SNN108103 - Archaeological desk-based assessment: Chapel Street, Warmington, Northamptonshire 2008

Archaeological desk-based assessment was carried out on about 0.3ha of land off Chapel Street, Warmington. The site lies immediately to the south the medieval village green since developed for housing during 1999-2001. Archaeological trenching and open area excavation across the 4ha site in advance of development produced evidence from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age, Roman, Early and Middle Saxon, Medieval and through to the modern day. Features included early burials and grave goods, flint and bronze artefacts, pottery, ditches, gullies, property boundaries, postholes indicating occupation sites as well as wells, rubbish pits and earthwork remains of ridge and furrow cultivation. The site occupies a close depicted with a dwelling on the 1621 estate map of the village. Subsequent mapping indicates that the buildings had been removed by the late 18th century and that the site remained open until the 1930s when wooden huts were erected along the street frontage. In the 1960s the site was cleared and a modern building erected at the east of the site. The remainder of the plot has been maintained as an open car park. Evidence from other archaeological interventions on both sides of Chapel Street shows good survival of archaeological features from a variety of periods across the whole area. This is supported by the wealth of archaeological features exposed on the adjoining land in 1996-1998 and from the map evidence indicating a least one medieval structure still standing on the site in 1621. There is a high potential for the survival of buried archaeological features on the proposed development site.