SNN116924 - From Bronze Age Ringwork to Anglo-Saxon Settlement: Landscape Evolution at Thrapston, Northamptonshire

Albion Archaeology’s 2017 excavation on the south-east edge of Thrapston, Northamptonshire revealed repeated use of the land for settlement from the middle Bronze Age to the early Anglo-Saxon period. This sequence began with a middle/late Bronze Age ringwork, as well as a contemporary settlement and burials to the south-west. The ringwork has been preserved in-situ and was therefore only subjected to limited investigation, but similar late Bronze Age ditched enclosures across southern England have been refereed to as ‘ringforts’ and are considered to be of high status. The early Anglo-Saxon settlement comprised a mixture of rectangular ground-level builidings, smaller structures and sunken-featured buildings, numbering at least 28 in all. Its overall layout exhibits a degree of regularity, based on short-perch grid-planning, which may indicate an association with the major minster at Oundle.