SNN110610 - Land at Butchers Garden, Northall, Walgrave, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Field Evaluation, 2012

The client has commissioned Albion Archaeology to undertake a programme of archaeological works associated with a condition attached to planning consent DA/2012/0003 for residential development on land at Butchers Garden. The development area is located towards the north end of Northall, a lane at the northern margin of Walgrave. This is a short distance from the North Hall Manor moated site — a scheduled monument of national significance, which backs on to the opposite site of Northall. The roughly rectangular land parcel is centred on grid ref 480252 272232, extending up to 42m by 34m. It comprises areas of mown grassland, mainly in the central and western parts, with areas of scrub / woodland in the east and at the northern margins. The site is within the bounds of the medieval and post-medieval settlement. Historical maps indicate that it was the site of a post-medieval farmstead, which had been demolished by 1900. The two trenches were located to investigate the proposed revised house plan. Trench 1 was L-shaped, situated towards the front of the plot. Below a cultivation soil, a complex sequence of features was revealed, with evidence of activity ranging from the Saxo-Norman to early medieval and post-medieval to modern periods. The features included pits, ditches, smaller gullies, postholes, a possible structural beamslot, as well as ironstone wall footings and drains — the latter stone structures probably relating to the post-medieval farmstead. All of these later features had been subject to at least an element of robbing to recover building stone. The evidence indicates the presence of both timber and more substantial stone buildings. In contrast, Trench 2 situated to the rear of the plot revealed modern surfaces, which based on their insubstantial construction, formed a path rather than a track, with limited evidence for earlier features. The surfaces contained a variety of modern finds, including glass, which showed crushing damage rather than fracture, probably due to the material being trampled into the surface. This activity was probably associated with the farmstead. The evaluation has revealed at least two phases of activity in the Saxo-Norman to early medieval and post-medieval to modern periods. This site has potential to add to the understanding of the medieval settlement pattern in the vicinity of the moat, as well as the later utilisation of the site. Although the site is at the margin of the current settlement, earthwork evidence in particular suggests that the settlement expanded and contracted, particularly in the medieval period. It is not clear from the evaluation if the site was abandoned in the later medieval period.