SNN115792 - EXTENSION TO HARLESTONE QUARRY, A428 HARLESTONE ROAD, NORTHAMPTON, NN7 4EJ: ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVALUATION FINAL REPORT

PCAS Archaeology Ltd. was commissioned by Mick George Ltd to undertake a scheme of intrusive archaeological evaluation on land proposed as an extension to Harleston Quarry, Northamptonshire. The site lies to the south of the modern village in a rich archaeological landscape. During archaeological mitigation works for the former quarry immediately east of the current site, Bronze Age features, including a pit alignment and enclosure, were recorded. Later Iron Age ring gullies and four-post structures were focused in the southern half of the site, and a Saxon dated ditch extended on an east-west alignment. Medieval ridge and furrow of the open field system completed the archaeological sequence. Geophysical survey and aerial photographic evidence suggested that the archaeology likely extended into the current site. The evaluation confirmed continuation of the pit alignment exposed in the excavations conducted between 2006 and 2014 in fields to the east of the current site. On the contrary, no continuation of the late Bronze Age enclosure and boundary system was observed. A linear feature with an approximately N-S orientation and corresponding to a geophysical anomaly was exposed in the western part of the site. Although its interpretation is uncertain, it could possibly represent a boundary ditch associated with two pairs of postholes. Another two linear features and five postholes were exposed in trenches located in the central-western part of the site, which together with the presence of worked flints found not in situ suggest that prehistoric occupation was concentrated here. Little dating evidence was retrieved which suggests an occupation in the early Iron Age, also confirmed by radiocarbon analysis carried out on one charcoal sample. No archaeology was exposed in the southernmost trenches, where only a post-medieval ditch was identified.