Northamptonshire Archaeology 36

Excavation at Upton, Northampton prior to residential development located settlement from the late Bronze Age/early Iron Age and continuing through the Iron Age and Roman periods. A small group of isolated pits, radiocarbon dated to the late Bronze Age/early Iron Age, contained a small pottery assemblage and a saddle quern. A short length of a pit alignment was examined. A number of pits contained early/middle Iron Age pottery, but a radiocarbon date centred on the 4th to 3rd centuries BC indicates that the pits, which were unusually deep, were still open into the middle Iron Age. Middle to late Iron Age settlement comprised several enclosures of varying sizes and plan forms, and a possible roundhouse, all set alongside a linear boundary ditch with the same orientation as the pit alignment but lying 50m to the south. The linear boundary was later reinstated slightly to the south of its original line, contemporary with a second phase of enclosure construction. The landscape was re-organised in the early Roman period, the late 1st/early 2nd centuries AD, with the introduction of a rectilinear ditch system and a patchwork of small enclosures, lying largely to the east of the Iron Age settlement and either a satellite of, or peripheral to the ‘small town’ at Duston.  Settlement continued through the 3rd century and into the later 4th century. There was a complex palimpsest of rectilinear and more irregular ditched enclosures, and in the early phase there was a pottery kiln and possible workshop, a stone-lined well and two inhumation burials. The material finds are fairly typical for a small rural settlement, although the presence of some finewares and a range of building materials suggest that there was a well-appointed household nearby.

A short length of an Iron Age pit alignment, identified by geophysical survey, was excavated by Northamptonshire Archaeology in April 2007 during the construction of the Cross Valley Link Road (CVLR) at Upton, on the western outskirts of Northampton. A small ditch, possibly part of a Roman or medieval field system, and medieval furrows were also identified. In addition, between April and July 2007, an archaeological watching brief was maintained during construction work on the new road and river crossing over the River Nene. No significant archaeological remains were identified within the road corridor, although a sharpened wooden stake/peg, radiocarbon dated to the middle Saxon period, was recovered from beneath a depth of alluvial silt on the edge of a possible river palaeochannel.

A series of eight Roman pottery kilns, dated to the late 1st and early 2nd-centuries, were found unexpectedly during the formation of a defensive bank on the western side of Delapré Park, Northampton near the entrance from the London Road.  The material recovered suggests that their production followed that of the Hardingstone kilns, the potters moving closer to a suggested road, a Roman period predecessor of the Northampton to Towcester road.  The products are remarkably standardised, but show a very high level of competence in their throwing and firing, and certain characteristics suggesting that pottery production may have been translocated here to facilitate distribution, perhaps to the civil or other official authorities.

In advance of the erection of several dwellings, near the northern limit of the village of Rockingham, a programme of archaeological investigation was undertaken.  The site extended from Main Street in the west to a curving lane, ‘The Cottons’, in the east.  The earliest evidence for occupation of the site was a possible prehistoric pit containing an animal burial associated with flint artefacts.  A small sherd of late Bronze Age - early Iron Age pottery was also recovered from the site.  An indication of Roman activity in the vicinity was implied by the presence of a small assemblage of residual pottery, recovered from the fills of later features. In the medieval period the eastern part of the site was within an arable field, indicated by ridge and furrow earthworks.  A ditch separated this area from the land parcel bounding Main Street in the west.  In the western land parcel perpendicular ditches with a slightly diverging alignment to the present land boundaries were identified.  Pottery and animal bone recovered from the recut northern boundary ditch indicated activity in the vicinity. The majority of the archaeological features identified in the western area were post-medieval or later in date.  Most of this area had been disturbed by landscaping associated with construction of a Victorian gas works.  However, beneath the disturbance traces of at least one substantial stone building were revealed.  This would appear to have been erected in the 17th-18th centuries, a similar date to other buildings in the vicinity.  The building, which was probably domestic in function, is not depicted on any surviving historic maps.  Traces of two wells, and walls near the street frontage in the western part of the site were also revealed.  Until recently the western land parcel was a farm yard, whilst the paddock in the east preserved the ridge and furrow earthworks.

A building record was made of Lift Bridge GN5 immediately prior to its dismantling in October 2004. It was built in 1815 as part of the Grand Union Canal, Northampton Arm to enable the farmer, whose land it was built on, to continue access with carts to fields otherwise cut off by the new canal. Although the Lift Bridge was renovated in 1914 and in the 1960s, several of the original iron fittings are thought to have been re-used in the structure.