SNN111263 - Northampton Waterside Campus, Phases 1-3 Nunn Mills, Northampton: Programme of Archaeological Observation, Investigation & Recording

Between January 2014 and August 2015 Cotswold Archaeology (CA) maintained a watching brief during groundworks at the site of the Northampton Waterside Campus, Nunn Mills, Northampton. The work, which was commissioned by The University of Northampton, was carried out during ground remediation works associated with the development of the site for a new university campus. The programme of archaeological investigation was requested by Northamptonshire County Council’s Archaeological Advisor (NCCAA), as the site is located on the floodplain of the River Nene, which has been the focus for human activity since the early prehistoric period and may incorporate parts of the battlefield of the battle of Northampton (1460). The potential for archaeological remains to survive within the site prior to the commencement of work was illustrated by a deposit model supplemented with information from geotechnical boreholes. This demonstrated that the site is located on gravel islands in the floodplain of the River Nene, separated by a possible palaeochannel that passes through the north-western part of the site. Monitoring during the ground remediation works revealed extensive truncation across the site related to construction of a mid 20th century power station and mill. Monitoring of geotechnical test pits and topsoil stripping, along with hand auger, environmental sampling and metal-detector surveys, and observation of intrusive groundworks associated with the removal of below ground structures relating to the 20th century development, revealed deposits of made ground, with occasional patches of remnant buried soil, overlying alluvium and gravel across the site. The hand auger survey also recovered evidence for the palaeochannel in the north-western part of the site, which produced a birch stake radio-carbon dated to the 14th-15th centuries. Environmental sampling of the context in which the stake was found produced the remains of cultivated cereals, along with molluscs and weeds indicating a slow moving riverine environment with rough grassland nearby. However, additional samples along the line of the hand auger survey failed to produce any useable evidence, while the metal-detector survey resulted in the recovery only of post medieval artefacts. The conclusion drawn from these results is that any archaeologically significant remains that may have been present on the site were truncated by industrial activity in the mid 20th century and that there is no evidence for human activity prior to the Middle Ages.