Monument record 1783 - Laundes Iron Age and Roman settlement

A complex of probable Roman or Iron Age ditched enclosures are visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs. Located over two fields E of Black Lodge, the cropmarks extend over an area about 515 metres SW-NE and 267 metres NW-SE and comprise two foci of settlement, one in each field, with rectilinear, curvilinear and subcircular enclosures, as well as accreted subrectangular enclosures and several maculae. A probable Roman stone coffin was found here in 1893. Field walking has produced finds of Roman building debris, pottery, a coin and possible human remains indicating a possible settlement site. Iron Age pottery was also found.

{1} Cropmark enclosures. Complex, multi-phased series of cropmarks along ridge. Series of ditches form large rectangular enclosure of 4ha. Other ditches sub-divide the interior and form smaller rectangular spaces. Circular cropmark (17m in diameter) in centre of main enclosure may denote the foundation of a large round house or its eave drip gully.To the south west of the main enclosure there is a further enclosure, three possible roundhouses and a ditch with small oval and sub-rectangular paddocks attached. One of the paddocks lies across the ditch line and has a south facing entrance with two large postholes at the terminals.

{2} NCCAP:TL0372/010-12. Aerial photography 1982, enclosures detected.

{3} Cropmarks recorded in 1979. Two parallel ditches and four enclosures, rectangular, sub-rectangular, irregular and sub-circular in shape. NCCAP:TL0372/003-8.

{4} Roman activity has been identified here since 1893 when a skeleton was found within a large stone coffin which was later transferred to Hargrave churchyard. A second stone coffin may also have been found and reburied. Pottery, coins and stone scatters, as well as an almost complete seleton and 'charred fragments of human bone' were noted in the mid 20th century. In 1965, systematic fieldwalking was carried out.
The extent of both cropmarks and pottery scatters suggests the remains of a substantial settlement which, at least throughout the Roman period, is likely to have acted as a focus for the local clayland farms. The large quantity of late Roman material suggests a continuing high level of activity, possibly with expansion at a time when some of the smaller farms were abandoned or were operating at a reduced scale. The absence of early middle Saxon pottery suggests that any importance which the settlement had during the Roman period did not continue.

{5} (TL 03357227) Stone coffin found AD 1893

{6} A large stone coffin, containing a man's skeleton in good preservation and with the head to the east, was found in 1893 half a mile N of Hargrave village in one of the three fields known collectively as "The Lowndes" (property of Mr Rawson-Ackroyd). No dating material was found either within or near it. Its form is that of the later RB period; it resembles those found at Irchester in 1877. It was placed in the churchyard in 1894, the lid sealed down with cement. From the same field have come Roman coins and other remains; one coin was of Constantine the Great.

{7} A large stone coffin with coped lid was found at Middle Lound in 1893, and is now in the churchyard against the N aisle wall (TL 03657064). It is uncertain if Roman.

{8} The massive coffin is almost certainly Roman and is still in the churchyard. Mr C R Berwick of Hargrave, a retired farmworker with a knowledgable interest in local archaeology agrees with the published site, believes that another coffin was found nearby and reburied. He himself has found Roman material there, including one coin. A perambulation of the area produced, at TL 03457229, a scatter of building debris, pottery (including grey, colour coated and coarse wares) and bones, possibly human.

{9} Iron Age and Roman settlement (TL 035722). Air photographs show (at TL 035722) two semicircular ditches which may be part of an enclosure 140 m. in diam., and further N at TL 03577238 are indications of a rectangular building 30 m. by 10 m., orientated almost E-W, with at least one internal wall. Roman and Iron Age pottery have recently been found on the site.

{13} 2 parallel ditches with appended at least 2 conjoined sub-rectangular enclosures.

{14, 15} A complex of probable Roman or Iron Age ditched enclosures are visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs and were mapped as part of the Bedford Borough NMP project. Located over two fields about 565 metres E of Black Lodge and centred at TL 03251 72108, the cropmarks extend over an area about 515 metres SW-NE and 267 metres NW-SE and comprise two foci of settlement, one in each field, with rectilinear, curvilinear and subcircular enclosures, as well as accreted subrectangular enclosures and several maculae.

<1> Parry S., 1993, Raunds Area Survey Report, p.320-21 (checked) (Draft). SNN1175.

<2> Foard G.; Richardson D., 1983, Archaeology in Northamptonshire 1982 (Aerial Photography), p181 Hargrave (unchecked) (Notes). SNN100412.

<3> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs, (unchecked) (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN104822.

<4> Parry S. et al, 2006, Raunds Area Survey: An Archaeological Study of The Landscape of Raunds, Northamptonshire 1985-94, p.266-8 (part checked) (Book). SNN105780.

<5> Ordnance Survey Map (Scale/date), 1958 (Map). SNN112944.

<6> Baker R.S., 1894, Associated Architectural Societies Reports, P. 82-3, 87 (Series). SNN60726.

<7> Salzman L.F.(ed), 1937, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Northamptonshire, P. 20 (Series). SNN100371.

<8> Seaman, BH, 1969, Field investigators comments (Notes). SNN111907.

<9> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1975, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, P. 48 (Series). SNN77379.

<10> Brown, A.E. (Ed.), 1967, Archaeology in Northamptonshire 1966/67 (Prehistoric), P. 11 (Article). SNN20962.

<11> Hall D.N., 1972, Bedfordshire Archaeological Journal (Vol.7) (Journal). SNN105868.

<12> Royal Air Force, Vertical Aerial Photography, RAF VAP CPE/UK/1925, 3266-7 (Photographs). SNN104890.

<13> Brown AE, 1980, Aerial Photography 1980, p. 179 (Notes). SNN104579.

<14> Oblique Aerial Photograph, NHC SF2513/4 24-JUL-1984 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN111738.

<15> Oblique Aerial Photograph, NHC SF3061/9 28-JUL-1986 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN111738.

<16> Bedford Borough Council HER, Undated, Bedford Borough NMP, MD003015 (Archive). SNN113023.

Record last edited

Feb 3 2025 8:58PM