Monument record 5081/0/3 - Undated feature, possibly a road or enclosure

{1} Linear earthwork north-east of church; possibly continues as marked ridge on south-east side of church; 7m wide; possible embankment or agger?; speculates possibility of Romano-British road; <31/8/93>;

{2} Possible post-medieval field-boundary;

{3} The bank suggests a road running along the crown of the ridge here parallel to Kingsthorpe High Street. However, a building on this alignment appears in a drawing dated c.1800, reproduced in the Royal Commission Inventory Vol 5 (1985) plate 36b.

{4} It is suggested that the church lies in the south-west of an oval enclosure internally 80 by 45 metres, formed by a bank, ditch and counterscarp bank, although the profile is somewhat flatter on the north, suggesting a wider ditch between equal banks. This enclosure has a flattened south-west abutting off-axis to the earthwork suggested by this writer in 1993 as a ringwork. A sketch accompanying this report shows a possible sunken building platform designated P. The church was merely a dependent chapel of St. Peter’s Church, Northampton, until 1850. According to the Peterborough Mss of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Swainton’s edition 1996) p245, Henry I was at Thorpe (Kingsthorpe) over Easter 1114.

<1> WELSH T.C., 1993, CORRESPONDENCE, (unchecked) (Notes). SNN1261.

<2> FOARD G.R., 1993, ORAL REPORT TO SMR, (unchecked) (Uncertain). SNN50797.

<3> Welsh T.C., 2002, Linear Earthworks And Alignments Around Kingsthorpe; Further Deliberations On The Significance Of Ki, (unchecked) (Notes). SNN101435.

<4> Welsh T.C., 2002, SMR Report Form, (unchecked) (Notes). SNN101487.

<5> Welsh T.C., 2002, Possible Earthwork Enclosure, Kingsthorpe, (unchecked) (Notes). SNN101493.

Record last edited

Jun 8 2011 12:48PM