SNN101159 - Grange Park, Courteenhall, Northamptonshire - Archaeological Investigations 1999; Post-Excavation Ass

Between January and September 1999 archaeological investigations were undertaken by Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit in advance of major residential and employment development at Grange Park, Courteenhall, Northamptonshire. The investigations, studied an extensive area of Iron Age, Romano-British and Saxon landscape containing several settlement foci. A total of 20 hectares was subjected to detailed gradiometer survey, following scanning of 160 hectare of the overall 193 hectare development site. The geophysical survey produced excellent results and enabled the definition of four ‘enclosure complexes’ comprising clusters of enclosures, some with intersecting ring ditches, with associated trackways and elements of field systems. Intensive fieldwalking covering over 9 hectares defined four discrete scatters of Early-Mid Saxon pottery (three of these scatters having first been recorded in the 1980s), together with scatters of Iron Age, Roman and medieval pottery, and flints. The area excavations which followed totalled 16 hectares. The earliest evidence of occupation at Grange Park is provided by the scatter of flints which covered most of the development area although without distinct clustering. The few diagnostic artefacts point to some form of low-intensity use of the landscape in the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods. The first major phase of occupation on the site dates to the Early-Early Middle Iron Age (400-200BC), and was represented variously by remains of roundhouses, four-post structures, ditched trackways and enclosures, and clusters of pits at three separate locations. In the second phase of occupation, the Late Middle/ Late Iron Age (200 – 1BC) settlement was concentrated at a single enclosure complex at a new location to the north. This complex comprised three enclosures, representing at least two sub-phases of occupation. In the third major phase of activity, the ‘Belgic’ or Transitional Iron Age/ Early Roman period (AD1 – 100), the main focus of occupation shifted once again to a new location. The principal features here were a complex of at least five roughly square or rectangular enclosures interpreted as having settlement and agricultural/ stock functions. Activity also continued in the Late Middle/ Late Iron Age settlement focus, where a large ?stock enclosure was constructed. This area also produced evidence for pottery production. The fourth phase of activity, the Romano-British period (AD50-450), occupation continued on the main settlement focus of the preceding period. Artefact evidence suggests that these settlement remains belong principally to the earlier part of the Roman period and that the settlement had largely fallen into disuse by the fourth century. A large rectangular enclosure was laid out adjacent to a ditched droveway/ trackway; smaller enclosures were established within it. Immediately to the east a smaller rectangular enclosure was established which contained a large semi-circular structure with foundations of limestone rubble. In the later Roman period the main focus of settlement may have shifted to the Wootton Brook villa, which lies just to the northeast of Grange Park. The fifth and final major phase of activity at Grange Park is of the Early-Mid Saxon period (AD450-850). This is principally represented by four scatters of pottery which were defined during intensive fieldwalking prior to excavation. The subsequent area excavations, although very extensive, failed to identify significant Saxon-period features other than the occasional pit and the remains of a single sunken-floored building. Despite the very poor survival of Saxon-period structures, comparison of the pottery assemblages from fieldwalking and excavation, together with consideration of micro-topographic factors, suggests that the pottery scatters do represent former small settlements, the remains of which have been almost entirely eradicated by the plough. Assessment of the results of the fieldwork and of the finds and environmental assemblages recovered suggests that much of the importance of the excavations lies in their scale. The large scale of the investigations allows the shifting pattern of settlement to be traced from the Early Iron Age to the Saxon period.