SNN105278 - Daventry Priory and the House of York: Archaeological Excavations at Daventry Priory and the Market Place, Daventry, Northamptonshire 2004

Northamptonshire Archaeology conducted excavations on the former site of the Cluniac Priory at Daventry in January and February 2004. The site consisted of the former Abbey School building and associated land, together with the former park on the corner of the Market Square. The Cluniac Priory of St. Augustine is recorded historically as being present on the site c1100-1526, although the exact layout of the buildings remains arguable. On the eastern side of the site, next to Holy Cross churchyard, late Saxon pottery was recovered from several inter-cutting pits, together with ditches and a later medieval well shaft. An extensive build up of more recent eighteenth to twentieth deposits formed a raised terrave above these features. Evidence of several sets of works on the embankment showed that the ground had been disturbed since 1803 and may have removed the later medieval and early post medieval deposits. On the western side of the site excavations showed extensive medieval quarrying of Northampton Sand Ironstone for building materials next to the Market Square and contemporary with the priory's occupation. Subsequent deposition of medieval refuse was used to landscape and reinstate the hillside, with a series of later structures built on the front of the land and the last of these being a row of post-medieval cottages known to have been demolished in the 1960's.