SNN107329 - Land Off Belle Baulk, Towester, Northants: Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment

This assessment has demonstrated that the site could be developed, in the future, without having an adverse impact upon archaeological remains that are recognised as being of national importance through designation as a Scheduled Monument. This applies equally to direct and indirect impacts; i.e changes to their settings. It has also shown that registered archaeological remains, i.e Parks or Gardens of Special Historic Interest or English Heritage Registered Battlefield, do not represent a constraint to the future development of the site. In addition, the assessment has shown that the Towcester Conservation Area and listed buildings should be unaffected by any low rise development within the site. Consultation with the Northamptonshire Historic Environment Record (HER) has shown that the site lies outside the Roman town of Lactodorum and its medieval successors, but an Early Medieval cemetery does lie approximately 170m to the south. Examination of historic maps and aerial photographs has further demonstrated that the site is likely to have been under an agricultural regime since the medieval period. In this regard, an archaeological investigation, in the form of a metal detecting survey and fieldwalking, was carried out within the site and to the south and east in 1992. Although artefacts of Prehistoric to Post-Medieval date were recovered, these were considered to be the result of the manuring of agricultural fields, rather than being suggestive of buried archaeological sites under the ploughsoil. A subsequent small trial trenching investigation directly south of the site did not reveal any significant archaeological remains. The archaeological potential of the site is therefore considered to be low, although there is always the possibility that hitherto unrecorded archaeology could be present below the ploughsoil.