SNN700 - Archaeological evaluation at St John's Street, Northampton

An archaeological evaluation was carried out in December 1990 on a plot of land, 0.8 ha in area, bordered by St John's Street at the south, Fetter Street to the east, Angel Street to the north and the rear of properties fronting Bridge Street at the west. Ail these were streets within the medieval town, outside the area of the late Saxon town, and it was thought that deposits relating to the earliest occupation of this area might survive. The intention was to establish the extent and quality of preservation of any archaeological stratification rather than to excavate it. A survey of cellarage established that archaeological deposits on the Angel Street frontage were likely to have been largely destroyed. Trial trenches on the Fetter Street frontage, however, established that timber structures of probable twelfth-century date did survive and that there was the potential for recovery of complete tenement plans. Similarly, along the St John's Street frontage evidence for a timber structure of medieval date was recovered and here it had been replaced by a stone-founded structure in the late medieval period. Again there was the potential for recovery of complete tenement plans.