18 (Book). SNN105780.

<3> Reid, A., 2016, Archaeological excavations at Darsdale Farm, Raunds, Northamptonshire, 2015 (Report). SNN110814.

<4> Chinnock, C., 2016, A programme of observation, investigation, recording, analysis and publication, on geotechnical pits at Warth Park Phase 3, Raunds, Northamptonshire (Report). SNN110815.

<5> Reid, A., 2017, Late Iron Age to early Roman and Middle Anglo-Saxon settlement at Darsdale Farm, Raunds (Article). SNN111038.

<6> Horne, B (editor), 2016, South Midlands Archaeology (46), p. 44 (Journal). SNN111326.

<7> Crank, N. (Editor), 2017, South Midlands Archaeology (47), p. 44 (Journal). SNN111362.

<8> Savage, P, 2021, Archaeological Evaluation on land at Darsdale Residential Home, Raunds, Northamptonshire, February 2021 (Report). SNN112808.

<9> Crank, N. (Editor), 2022, South Midlands Archaeology (52), p. 64 (Journal). SNN115177.

Record last edited

Jun 15 2023 3:58PM