Monument record 3125 - Site of possible prehistoric or Roman activity

A number of indeterminate enclosures and linear features covering 25 hectares, including a possible trackway and a ring ditch, over an extensive area. Only a very small number of finds have been recorded in this area. Archaeological investigation to the east of Farndish Road has identified part of a possible Iron Age enclosure, Roman field systems, trackway and quarry pits. Only small amounts of artefactual material have been found in association with the features.

{1} Ditches (SP 922651) on limestone at 84 m. above OD. Air photographs (in NMR) show a number of indeterminate enclosures and linear features, including a possible ring ditch and a trackway, over an area of some 25 hectares.

{2} Geophysical survey of land east of Farndish Road identified a number of anomalies, although none were clearly of an archaeological origin.

{3} Archaeological evaluation was undertaken on land east of Farndish Road. In the southwest corner of the site, parts of an Iron Age enclosure appear to extend into the evaluation area; the ditches produced small amounts of heavily abraded artefactual material. Also found were a number of boundary ditches probably evidence for Romano-British field systems and a possible associated trackway, which produced small assemblages of heavily abraded pottery and animal bone. A total of four large, relatively shallow quarry pits were also encountered from which small quantities of Roman pottery were recovered.

[4} There are ditches visible in this area and were mapped as part of the Bedford Borough NMP project, however those features transcribed in Source 2 were not visible, despite the vertical photographs in Source 1 both being available. At SP 92181 65104 is a quarry with an east-west linear ditch to the west of it and two short parallel sections of ditch to its east. Further cropmarks are visible to the east and have been recorded as part of Monument Number 347082. A north-south ditch relates to a field boundary shown on the OS map and was not transcribed.

<1a> Royal Air Force, Vertical Aerial Photography, RAF/541/611 RS 4035-6 11-OCT-1950; RAF/540/1312 F21 0278-0279 (Photographs). SNN104890.

<1> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1979, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p. 90/site 2 (Series). SNN77380.

<2> Lawton, J. & Teale, K., 2018, Farndish Road, Irchester, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Geophysical Survey, November 2018 (Report). SNN111829.

<3> Moosbauer, A, 2019, Land to the south of James Road, Irchester, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Evaluation (Report). SNN112629.

<3> Cotswold Archaeology, 2022, Images and GIS data from an Archaeological Evaluation, James Road, Irchester, Northamptonshire, March 2019, https://doi.org/10.5284/1090414 (Digital archive). SNN112989.

<4> Oblique Aerial Photograph, NMR 311-113 22-JUL-1971 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN111738.

<5> Bedford Borough Council HER, Undated, Bedford Borough NMP, MD003015 (Archive). SNN113023.

Record last edited

Feb 7 2025 2:35PM