SNN40020 - Towcester Baptist Church, 38-40 Watling Street, Towcester: Archaeological Evaluation

In August 1997 Cotswold Archaeological Trust was commissioned by Towcester Baptist Church Redevelopment Team to undertake an archaeological evaluation of land at Towcester Baptist Church, 38-40 Watling Street, Towcester, Northamptonshire. The evaluation was required in advance of development of the area for housing, in accordance with a brief issued by Northamptonshire Heritage, on behalf of Northamptonshire County Council. A total of five test pits and one evaluation trench were excavated, and archaeological deposits were identified within all of these trenches, but this material was almost exclusively post-medieval. Health and safety onsiderations limited the depth of investigation to c1.5m, but while undisturbed natural ground was not reached, no significant deposits were encountered within the depth investigated. Thus the results of this evaluation do not demonstrate conclusively the presence or absence of archaeological material from earlier periods within the study area, (although some Roman pottery was uncovered but only in a residual context). The evaluation does however, demonstrate that any surviving remains are sufficiently truncated or deeply buried for the effects of development of the site on any surviving archaeology to be limited