Northamptonshire Archaeology 32

Earlier stages of mineral extraction at Stanwick Quarry had been subject to excavation and survey in the 1980s and early 1990s as part of the Raunds Area Project, which investigated an extensive and long-lived prehistoric landscape, a large area of Iron Age and Roman settlement at Stanwick and the deserted medieval village of West Cotton. In this earlier work areas near the present river channels, where the gravel was overlain by 1.0-3.0m of alluvial clays, had been excluded from extraction. The final phase of working involved the extraction of gravel from these marginal areas so that the mineral resource was fully exploited. Given the quality of the previous results, the three areas involved were subject to an archaeological watching brief between 2002 and 2004 to determine the presence of any unrecognised dry-land sites and to examine the form and development of the palaeochannel system. The work has defined further details of the palaeochannels contemporary with the Neolithic and Bronze Age monument complex. A minor channel defining the eastern edge of Irthlingborough island had silted well before the commencement of monument building in the early fourth millennium, and a number of cut-off channels had silted at various dates during the Neolithic period and the sequence has been radiocarbon dated using waterlogged wood samples. In the early/middle Bronze Age a line of oak posts had been driven into the margins of a silted oxbow channel, and a small undated ring ditch, 10.5m in diameter, has added another monument to the prehistoric landscape.

Archaeological excavations in advance of the construction of the A6 Rushden and Higham Ferrers bypass examined parts of and Iron Age and Roman farmstead (Site 3) and an Iron Age agricultural enclosure (Site 4). Site 3 showed a continuous sequence of shifting occupation from the middle Iron Age through to the later 2nd century AD. Iron Age ring gullies and a sub-circular enclosure were replaced in the 1st century AD by a more rectilinear layout of enclosures. No structures were identified and the enclosures appear to have been agricultural back-plots. While there were few exotic items in the finds assemblage, the quantity of early Roman pottery was large, and included several semi-complete vessels. The circumstances of their deposition remained enigmatic. Site 4 yielded very few finds and is interpreted as a stock corral.