SNN100241 - Archaeological Watching Brief Meeting Lane, Towcester, Northamptonshire, May-June 1999

An archaeological watching brief was undertaken along the whole length of Meeting Lane, Towcester. One the town's earliest Roman roads, which branched off the Alchester road, was found. This road went out of use when the town's defences were built and in the watching brief area the town wall was observed cutting the road. A Roman industrial stone feature was encountered dating between the demise of the road and the finishing of the defences as it appears to underlie the bank. The town wall formed part of the south-west corner of the defesive circuit of the town which may have run roughley parallel to Richmond Road. The surviving foundations of the town's later second century defensive wall were 2.8m wide and 0.35m high. A thick layer of dark earth was found overlying the tail of the bank which increased with depth northwards along meeting lane which is suggestive of dereliction or perhaps agricultural cultivation of the area in the 3rd and 4th centuries.