SNN110611 - Land to the South of Main Road, Earls Barton, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Field Evaluation

A planning application (DA/2013/0916) was submitted to the Borough of Wellingborough for a large-scale residential and commercial development on land south of Main Road, Earls Barton, Northamptonshire. The County Archaeological Advisor (CAA) advised that there was insufficient information to assess the potential impact of the development on the archeological resource. Therefore, the CAA recommended that the results of a programme of archaeological field evaluation (comprising geophysical survey and trial trenching) should accompany the planning application. The necessary work was specified in briefs issued by the CAA. The geophysical survey was carried out in 2013, followed by the trial trenching, which was undertaken by Albion Archaeology during late September/early October 2014. Forty-one 50m-long trial trenches were opened with their layout designed to investigate geophysical anomalies and to test the apparently “blank” parts of the site. The results of the trial trenching are presented in this report. The trial trenching located numerous furrows in the western and central part of the development area, indicating the existence of medieval open fields. A small number of post-medieval or modern features were also identified. However, the most significant evidence comprised two Romano-British settlements and a late Neolithic/early Bronze Age ring-ditch. The ring-ditch (Trench 9) was defined by a substantial ditch, c. 24m in diameter, 5.6m wide and 1m deep. An urned cremation burial was located approximately central within the interior of the ring-ditch. The Romano-British settlements were located to the east and west of the development area and clearly continued beyond it. The pottery assemblages recovered suggest that both probably originated in the late Iron Age but had gone out of use by the end of the Roman period. The western settlement (Trenches 1, 2, 4, 5, 6) comprised rectilinear enclosures extending over c. 2.2ha. Evidence was found for the redigging of enclosure ditches, sub-divisions and possibly one building. One enclosure contained a grid-like arrangement of smaller ditches which may have served a horticultural function. The settlement to the east (Trenches 24-28 and 31-35) had a ‘ladder’-type arrangement of enclosures. Evidence of possible buildings, some with stone footings and plastered walls, was identified within several of the enclosures. Many of the ditches had been redug, indicating continuity in layout over time. Compared to the western settlement the finds assemblage was large, comprising pottery (5.5kg), ceramic building material (578g), wall/ceiling plaster (2.3kg) and animal bone (926g). In addition, 13 non-ceramic artefacts including lead weights, late Roman coins, brooches, a toilet knife handle, nails and a hobnail were recovered. The discovery of two Romano-British settlements within the development area is significant because, although such settlements are relatively common in the region, they ‘are very unevenly distributed and poorly understood’ (Taylor 2006, 143).