SNN104557 - Iron Age and Roman Settlement at Ashley, Northants

An Iron Age enclosed settlement of circular buildings, whose inhabitants were probably engaged in mixed-farming, was succeeded during the second half of the C1st AD by a romanised building nearby. By the end of the century, the earlier site had been levelled and a series of stone-based Roman agricultural buildings was subsequently constructed, culminating in the erection of a long barn. The building appears to have become disused by the end of the C3rd when it may already have been partly demolished. Stone-robbing continued well into the following century and an otherwise undated bronze-smelting hearth had been set into the rubble of the dismantled structures. The centre of the site of which the buildings formed part has not been found. However the incorporation of broken-up mosaic pavements and other fine building materials in the metalled surface of a nearby enclosed yard indicates that it was being substantially modified during late Roman times.