SNN117007 - Archaeological desk-based heritage assessment of Abington Park, Northampton, June 2025

MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) conducted an archaeological desk-based heritage assessment for Abington Park, Northampton. There are five proposed locations for new toilet facilities within Abington Park, between Park Avenue South and the boating lake, close to the children’s play area. There are 222 HER entries within 500m of the site, including 13 Listed Buildings, 15 Locally Listed Buildings and one conservation area. An assessment of the settings and significance of The Church of St Peter and St Paul and Abington Park Conservation Area concluded that two of the proposed toilet locations have the potential to cause harm to the significance of the designated heritage assets but two are unlikely to negatively impact upon them. Proposed Location 1 is the least likely to cause harm and the least likely to affect buried medieval and post-medieval remains of the village of Abington. A realistic assessment of the potential for archaeological remains to survive across the site is partially achievable, due to the low quantity of archaeological work carried out within the local area and within Abington Park boundary. Very little prehistoric evidence is known from within the park or the immediate vicinity and no remains from the Bronze Age or the Iron Age have been found near to the site. Two Roman settlements lie nearby to the site: the first at Cherry Orchard School to the north-east and the second at Rushmere Avenue to the south. Isolated pottery finds and coins have been found nearby and similar material may lie within the park boundary but it is not thought that remains from the known settlements would extend into the site. A medieval village lay within Abington Park which was centred around the manor house and the church. An earthwork survey suggests that some of the proposed locations lie within the village earthworks. Cartographic evidence suggests that the village had substantially shrunk by 1671 and by 1742 many field boundaries had been cleared away for open parkland with ornamental lakes and ponds. Abington Park was gifted to the Northampton Corporation in 1897 to be used as a public park and the corporation sought to rapidly expand the area. Later historic mapping implies that the current boundaries of Abington Park had been established by 1925. The house had been named Abington Abbey by this time and had been converted to a museum. The parkland also included many features still present today, including a boating lake, tennis courts, bowling greens, an aviary and a bandstand.