SNN111394 - Zone 3 Priors Hall Park, Corby, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Evaluation Archaeological Evaluation

An archaeological evaluation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology in September 2018 on land known as Zone 3 Priors Hall Park, Kirby Lane, Corby, Northamptonshire. A total of 15 trenches, each measuring 40m long by 2m wide, were excavated in order to further define the extent of a previously identified Roman villa complex and associated trackways, and provide additional information on the nature and significance of the archaeological remains present in four of seven mitigation excavation areas previously identified based upon the results of an earlier phase of evaluation. Despite the high archaeological potential of the site as a whole, few archaeological features were identified within the areas investigated. To the north of the main villa complex a large pit was encountered containing an assemblage of ceramic building material, pottery, animal bone and other material. While the greater part of the assemblage was of Roman date and clearly derived from the villa complex to the south, the rolled, abraded nature of much of the material and the presence of small quantities of medieval and possible early post-medieval material suggests that the assemblage as a whole is the result of field clearance in the medieval and/ or early post-medieval period, when the area was brought under agricultural cultivation. It seems likely that the large quantities of Roman cultural material being ploughed-up was simply buried in a pit to dispose of it, at which point in time other, later, material that had been incorporated into the fields during manuring was also collected-up and buried. A pebbled surface and associated gully and ditch, interpreted as either the remains of a possible trackway or road, or a possible working surface was recorded to the east of the villa. A similar surface of pebbles on the same alignment had been identified during the earlier phase of evaluation and both align with parallel linear anomalies recorded by geophysical survey. Possible roadside activity in the form of a large, shallow pit with a charcoal rich fill was also encountered. In contrast, no remains of a second possible trackway or road, indicated by geophysical survey to be running on a north-south alignment and shown by previous trial trenching to survive further to the south, was seen. This may be a reflection of the variable levels of plough truncation noted across the areas investigated, with the track/ ditch having been destroyed by agricultural operations in this area. Further highlighting the variable accuracy of the geophysical survey results, a number of discrete anomalies scattered along the northern edge of the site were also not identified by the current evaluation works. The trenches excavated as part of this phase of evaluation have served to more tightly define the extents of the main areas of archaeological significance within the Zone 3 development area and better define the archaeological potential of four previously identified mitigation areas