SNN107251 - Land at Banbury Lane, Pineham, Northampton: Archaeological Field Evaluation

David Wilson Homes (South Midlands) has submitted an application for residential development of land at Banbury Lane, Northampton (application ref 10/0188/FULWNN). Previous non-intrusive evaluation work indicated that the site had considerable potential for the preservation of archaeological remains. As a result, further information on the site’s potential was requested by Northamptonshire County Council’s Assistant Archaeological Advisor (AAA), who issued two briefs specifying a programme of trial trenching. The results of that work are presented in this report. Abian Archaeology was commissioned by CgMs Consulting Ltd, on behalf of David Wilson Homes (South Midlands), to undertake the trench evaluation. It comprised the investigation of eighteen trial trenches within the c.7ha development area. The trench layout was designed to investigate geophysical anomalies and to test the apparently “blank” parts of the site. The trenching located numerous furrows indicating the site was open fields during the medieval period. A number of post-medieval and modern boundaries and disturbance were also located. However, the most significant evidence comprised a Neolithic- early Bronze Age monument and late Bronze Age- Iron Age field systems. The Neolithic- early Bronze Age monument was located in the northern part of the development area and comprised three concentric ditches with a diameter of c. 22m. The presence of Collared Urn sherds in one of the ditches suggests an early Bronze Age date and burial function. However, monuments of this type are known to have a long history and to have changed function over time. The central part of the development area contained evidence for a field system which extended over at least 2ha. It typically comprised fields defined by a single boundary ditches, although, in a few places, parallel ditches c. 5m apart are suggestive of trackways or double boundaries. The main field system is on a comparable alignment to that found on Site 2 within the adjacent Swan Valley Business Park. The pre-Roman dating of the system within the development area is based on the absence of pottery of this period and a small number of early-middle Iron Age pottery sherds within the ditches. However, fields are notoriously difficult to date. Elsewhere in southern England comparable field systems are known ti have originated in the middle/late Bronze Age. At Banbury lane sufficient ditches were found on different alignments to suggest that there may have been at least two phases of field system. A few small pits and postholes were identified which may be contemporary but these did not produce any domestic debris so are assumed to results from short-term, non-settlement activity within the fields. The same may apply to the possible oven within Trench 8. The archaeological remains within the development area fit into the wider landscape of dispersed Neolithic – early Bronze Age monuments in the vicinity of the River Nene. The field systems are situated within a dense Iron Age landscape, featuring small enclosed settlements (two found c. 400m apart within the adjacent Swan Valley Business Park), seemingly unoccupied, possible livestock, enclosures and the Hunsbury Hillfort. The possibility that this landscape has origins in the late Bronze Age cannot be ruled out, especially as some hillforts originate in this period.