SNN112111 - Archaeological Strip, Map and Record Report: Land at 30 High Street, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire

Allen Archaeology Limited was commissioned by T Balfe Construction Limited to undertake an archaeological strip, map and record on land at 30 High Street, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire as a final mitigation for a condition of planning consent for the erection of 12 supported living apartments at the site. The site is within an area of some archaeological potential, with limited prehistoric remains known in the local landscape. An Iron Age hillfort has been suggested at some distance to the southeast of the site and Roman remains have been identified nearby. At the time of the Domesday Survey of 1086, three manors were recorded in Wellingborough. The town remained a fairly important and prosperous market centre during the medieval and post-medieval period, but a number of significant fires, the most disastrous being the Great Fire of Wellingborough in 1738, were responsible for the destruction of some 800 buildings. Wellingborough rapidly recovered and was redeveloped to again become a local market centre in the 18th and 19th centuries. Two evaluation trenches on the site revealed differing results. Trench 1 at the west end of the development footprint revealed a number of undated features, as well as a post-medieval pit and a posthole containing a sherd of Anglo-Saxon pottery, all at shallow depth. Trench 2 in the eastern half of the site showed the geological horizon banking sharply downwards to the east, with a severely heat-affected wall at the top of the slope. To the east, landscaping in the 18th century had seen raising of the ground level, which had then been truncated by a number of 18th–20th century pits. The earliest phase of activity encountered comprised a small number of pits and postholes, and most notably, a number of large ditches running northeast to southwest at the north and south ends of the site. On balance it is possible that these relate to a previously unknown prehistoric phase of activity. No Roman activity was evident beyond a small artefacts assemblage of limited interest. A small number of pot sherds of late Saxon and Saxo-Norman date suggest limited activity of this date also. In the 12th and 13th century there was an upturn in activity with several drainage gullies and a ditch excavated at the east end of the site, as well as a pit with evidence of crop processing and weeds associated with waste ground, roadsides and cultivated fields. The decline of the later 13th and 14th centuries is evidenced by an absence of activity on the site, and in the mid 15th century this was restricted to the excavation of two small pits. In the 18th century the natural bank towards the eastern half of the site was levelled as a result of deliberate ground raising, followed by the excavation of a number of refuse pits. The investigations have provided a significant new interpretation of the former activities in this part of Wellingborough, especially evidence that likely pre-dates the town and which should be further pursued in any future investigations of the surrounding area.