SNN111865 - Anglo-Saxon industrial activity and inhumation burials at Wakerley Quarry (Phase E) Northamptonshire

During May and June 2017, Phoenix Consulting Archaeology Ltd carried out a programme of archaeological mitigation works across part of the permitted extension to existing old mining consent at Wakerley Quarry, Northamptonshire (NGR SP 946 980). The works (archaeological investigation and recording in the area of proposed flood attenuation ponds (Permitted Extension Phase E)) were conducted on behalf of Mick George Ltd at the request of the planning authority. The results of a previous desk-based assessment, field walking, geophysical survey and trial-trench evaluation had shown the Site to have archaeological potential. A programme of archaeological work relating to the minor modification of a quarry access road was also undertaken. The present excavation was conducted across two adjacent areas recorded as Areas A and B. All datable activity belonged to the Early – Middle Anglo Saxon period; a single residual sherd (5g) of Roman pottery was present within the fill of a later pit. Evidence of Anglo-Saxon activity was distributed across the areas of investigation, where it comprised the remnants of ditched enclosure boundaries associated with discrete zones of iron manufacture. The latter were characterised by the remains of ore roasting pits and smelting furnaces – similar to examples identified by the forerunning evaluation – and clay extraction pits. Structural remains comprising clusters and alignments of pits and post-holes were also present in Area B, in addition to three inhumation burials. Two of the graves were located adjacent to one another and all three were aligned west/east. A radiocarbon dated sample of human bone from one of the burials returned a calibrated date range of of 642–710 calAD (89.9%) at 95.4% probability. Many features contained metal-working residues in the form of dumped accumulations of slag and furnace material, often in association with charcoal. The evidence is indicative of iron smelting on the Site between the 7th and 10th centuries AD. The remains of nine smelting furnaces and 13 ore roasting pits were identified, where they largely formed three clear zones of industrial activity; two furnaces were not spatially associated with other, similar features. The presence of Anglo-Saxon iron manufacture is not surprising. The local area (and wider region) was a centre of industrial mining, quarrying and iron manufacture from at least the early Roman period, if not the pre-Roman Iron Age. Extensive evidence of Iron Age and later settlement, agriculture and industry has previously been found in the near vicinity, while slag heaps in Rockingham Forest have been radiocarbon dated to the Middle Anglo-Saxon period. A near-complete Early to Middle Saxon globular bowl of 6th or 7th century AD date was present as a grave good. The bowl accompanied the inhumation burial of an adolescent of indeterminate sex. Other grave goods from the Site include iron knife fragments, a possible key or latch lifter and the highly fragmented remains of a composite antler and iron comb. With the exception of plough furrows, indicating former ridge and furrow cultivation, no evidence of activity post-dating the Anglo-Saxon period was encountered.