SNN107915 - Archaeological field evaluation at Herne Road, Oundle, Northamptonshire October - November 2010

An archaeological evaluation was carried out in response to a planning application for a proposed residential development. The evaluation identified a sequence of activity dating from the Roman to the post medieval period, comparable with the linear anomalies found in the geophysical survey. The earliest features found were two palaeochannels, possibly of prehistoric date, sealed by a buried subsoil. A single gully containing first and second century Roman pottery was present in the south east part of the development area. In the centre of the area, aligned east - west was a large ditched boundary that had gone out of use by the early nineteenth century and is not shown on the historic mapping (Oundle own fields were enclosed in 1807). The ditch was overlain by a headland visible as a raised bank in the field. The headland was probably part of an pre-enclosure system of ridge and furrow cultivation, also found in one trench, set out upon a slightly different alignment. The sequence suggests that the majority of the surviving ridge and furrow dates to the post enclosure cultivation of the fields.