SNN115113 - Land Adjacent to Ransome Road, Northampton, Northamptonshire: Heritage Assessment

ISCA Archaeology was commissioned by Tilia Homes Ltd, in July 2022, to undertake a Heritage Assessment in respect to Land Adjacent to Ransome Road, Northampton, Northamptonshire. The proposed development will comprise the construction of 220 new homes, with associated access roads and green spaces. The Site is a major brownfield area in Northampton town centre and comprises 11.6 hectares of disused land which previously incorporated a mix of industrial uses, including a landfill site, breakers yard and Permanent Way Stores for The Northampton and Peterborough Branch Railway. This assessment has included a review of a comprehensive range of available sources, in accordance with key industry guidance, in order to identify known and potential heritage assets located within the Site and its environs which may be affected by the proposals. This assessment has confirmed that a non-designated heritage asset in the southern part of the Site, in the form of a cruciform cropmark thought to be indicative of a medieval ecclesiastical building, was identified in aerial photography from 1948. The feature is thought to have been either completely dug out or covered by c. 2.5m of made ground in the early 1960s. As current development proposals intend to convert this southern area of Site into green space, no impacts to any surviving below ground remains of the feature are anticipated. As the asset constitutes an ecclesiastical building, there is also the possibility that human remains were located in close proximity. As there has been no previous mention of human remains within the Site despite substantial gravel pitting, it is possible that these remains were reinterned during the medieval era in the main abbey complex c. 200m to the south.