SNN111756 - Toll Bar Road, Islip, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Evaluation

In September 2016 Foundations Archaeology was commissioned to undertake an archaeological evaluation of a single ploughed field directly west of Toll Bar Road, Islip, Northamptonshire (NGR: 498570/278590 - centred). The project was commissioned by Ben Stephenson of BSA Heritage on behalf of Catesby Estates Limited. The fieldwork strategy comprised the excavation of 10 evaluation trenches, each 55m long, within the proposed development area. Some trenches were targeted to examine the nature of anomalies found during an earlier geophysical survey. The evaluation identified a relict ridge and furrow system orientated broadly eastwest across site with a possible headland at the southern end of Trench 8 orientated northeast-southwest. Trench 5 contained a 0.3m deep colluvial deposit, which conformed to a dry valley running from the centre-east part of site to the northwest. The concentration of geophysical anomalies identified in the northwestern part of site were found to be depressions in the natural or two very shallow clay-filled features. In Trench 3 these depressions were relatively deep (0.45m) and contained Roman material. It is likely that this represented plough spread from the known Romano-British activity to the west. In Trench 2 the shallow clay-filled features may have been heavily truncated by subsequent plough action. However it seems more likely that they were depressions in the natural, their fill analogous to the buried soil horizon found in Trench 3.