SNN111874 - Report on a programme of archaeological observation, investigation and recording: 11-12 Newland Street, Kettering, Northamptonshire

In June 2015, Souterrain Archaeology undertook an evaluation at a proposed development site in Kettering town centre. The site was located within a previously identified zone of late Medieval tenements known as “The Newland”,which is understood from documentary evidence to have been set out in a planned expansion of the town in the late 13th century. The evaluation comprised of two trenches and established that buried archaeological features deposits exist at the site, and significantly, that these remains attest to occupation and/or activity from the 13th / 14th century to the 15th / 16th century. Where features were devoid of datable artefacts, they can be assigned to the late Medieval period on account of characteristic agricultural assemblages of carbonised cereal and plant remains. It is considered that at least two of the features, a pit and a ditch, may represent tenement boundary features that had been in-filled by the 14th / 15th century. Residual late Iron Age pottery was also recovered, its condition suggesting that nearby occupation deposits had been disturbed in the late Medieval period. The results of the evaluation required a program of archaeological observation, investigation and recording to be maintained during all ground works. This was carried out by Groundworks Archaeology between the 8th August 2017 and 8th April 2018 . The majority of the site had been subject to previous truncation with archaeological deposits surving in the eastern quarter of the site. A single pit of probable Medieval date (based on the environmental sample) but with residual Iron Age pottery within the fill (105) was sealed by a preserved Medieval soil layer (103). A Post-medieval well was also identified within the site.