Northamptonshire Archaeology 30

A series of middle Iron Age circular structures comprising an unenclosed occupation site with at least two phases of activity, were radio-carbon dated to a period between the 4th and the 1st centuries BC. There was some evidence of metal working on the site. A similar group of features was revealed by geophysical survey within an enclosure, just to the east of the excavated site. A very small quantity of late Iron Age material was recovered from features unrelated to the occupation area, while a series of shallow linear features, cutting across the site may be of Iron Age date but are more likely the remains of medieval cultivation

The Oxford Archaeological Unit (OAU) carried out a limited area excavation and watching brief on the site of the former Girls' School at Derngate, Northampton (NGR: SP 758 602), during 1997. A further watching brief was maintained on all subsequent phases of building development on the site. A clay and earth bank that formed part of the medieval city defences was excavated. Several medieval quarry pits were identified across the site: pottery from the quarry fills indicated that the pits were open in the early medieval period. Later medieval rubbish pits were cut into the infilled quarries. Medieval and post-medieval soils were recorded across the site, although no evidence was found to support the existence on the site of the late medieval grange building known as ' the Towre'. Nineteenth-century walls and garden features associated with the properties that fronted onto Derngate were also recorded.

There is only one area of brickworkings recorded in the Holy Sepulchre parish of Northampton and this dated from at least 1755, with production continuing to c.1925. During the middle of the 18th century, there were two separate adjacent kiln sites totalling c.10 acres, positioned in a field next to a turnpike road half way between Northampton and Kingsthorpe. The evidence points to both sites being run as a single large scale business by a brickmaker on behalf while being owned by wealthy residents of Northampton. Later 19th century owners were more often themselves brickmakers, for instance, the Johnson family who worked in all aspects of the building trade including the buying of land. The area was the only brick kiln shown on the pre-1825 map of Northampton and the 1827 Bryant map shows it was by far the biggest workings in the Northampton area. The brick kilns are on six maps from the pre-1825 map to the 1901 map Buildings on the site are shown as sparsely distributed and short-lived structures. They are initially relatively small and rectangular but by the later 19th century they were often larger and a few were circular. In the later 19th century the brickworking expanded from the original site to include areas adjacent to the north in Kingsthorpe Parish so that in all, four separate brick kiln owners were producing on the site. By the end of the century most of Northampton's brickmakers worked in this area but outside mass-produced bricks and the lack of new house building in Northampton from c.1890 resulted in successive kiln closures.