SNN114952 - Plots R20, R21b and DC3, Land East of Kettering, Northamptonshire: Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design

Between the 3rd of March and 3rd of June 2020 Oxford Archaeology East carried out an open‐area excavation on 2.22ha of land east of Kettering (SP 89740 77059; Fig. 1), in advance of a mixed development on Hanwood Park (formerly East Kettering Sustainable Urban Expansion) development Plots R20, R21b and DC3. Plot DC3 could not be accessed until July 2022. The results of Plot DC3 have been integrated with those of the original excavation in this updated report. The excavation was commissioned by RPS on behalf of Hanwood Park LLP following a desk‐based assessment, geophysical survey and trial trench evaluation. The excavation revealed only slight evidence for pre‐Iron Age occupation of the site, evidenced by a pair of early ditches. The main period of occupation on the site dates to the Iron Age, with features concentrated in the northern half of the site. The primary area of interest consisted of the western extent of a large, ditched enclosure occupying the north‐eastern end of a plateau and part of its east facing slope. Within this enclosure were two smaller ditched enclosures, one of which post‐dates the outer enclosure; from which faunal remains indicate the possibility of horses having been reared on the site. The terminal of one of these enclosures, together with a nearby pit, also yielded several fragments of human skull; a common occurrence in Iron Age enclosures. Superimposed upon one of these enclosures was a pair of south facing ditches, the terminus of one of which contained a large dump of clay which has been interpreted as a failed or unused oven. An extensive set of later medieval/post‐medieval agricultural furrows, as well as several boundary ditches which post‐dated them, were also uncovered across the site. Several undated features were present along with a palaeochannel in the southern part of the site which may have been utilised in the Iron Age.