SNN111866 - Archaeological Report on Work Undertaken at Stockwell House, Stoneway, Badby, Northants. NN11 3AT

To the rear of Stockwell House is a two bay, two storey structure under a modern felted Welsh slate roof. Unusually the inner skin of the wall is in red brick whist the outer facing is the local marlstone. There are considerable remains of internal timber fittings including doors, floor beams and a ladder stair presumably of the nineteenth century. The eastern ground floor room has a partially flagged stone floor and the remains of a bread oven adjacent to an open fireplace. The surrounding land had been subject to modern garden landscaping. However, excavations in advance of construction to the west of the building revealed the remains of a roughly cobbled yard and the site of a small forge which had been used for iron-smithing. Pottery evidence suggests this belonged to the first half of the twentieth century and was probably associated with a period when the area was used as a builder’s yard. Excavations to the east of the building defined the remains of a small stone and brick privy with a well preserved cess pit. Material recovered from the pit indicates that it went out of use and was backfilled some time around the middle of the twentieth century. The current owner reports its demolition in the 1990s. A small test pit on the north side uncovered a yard made of crazy paving and below that some evidence of earlier yards including one with stone paving which may be associated with an earlier farm on the site. Work in several locations demonstrated the presence of large quantities of material dumped to make up levels for yards and a terraced garden area to the north east: this appears to have buried earlier, possibly medieval, deposits beyond the scope of this investigation.