SNN111415 - DIRFT Expansion (DIRFT II), Kilsby, Daventry, Northamptonshire: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design

A programme of archaeological investigation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology (CA) in April to June 2010 at the request of RPS Planning and Development (on behalf of ProLogis Developments Ltd) at land at Kilsby, Northamptonshire. In compliance with an approved WSI (RPS 2007), an area of 0.9ha was stripped, mapped and extensively sampled across the development area. The site lay adjacent to extensive remains of Iron Age settlement, known from previous works in connection with Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) and reported on in 2007 (CA 2007). The site occupies a slight north-facing slope. The highest part of the slope is capped with drift gravel while most of the slope is cobbly Boulder Clay. The earliest archaeological features were two small rectangular pits on the clay, packed with burnt cobbles and carbonised wood, and adjacent to deep features, one almost certainly a well, which also contained substantial layers of similar burnt stones and charcoal. No datable finds were recovered from their fills. These may be evidence for ‘burnt mounds’, conventionally of later Bronze Age date. One posthole in the gravel area contained a large potsherd and a loomweight of Late Bronze Age type, associated with heat-reddened clay and ash. The gravel was also the site of a dense group of overlapping penannular gullies, interpreted as the sites of circular buildings, and a sub-circular ditched enclosure. These produced pottery consistently of later prehistoric/Iron Age date. Overlapping the site of the penannular gullies and spreading to the east were a series of rectangular ditched enclosures and drainage ditches, whose sparse finds were all attributable to the Roman period. Various amorphous features were variously interpreted as ponds, animal tramples and water holes. These produced little by way of datable finds, but were sampled for environmental evidence. This document presents a quantification and assessment of the evidence recovered from the excavation. It considers the evidence collectively in its local, regional and national context. It presents an updated project design, incorporating the results of the previous archaeological work on the adjacent site, for a programme of post-excavation analysis to bring the results to appropriate publication.