SNN112455 - Level 2 Historic Building Record Burgage Wall, Daventry, Northamptonshire

In October and November 2019 ADAS carried out a Level 2 Historic Building survey for Willmott Dixon Construction Ltd of the burgage wall at Millennium Way, Northamptonshire (NGR: SP 57279 62618). At the time of the survey the wall had been fenced off along Millennium Way as part of the associated development at Mulberry Place due in part to its unstable appearance and it constituting a risk to members of the public. The wall has been previously recorded as being situated along the line of a possible burgage plot. Historic mapping of the site does not concussively show when the wall was constructed in its current form, however the earliest date of the wall is likely to be between 1800-1850 based on the brickwork and mortar used in its construction. The wall is constructed of handmade bricks of a standard size with a lime mortar and laid out in a largely irregular Sussex bond at the southern end however the northern part of the wall appears to have been laid out in a Flemish bond which suggests two separate phases of construction. The southern section of the wall whilst made of similar bricks to the northern section was built on a concrete foundation and topped with concrete slabs. A building is shown on the map of 1888 at a different alignment to the rest of the wall to the north at this location and it is possible that this foundation and or the wall itself here is the remains of that building. The stonework recorded beneath the wall at the northern end was derived from sandstone similar to that of the coping stones. Whilst it is possible that this stonework was laid as a foundation of the wall, a potential practice in the 19th century, it is also possible that the stonework predates the wall to an earlier period suggesting it is of archaeological significance and further assessment is recommended should it be removed. Based on the survey of the wall and historic mapping data it would appear that the wall was constructed in two phases with an initial wall being constructed in the early 19th century with later additions as the southern wall in the late 19th century or early 20th century. It is possible that these two phases were the result of parts of the wall collapsing which is evident later in the wall’s existence with the presence of additional buttresses and a pronounced lean in the wall at its northern end, possibly due to the foundation it was laid out on. However based on the alignment of the wall it is likely that the northern part of the wall is laid out on the original burgage plot whilst the southern section was not.