Monument record 1641/0/258 - Iron Age/Romano-British Trackway &/or Road

{1}Road of gravel & pebbles laid on limestone rubble traced; marked D on plan;,

{2}Excavations said to have discovered road of gravel & pebbles laid on limestone; ran eastwards from east gate & apparently traced over distance of 300m; [RCHME call interpretation into doubt since 3 places road was identified do not appear to be in alignment];

{3} To the east of the walled area the road layout is little understood, and constitutes a critical gap in our knowledge of the likely layout and development of the settlement as a whole. Geophysical survey to the south of the modern A45 and to the east of Chester Farm (Northamptonshire Archaeology 1997b) alongside small scale excavation by Windell (1984) provide a guide to the likely direction of roads running south of the town and out to the east. The latter broadly supports a suggestion of Baker’s (1875) as to the direction of a west to east road to the south of Chester Farm. To the east and northeast of Chester Farm nothing is currently known of the possible road layout but the location of the cemetery partially recorded by Baker (1875) suggests the existence of further linking road probably running between it and the east-west route noted in the recent geophysics (Northamptonshire Archaeology 1993).

{4} The enclosures appear to flank the south side of a trackway defined by two parallel curving ditches.

{6} Two parallel linear ditches on a south-west to north-east alignment, may represent a droveway or road (Fig 7, D6). It extends southward into Field 2 and northward into Field 5. In Field 5 it runs past a probable Iron Age enclosure (Fig 7, E5), which may suggest that its origin was as an Iron Age droveway.

<1> Doubleday H A (ed), 1902, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Northamptonshire, p.183 (checked) (Series). SNN100368.

<2> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1979, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.95 (checked) (Series). SNN77380.

<3> Taylor J., 2000, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Irchester (Roman), Section 3.1 Communications (checked) (Digital archive). SNN100749.

<4> Soden I.; Masters P., 1993, Archaeological Survey at Irchester, Northamptonshire 1993: Irchester Heritage Park Car Park Stage 1, p.4 (checked) (Report). SNN1708.

<5> Soden I., 1993, SMR Report Form, (checked) (SMR Report Form). SNN49310.

<6> Butler A.; Meadows I.; Fisher I., 2010, Archaeological Geophysical Survey at Chester Farm, Irchester, Northamptonshire, p.11+Fig.7 (checked) (Report). SNN107215.

Record last edited

Sep 15 2014 3:27PM