Northamptonshire Archaeology 35

Looks at the archaeological career of Dennis Jackson from the 1960s onward, featuring colour photographs of some of his many excavations

Investigation of cropmarks known from aerial photographs revealed a rectangular complex of smaller enclosures, pits and other features, dating from the 1st-4th centuries AD.  This report gives an integrated account of the archaeological work carried out during groundworks for the construction of a wind farm on land in Burton Wold Farm in the eastern part of Burton Latimer parish.  It combines evidence from desktop assessment, geophysical survey, trial trench evaluation, watching brief and full excavation – focusing in particular upon the cropmark complex in the northern part of the Development Area, where Turbine 7 was to be located.  Here geophysical survey gave an overall view of the form of the complex as a whole, while excavation allowed a small area within the larger complex to be examined in detail.  Sections were excavated through enclosure ditches, gullies and a large pit.  The enclosures are thought to have functioned as pens for livestock.  Although no evidence of houses or other structures was found, considerable quantities of pottery suggest domestic activity nearby within the enclosure complex.  The site went out of use by the 4th century AD.

In the course of topsoil stripping prior to the construction of a composting facility, part of a Roman villa was unexpectedly revealed, together with ancillary structures.  A pond-like feature beneath the excavated part of the villa contained dumped occupation debris, including carbonised plant remains, dating to the later first century AD, and indicating the presence of occupation on the site from at least this time, while pottery from quarry pits to the north, excavated in 1984, may suggest an origin as early as the mid-first century AD. The main villa building was constructed in the later first century AD. The excavated remains comprised the westernmost room of a villa building aligned west to east, and at least 30-35m long, with a corridor along the northern side, perhaps forming an open veranda.  The excavated and aerial photographic evidence would suggest a simple plan form, with the main strip building perhaps comprising some five domestic rooms. There were remnants of tessellated pavements in both the corridor and the excavated room, and displaced smaller tesserae from the room may suggest the presence of a small central mosaic. Fragments of painted wall plaster also came from this room. Amongst the ceramic building material from the demolition rubble there is a small amount of box-flue tile suggesting the presence of at least one room with a hypocaust heating system. A corn drier or malting oven lay to the west of the villa, along with a small oven that incorporated the base of an amphora. In this area there was also a stone-lined well, and its fills contained sherds of amphora, partially articulated cow skeletons and the skeleton of a raven. In the late second or early third century the building was abandoned. Deposits of burnt debris lying on the scorched surface of the tessellated pavement probably relate to the systematic dismantling of the building, as accumulations of burning debris. Very small quantities of fourth-century pottery indicate that there was some later activity in the vicinity of the villa.

Archaeological evaluation in advance of development identified a line of upright oak timbers set along the edge of the River Nene and into palaeochannel infilling material containing thirteenth century material, west of the present Town Bridge. The timbers have been radiocarbon dated to the fifteenth century, and may have formed a structure to protect the bridgehead from the effects of tidal scouring or alternatively they could have formed a section of wharf. The infilled river channel material to the rear of the revetment is indicative of land reclamation and perhaps channel straightening in the medieval period.

Excavation by Northamptonshire Archaeology of a house plot at Corby Road, Stanion uncovered a cluster of pits within a potters’ tenement containing waster dumps. A total of 600kg of pottery comes from over 200 vessels.  Glazed jugs were the major product but jars and bowls are also present. This assemblage adds significantly to the understanding of the Lyveden/Stanion pottery industry, which supplied much of medieval Northamptonshire and parts of the surrounding counties with its more utilitarian table ware.  There are also smaller quantities of glazed roof ridge tiles, a few with crests, and ceramic kiln furniture. There were two distinct phases of pottery production, dating to the second half of the 14th century, and the second half of the 15th century.  The evidence comes from a combination of the dating of associated pottery of other types and typology. It is now certain that the production of Stanion B ware was considerably longer-lived than first anticipated.  It has been regarded as ending in the 14th century, but the evidence from this site shows that production was still taking place in the later years of the 15th century.  It would therefore seem appropriate now to give the tradition a chronology of AD 1200-1500. The evidence also indicates a revision of the Lyveden/Stanion D ware, generally regarded as starting around AD 1400 to replace the B ware, based on the evidence from Lyveden. However, wasters of both fabrics have been found at Stanion in all the pit groups. It is suggested that it should now be dated AD 1350-1500, and may even have started earlier. It is notable that none of the kiln waste from this site is wheel-thrown, it has all been coil-built and finished on a turntable.  The Stanion potters were very late in taking up the wheel, and the evidence from this site indicates that it was in the early 16th century at the earliest. A review and a gazetteer of other archaeological work in Stanion, including details of a kiln excavated in 1990, is also provided.

The implementation of the 1944 Education Act raised the school leaving age from 14 to 15 in 1947. As a result a rapid expansion of space was required to accommodate the additional pupils.  One response was the provision of temporary accommodation in prefabricated buildings, utilising the designs for standard huts issued by the Ministry of Works during World War II. A prefabricated building was erected in the grounds of Cranford school in 1946 but, far from being temporary, this was still in use some six decades later. Once common, these buildings are becoming increasingly scarce, and this example was recorded before demolition. The basic structure remained largely as built although the windows had been replaced and few original internal fixtures or fittings survived. The construction method was as described in the Ministry of Works construction manual, although the dimensions of the building and some use of materials suggest that it was a modified form of a standard type 24

County map showing site locations