SNN112006 - Plots 1, 2 and 3 Lumber Lane, Paulerspury: Archaeological Excavation, Observation and Recording

This report presents the results of a programme of archaeological works undertaken in advance of construction of three new residential dwellings with associated garages and gardens (Plots 1, 2 and 3) at Lumber Lane, Paulespury, Northamptonshire (Figures 1 and 2). The archaeological works identified a number of features, including pits, ditches, gullies, postholes, a possible pond and a possible trackway, all of which indicated that the area of the development lay on the fringes of a settlement between the 12th and 14th centuries AD. Sometime between the late 14th century and the post-medieval period a layer of colluvium, sediment deposited by rain-wash or the down-slope creep of material, appeared to have sealed the medieval features within plots 1 and 2. Later agricultural processes, such as ploughing, truncated these underlying features, dragging fragments of medieval pottery into the subsoil. Evidence of possible land management during the post-medieval period was also identified within plot 2 in the form of a possible boundary ditch, truncated by a stone drain, which correlated with a depression visible in a garden to the west and within plot 3 where two ditches and a pond infilled with limestone cobbles were identified.