Monument record 1754/0/1 - Medieval plough headland

A 1200 metre length of Roman road was visible as cropmarks and earthworks and mapped from air photographs. On excavation, the earthwork was found to be a medieval plough headland.

{1} SP959719 to SP964726 Possibly an ancient road.

{2} Air photos show a Roman road running north east - south west. It is visible as a low earthwork on vertical photos taken in 1970. The road can be seen continuing for 300m north east of the survey area and to the south where it appears as a hedge bank skirting the north west side of the hillfort at Crow Hill.

{3} Two trenches put across possible "Roman Road" - found to be headland of medieval field system.

{4} Trench 1: The edge of a fire-reddened circular feature is likely to reflect tree clearance activity, probably of fairly recent date. A fairly shallow irregular stripe is likely to be either a periglacial stripe or a plough furrow.
It is clear that the earthwork responsible for the cropmark was the result of an accumulation of plough soil and would be better described as a positive lynchet or headland.

{5} A well marked ridge, 30m wide and almost 1km long, is a former headland between end on furlongs.

{6} The crop mark/soilmark remains of a length of probable Roman road visible on aerial photographs for approximately 1200 metres. The line of the road can be seen as a low earthwork bank on vertical photographs taken in 1970. The road appears to run north-east away from the town of Irthlingborough, on the north-west side of the River Nene. To the south, the road passes within metres of the north-western side of the enclosure of Crow Hill IA hill fort. On the south-eastern side of the river is a second Roman road, also running parallel to the river (RR 570 Water Newton to Irecester).
The road was mapped from aerial photographs as part of a survey carried out by the RCHME Air Photography Unit on behalf of the Thames Valley Archaeological Services. A 1:2,500 level 3 photogrammetric survey of all archaeological features visible as crop marks and earthworks on available aerial photographs was carried out between 9th and 20th October 1995. The resultant transcription, digital files and accompanying report are held by the RCHME. (Collection UID: 1030386).

<1> Brown, A E (ed), 1972, Northamptonshire Archaeology, 7/56 (checked) (Journal). SNN25623.

<2> Durden, T., 1995, Frontier Centre, Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire: An Archaeological Desktop Study and Fieldwalking Survey, (checked) (Report). SNN77008.

<3> 1995, SMR Report Form, (checked) (SMR Report Form). SNN49411.

<4> Ford, S., 1995, Frontier Centre, Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire: An archaeological evaluation, 1995, (checked) (Report). SNN108046.

<5> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1975, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.58 site 16 (checked) (Series). SNN77379.

<6> Small, F, 1995, Irthlingborough Project, 1030386 (Archive). SNN115946.

Record last edited

Mar 19 2024 9:17AM