SNN115052 - Archaeological monitoring of various minor works as part of the improvements for public access to Chester House Estate, irchester, Northamptonshire (2021-2023)

A programme of archaeological monitoring was conducted on the minor works associated with improving the access path from the Claudius Way car park to Chester House, adding all weather overspill car parking to the Claudius Way car park and the erection of information panels along the Drift. Each piece of work was designed to have no or minimal impact on the buried archaeological remains and only the erection of the signs required any ground penetration was limited. As the works were undertaken within the Scheduled Ancient Monument of Irchester Roman Town (NHLE 1003892) archaeological monitoring and recording was required as party of the scheduled monument consent issued by Historic England. The archaeological monitoring and recording was carried to fulfil one of the conditions of Scheduled Monument Consents (S00241484 & S00243226) under which the work was carried out. The extension to the car park and the improvements to the path were such that there was no ground penetration or damage to the monument. The foundations for the information panels were only allowed to be about 0.4m deep which ensured they were entirely within topsoil horizons and did not reach underlying remains. The work has been allocated the event number ENN110367 in the Northamptonshire Historic Environment Record.