SNN116589 - Geophysical and topographical survey at Berry Mount and All Saints Churchyard, Earls Barton, Northamptonshire

Geophysical survey (resistivity, magnetometry and GPR) and topographical recording of the motte known as Berry Mount and the adjacent churchyard of All Saints, Earls Barton, were undertaken in 2024 as part of the AHRC-funded research project Where Power Lies: The Archaeology of Transforming Elite Centres in the Landscape of Medieval England c. AD 800-1200. This work enhances our understanding of the church, which is one of the finest surviving Anglo-Saxon structures in England, and its wider context, identifying a range of previously unknown features that provide a more nuanced insight into the character, function and chronological development of the site. GPR data located a stone-built apsidal-ended structure, probably an Anglo-Saxon mausoleum, due west of the famous tower-nave, and the same survey identifies another stone building to the north which may be the remains of an early Norman chamber block. The location of the putative chamber suggests that it preceded construction of Berry Mount, which raises the likelihood that the motte is a product of the twelfth century rather than an early post-Conquest construction.