SNN75400 - Archaeological Evaluation at 14 Rotton Row, Raunds

An archaeological evaluation was carried out at the rear of No 14 Rotton Row, Raunds. In accordance with the Evaluation Brief and Specification, a geophysical survey was carried out and a total of six trenches was excavated. Archaeological work was limited to the hand cleaning of the base and sides of trenches. Evidence of extensive settlement was recovered potentially dating from the Saxon to Medieval periods. Post-medieval activity was found to be confined chiefly to the eastern part of the site. The archaeological evidence consists of cut features such as ditches and postholes found at depths ranging between 250 mm and 700 mm and sealed by a layer of old soil perhaps resulting from former cultivation. Some of the ditches exposed in trenches 1 and 3 may be associated with a boundary recorded during previous excavation immediately to the north of the site, thus demonstrating the close interrelationship between the scheduled monument and the adjacent area. More specifically, the sequence of stratification on the site is without complexity, comprising turf and topsoil, a layer interpreted as an old ‘cultivation’ soil, a thin deposit of red/brown clayey loam and the natural Blisworth limestone. Although surviving in a well preserved state over most of the western area of the site, the horizon of ‘cultivation’ soil was not present at the east of the property, thereby perhaps suggesting different land-use unless it has been destroyed by recent landscaping. The date of the inferred cultivation cannot be determined but a small quantity of late medieval reduced wares retrieved from the same horizon provides a terminus post quem sometime in the 15th century. Late Saxon/Saxo-Norman material, found in the same deposit, could indicate that earlier levels may have become incorporated in the ‘cultivation’ soil.