SNN111896 - Church of St Mary the Virgin, Bozeat, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Watching Brief

Albion Archaeology was commissioned by The Victor Farrar Partnership on behalf of St Mary the Virgin Bozeat PCC to oversee groundworks associated with the installation of a French drain and soakaway pits and to investigate and record any archaeological remains that were uncovered. The Grade I listed Church of St Mary the Virgin lies slightly north of the centre of Bozeat on Church Walk, off Mile Street and is centred on grid reference SP 90615 59205. The nave and chancel are of 12th- and 13th-century date; the aisles and porch are of 14thcentury date. 15th-century fenestration was added to the chancel. 19th-century restoration of the chancel and north aisle was undertaken and the tower was rebuilt in 1880-3. Archaeological monitoring of the hand-excavated French drain (which encompassed almost the entire footprint of the church) and machine-excavated soakaway pits took place during August 2017. The French drain trench was typically c. 0.60 wide and 0.9m deep. The soakaway pits were c. 2m long, 1.5m wide and up to 1.4m deep. The full depth of the wall foundations were never exposed in the works, although the trench was deep enough to reveal some variations in construction. The medieval foundations that were exposed represent the upper part of foundation ‘plinths’ that were typically 0.05–0.2m wider than the walls they supported. The foundations appear to have been constructed within trenches of unknown depth; the limestone blocks were arranged in a fitted drystone wall fashion, with gaps being filled with clay or silt during construction. No foundations or stonework indicating earlier or additional structures were present. The nave and chancel foundations comprised roughly hewn limestone blocks, which were tightly packed, random-uncoursed and infilled with silt. The north aisle, south aisle and porch foundations comprised roughly hewn limestone blocks that were random-coursed or built to courses and infilled with silt. The rebuilt tower foundation was lined with unfrogged bricks. The soakaway dug to the south-west of the church revealed ten graves dug to various depths. All the graves contained human bone and five contained skull fragments. Two contained medieval pottery but this is likely to have been residual within graves of later date.