SNN112139 - Land Adjacent Meadowview, Little Addington, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Evaluation

In August 2020, five archaeological evaluation trenches, each c. 42 sq. m, were excavated within a small enclosed parcel of grazing land (0.47. ha) located on the east side of Irthlingborough Road in the village of Little Addington, Northamptonshire. The purpose of the investigation was to assess whether or not significant buried archaeological remains might be affected by a proposed development, which, in turn, would allow the planning authority’s archaeological advisor to determine whether an appropriate form of mitigation would be required. The evaluation trenches were positioned to gain a representative sample of the site, and with respect to the main impacts of the proposed development. The archaeological potential of the site has been drawn primarily from the presence of a Roman villa complex (scheduled monument) c. 190 m to the northeast, and a postulated Roman minor road, whose projected course runs through the proposed development area. Notably, the land parcel contains relict remains of medieval/post-medieval cultivation strips and a portion of a headland, surviving as fairly substantial earthworks. The earthworks were surveyed by Differential GPS in order to better contextualise the results of the evaluation. The bases of two cultivation furrows were investigated, from which sherds of late post-medieval pottery were recovered. Pottery sherds of the same date and fragments of clay tobacco pipe stems were recovered from the subsoil. In aggregate, the presence of these artefacts suggests that the cultivation strips were in use at least until the time of inclosure, which took place in 1803. Other than this, there were no earlier features of archaeological significance and, likewise no earlier artefacts. The absence of evidence for a Roman road at the proposed development site draws attention to the contested claim of its discovery in a field to the north of the site in the mid 20th century, where at best, the evidence remains inconclusive.