SNN112349 - Archaeological excavation and analysis on land at Wellingborough East, Area 3, Northamptonshire, April to December 2017

Between April and December 2017 MOLA carried out an archaeological excavation at Flood Relief Area 3, Wellingborough East. The site revealed a landscape of multi-phased archaeological remains dating from the Neolithic, and settlement spanning the Iron Age to late Roman period. Neolithic activity comprised a causewayed enclosure which was only partially excavated and an isolated pit containing Neolithic pottery. The site appears to have been continaully occupied from the Middle Iron Age through to the late Roman period. Iron Age settlement comprised at least eleven sub-circular enclosures and seven ring ditches as well as other associated features such as pits. The pottery assemblage indicates that the use of this settlement spanned from c250BC into the first half of the 1st century AD. In the early to mid 1st century AD, a rectilinear enclosure system was established. Other features comprised paddocks, evidence for buildings with stone footings, a metalled surface defining a trackway and part of the Irchester Roman road. Two inhumations and one unurned cremation burial were also identified. Occupation continued within the settlement until the late 3rd to the mid to late 4th century AD.