Monument record 1816 - Possible Late Bronze Age, Iron Age & Romano-British Settlement at Westfield Spinney

Cropmarks show rectangular enclosures and ditches indicating the possible site of an enclosed settlement of Prehistoric or Roman date.

{1} Cropmarks of a compact series of rectangular enclosures and ditches, including a double-ditched enclosure with well-marked entrance on its south-east side.

{2} Three distinct rectangular enclosures equally spaced some 200m apart and straddling the 40m contour.
Three rectangular enclosures together with a more extensive group of ditches were identified from cropmarks on the edge of the floodplain. Fieldwalking identified two flint concentrations and extensive pottery scatters dating from the Iron Age to the post medieval periods, suggesting a preferred location for settlement and perhaps intensive agriculture. A series of trenches was opened to investigate these scatters, particularly the core and periphery of a large early-middle Saxon concentration. They revealed a small early-middle Saxon structure and contemporary boundary ditch and confirmed the position of two of the enclosures which dated to the Iron Age. Excavations by D.A.Jackson, ahead of pipeline construction some 300m east of the enclosures, revealed further ditches and pits, possibly of Iron Age date. The absence of settlement-related features dating from the late Saxon and medieval periods is significant for the interpretation of the fieldwalking results, possibly denoting agricultural exploitation.
The enclosures probably denote separate later Iron Age occupation and in themselves may not be contemporary.

{3} NCCAP:SP9876/001+3-4+8-11.

<1> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1975, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.36/Site 1 (checked) (Series). SNN77379.

<2> Parry S. et al, 2006, Raunds Area Survey: An Archaeological Study of The Landscape of Raunds, Northamptonshire 1985-94, p.214-19 (part checked) (Book). SNN105780.

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

<4> Aerial Photograph, A/P (CUAP, ZE91) (Photographs). SNN112974.

<5> RCHME, Undated, RCHME Inventory: Northamptonshire I (North-East), 890523 (Archive). SNN113295.

Record last edited

Jun 5 2023 4:02PM