Woodfield, C. (1992). The defences of Towcester, Northamptonshire. Northamptonshire Archaeology 24. Vol 24, pp. 13-66. https://doi.org/10.5284/1083207. Cite this via datacite
 Title The title of the publication or report |
The defences of Towcester, Northamptonshire | ||||
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Issue The name of the volume or issue |
Northamptonshire Archaeology 24 | ||||
Series The series the publication or report is included in |
Northamptonshire Archaeology | ||||
Volume Volume number and part |
24 | ||||
Page Start/End The start and end page numbers. |
13 - 66 | ||||
Downloads Any files associated with the publication or report that can be downloaded from the ADS |
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Licence Type ADS, CC-BY 4.0 or CC-BY 4.0 NC. |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International Licence |
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DOI The DOI (digital object identifier) for the publication or report. |
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Publication Type The type of publication - report, monograph, journal article or chapter from a book |
Journal | ||||
Abstract The abstract describing the content of the publication or report |
Fragmentary traces of earlier occupation from the Conquest to the Antonine period were swept away by the construction of a stone wall and wide bank c.AD 170. This was accompanied by at least one saucer-shaped wet ditch while an original multiple ditch system is suspected. The total width of the defences seems to have been in the region of 60m, and appears to have included a counterscarp bank. No gates were examined, but the possibility of the survival of a putative Irchester gate or postern within the Bury Mount is raised. Identifiable activity in this defensive zone seems to have shortly come to an end, but not before a rich pit dating to pre- c.AD 175 from a well-to-do household had been dug through the tail of the rampart at the north east corner. Sterile `black earth' had then accumulated over this pit and rampart backs suggesting allotment cultivation from the Severan period running into the third century. There was no surviving trace of any refurbishment before the undated addition of the projecting bastions, possibly hollow, of uncertain form but probably some 10m square, fragments of which were located at the north-west and north-east corners of the circuit. These seem to have been accompanied by the cutting of a shallow, wet, wide Great Ditch, estimated to be some 24m wide, which survived recutting only at the south of the town. Here it contained pottery of the late fourth century, and environmental evidence for stagnant rubbish filled water and overgrown banks, as well as evidence for exotic imports and gardens. Sixth-century sherds indicated an early Anglo-Saxon presence in the walled town. There was no clearly recognisable trace of the Anglo-Saxon defences of Edward the Elder, although a probable refacing of the Roman wall may be of this date. The recutting of the Great Ditch, deeper, and with steeper sides, evidenced in the northern third of the town, is thought more likely to relate to a partial refortification of the Roman defences in the early Norman period associated with the Bury Mount, than to the Late Saxon. The Civil War ditch of 1643 was located on the same defensive line at the north of the town, and a 5m wide seventeenth-century ditch occurred in the south of the town, here overlying Roman property boundaries and not the defensive zone. Unusual finds included high quality probably Rhineland glass, carrot and possibly North African amphorae, and an Eifelkeramic jar. | ||||
Year of Publication The year the book, article or report was published |
1992 | ||||
Locations Any locations covered by the publication or report. This is not the place the book or report was published. |
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Locations Any locations covered by the publication or report. This is not the place the book or report was published. |
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Source Where the record has come from or which dataset it was orginally included in. |
ADS Archive
(ADS Archive)
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Relations Other resources which are relevant to this publication or report |
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Created Date The date the record of the pubication was first entered |
03 Nov 2020 |
