SNN113027 - A45/A605 New Road, Titchmarsh: level 3 file

Excavations were carried out in 1986 in advance of the construction of the A45/A605 new road at the site known as Titchmarsh Roman Town, located 1.5km to the north of Thrapston and 0.75km to the east of the River Nene. The excavations were in an area close to the assumed intersetion of two Roman roads ie Margary 57 (a) the Gartree Road from Godmanchester to Liecester and Margary Road 570 from peterborough to Irchester. A rectangular stone structure was found aligned along a metalled road surface. The latter had been built over pits, ditches and gullies of the late first and early second century and appeared to have gone out of use by the later third century. The structure housed a possible bread-oven and had a circular hearth as an additional internal feature. Within the building, a yellow clay and plaster floor had replaced an earlier floor of compacted limestone rubble. This in turn had covered a circular slot/gully and a spread of loose gravel which was interpreted as the remains of a timber building and associated floor surface. The area to the north of the road had been used for clay and gravel quarrying, rubbish disposal, large enclosures and later it was parcelled up into small rectangular land plots although no further buildings were encountered. There was, however, a solitary inhumation burial cut from a late level at a date when most of the area had reverted to agriculture. The excavations have questioned the status of the settlement as a town and furthermore have questioned the assumed line of the Gartree Road. They have shown that there were buildings 9in a poor state of perservation) aligned against a second/third century road of a comparatively short duration and that the assumed intersection between Margary routes 57 (a) and 570 did not occur within the area investigated.