SNN117196 - Land west of The Swan Inn, Griffin Road, Braybrooke, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Excavation Report

Between 31st March and 21st May 2025 Oxford Archaeology (OA) undertook an archaeological excavation (approximately 0.16ha) ahead of a residential development at Land west of The Swan Inn, Griffin Road, Braybrooke, Northamptonshire. The project, which was commissioned by Aspects Building Services Ltd, targeted features identified by a previous trial trench evaluation undertaken in 2024. Low levels of prehistoric material (worked flint and a single sherd of pottery) were recovered and hint at activity on or near the site during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. Small quantities of abraded Roman pottery and ceramic building material were also present; all found within post-Roman features. A sequence of boundary and plot ditches was revealed across the site which demonstrate changes in land management and organisation spanning the Middle to Late Anglo-Saxon to the medieval periods (c.mid 7th to 13th centuries). Traces of a possible post-built structure and several pits were also found and are likely to relate to peripheral or ’backyard’ activity in the centuries either side of the Norman Conquest. The latest activity was represented by a post-medieval cattle burial and several large pits. Material culture associated with the features was recovered in low quantities and includes pottery, iron nails, metalworking slag, worked stone, fired clay, animal bone and a single fragment of worked bone comb. Environmental samples produced charred plant remainscomprising cereal grains, weed seeds, legumes, and charcoal. The site is located some distance from the impressive earthworks of the castle and fishponds which dominate the eastern part of Braybrooke, and from the 13th century and later church to the north of the River Jordan. The ditches and other features presumably relate to enclosures associated with the early development of the village to the south of the river, which were subsequently reworked into more regular plots following the Norman Conquest. These were evidently no longer maintained by the later medieval to post-medieval period, perhaps reflecting a contraction of settlement to the core of the village and/or a change to a more pastoral land use.