Monument record 459/2/5 - Post Medieval/Modern Garden Features, Fawsley Hall

{2} Trench A, to the south of the existing house, containing a series of drains and other features relating to previous garden-works and landscaping in the 18th or 19th century.

{3} Post Medieval structural remains and landscaping, evaluation by B Dix and P O'Hara, residual Medieval and Roman pottery.

{4} A stone-built drain on an east-west alignment, originally enclosing a channel 26cm wide and 20cm deep. Two courses of ironstone lined the sides of a construction-trench and were capped by large thin slabs of limestone.
The construction of the drain had partly removed the southern side of a flat- bottomed feature at least 88cm across and 50cm deep. It contained pieces of slag and burnt clay in addition to a large, unabraded rim-sherd from a Roman storage vessel of 3rd to 4th century type. It remains uncertain, however, whether the feature was contemporary in date or later; its purpose is similarly obscure.
The remnants of a wall was partly exposed, oriented east-west and partially robbed. The backfilling of the robbed section incorporated fragments of bricks, tiles, and worked stones, together with two sherds of post-medieval pottery. The wall appears to have served as the revetment for a terrace immediately in front of the house. It was built of a mixture of ironstone and limestone. In places the wall still stood in seven courses up to 75cm high. A shallow linear feature running almost parallel along the outer edge of the wall, where it was also sealed by the backfilling, could represent the base of a previous border.
A simple drain or soakway, formed by large pieces of ironstone and post- medieval tiles loosely packed into a channel 40cm wide and 10cm deep occupied the same alignment and penetrated the side of a larger drain. This feature was most soundly constructed and formed a channel 33cm wide and 31cm deep. Its walls comprised two courses of ironstone upon a base of well-cut limestone slabs with a capping of large limestone blocks laid lengthways across the channel. In places the structure also re-used architectural stonework. The drain was probably an important outfall running to the south-west of the hall.

{5} A service trench was excavated in 2015. Three walls were observed in the trench, two of which could be attributed to a walled garden depicted on late 19th century-early 20th century maps.

<1> 1992, SMR Report Form, (checked) (SMR Report Form). SNN48845.

<2> Pike A. (Editor), 1990, South Midlands Archaeology: CBA Group 9 Newsletter, 20/35 (checked) (Journal). SNN39962.

<3> Dix B., 1992, Recent Work in Northamptonshire Archaeology, 24/119 (checked) (Article). SNN104441.

<4> O'Hara, P. & Dix, B., 1990, Archaeological Evaluation at Fawsley Hall, Northants 1989, (checked) (Report). SNN48844.

<5> Bertrand, J., 2015, Archaeological observation and recording report: Fawsley Hall, Fawsley, 2015 (Report). SNN110905.

<6> Horne, B (editor), 2016, South Midlands Archaeology (46), p. 34 (Journal). SNN111326.

<7> KDK Archaeology, 2018, Fawsley Hall, Fawsley, Northamptonshire. Programme of observation and recording, https://doi.org/10.5284/1047613 (Digital archive). SNN111957.

Record last edited

Mar 17 2022 2:02PM