Monument record 8212 - Possible Roman settlement, Grass Moor

A group of cropmarks comprising probable rectilinear enclosures and boundary ditches. A small quantity of mostly early Roman pottery was evenly distributed across the area of the cropmarks

{1}Cropmarks covering approximately 3.5 ha; comprise collection of enclosures & linear ditches; majority of features are orientated north-west to south-east but display degree of superimposition which indicates at least 2 phases of construction; 4 separate enclosures identified but majority of cropmarks are fragmentary;

{2} No Iron Age pottery was recovered by fieldwalking and a small quantity of mostly early Roman pottery was evenly distributed across the area. It is uncertain if the scatter is contemporary with the cropmarks;

{3} A complex of conjoined ditched enclosures of probable Iron Age or Roman date is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs and was mapped as part of the Bedford Borough NMP project. Located in a field about 350 metres ENE of Hargrave church and centred at TL 04004 70722, the cropmarks extend over an area about 266 metres WNW-ESE and 146 metres SSW-NNE. The cropmarks comprise a probable sinuous central ditch up to 6 metres wide that extends about 271 metres WNW-ESE, from which multiple conjoined ditched enclosures of various shapes and sizes extend both NNE and SSW.

{5} Historic England APs taken in 2017 shows the enclosures extending further south into the adjoining field.

<1> Parry S., 1993, Raunds Area Survey Report, p.311 (checked) (Draft). SNN1175.

<2> Parry S. et al, 2006, Raunds Area Survey: An Archaeological Study of The Landscape of Raunds, Northamptonshire 1985-94, p. 264/ Grass Moor (Book). SNN105780.

<3> Bedford Borough Council HER, 1996, Georeferenced composite layer of vertical aerial photographs taken in 1996. Held by Bedford Borough Council HER (Archive). SNN111739.

<4> Bedford Borough Council HER, Undated, Bedford Borough NMP (Archive). SNN113023.

<5> Vertical Aerial Photograph, HE AP: 33383_010 flown 17 July 2017; Accessed 03/10/2024 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN112695.

Record last edited

Feb 10 2025 7:51PM