SNN113697 - Archaeological excavation and strip, map and sample on land off Park Farm Way, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire June to December 2020

Archaeological investigation was undertaken on land off Park Farm Way, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. The site comprised a late Iron Age to early Roman rural settlement, with animal husbandry probably forming its primary function. This settlement was short lived, likely lasting from 50BC to AD100 at the broadest, but displayed at least three stratigraphic phases of development. The late Iron Age site was dominated by large, enclosed fields defined by five interconnecting linear boundary ditches, with a number of short gullies projecting from either side forming possible smaller plots. Within this landscape a smaller sub-rectangular enclosure was established, in addition to a segment of ring ditch that may have been part of a roundhouse, with at least two shorter ditches and several associated pits. The small enclosure underwent two later phases of renewal in the later Iron Age and early Roman periods. In the later Iron Age period, the extensive field boundaries went out of use and a large D-shaped enclosure was established. The southern side of the D-shaped enclosure was not well-defined and possibly had a hedge as its boundary. An elongated hourglass-shaped auxiliary enclosure was appended to the western side of the Dshaped enclosure, with an entrance between the two enclosures. A smaller subrectangular enclosure was also located in the centre of the D-shaped enclosure and an L-shaped gully was positioned close to the north-western edge that may be a structural feature. A scatter of pits also lay across the eastern part of the D-shaped enclosure; these predominantly contained Iron Age pottery and animal bone but also yielded charred plant remains. All the enclosures were redeveloped during the late Iron Age/early Roman transition period. The site was abandoned by the end of the 1st century AD. Four areas of strip, map and sample lay to the east and north of the main site, which identified a number of undated pits and linear boundaries that may part of the extended co-axial Iron Age/Roman field system. The site does not show any reoccupation until the land became incorporated into the medieval field strip system, with furrows broadly evident across the development area.