Untitled - Council for British Archaeology

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the site of an earlier building and a medieval
wall was re-used in its construction. The
Cl6th building materials are red bricks and
red xoofing tiles. Domestic artefacts discovered
included several coins, four jetons,
a drinking glass bowl, a bronze spoon and
many early clay pipe bowls.
The medieval foundations are of a stone
building dated provisionally to the Cl2th
from pottery evidence. The only notable artefact
of this date found so far is a zoomorphic
gable end ridge tile, of coarse brown fabric
with three monkey faces pressed intc the clay.
The site, which is under threat from agricultural
reclamation, is within a large moat;
only recognised this year. A large area remains
to be excavated and several seasons'
work can be forPseen. We are very grateful to
the landowner, Mr. P. Tookey for his cooperation
and help.
BRILL, Bucks. - M.E. Farley for Bucks County
Museum
Subsequent to last year's chance discovery
of a Cl7th multi-flued kiln in Windmill Street,
Brill, a further post-medieval kiln was exposed
in house footing trenches at the top of Tram
Hill. The site is remembered locally as the
'clay sheds', and belonged to the Hubbock
family, the last family of potters to work in
the village. The structure was brick built,
circular, and had arched flues. There was no
evidence for a cavity floor. At a level with
the interior floor, which was tiled, was a
firebrick grating set into the visible flue
arch. The whole was incorporated into one
end of a pot-shed. The kiln appears to be
totally Cl9th in date and the products remain
to be studied.
Also on the site were ewo burnt hollows containing
Cl7th ceramic, probably also kilns,
although the constraints of footing trench excavation
only permitted a sectional view.
SURVEYS
THE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE PARISH SURVEY - D.N. Hall
et al, Higham Ferrers Hundred Arch. Soc.
The county parish survey continues according
to the scheme outlined in Newsletter 4
(1974).
'In the season 1974-5 a further 11 villages
were investigated, covering an area of 21,000
acres. An overall total of 63 parishes has
now been completed scattered throughout the
county, both in small and large adjacent
blocks. At the request of the Royal Commission
for Ancient Monuments, and others, we
have included parishes to the NI of Northampton
where little previous work has been' done.
This area is also threatened by a new road
connecting the Al and Ml.
The sample of the county studied is now
large enough for tentative comparisonS to be
made. It is'quite clear-that I.A. and later
sites can be found on any type of soil,
including heavy clay, in central and E
Northamptonshire, but in contrast the NW of
the county has pre-medieval sites limited
strictly to light soils. The parish 'of
Maidwell is discussed in a fuller article en
p.29 and is a good case study of a'NW
village; wherever there is a deposit of
glacial gravel or an outcrop of limestone or
ironstone there is an ancient settlement. The
extensive tracts of clay are, hOwever,
barren.
The picture in the SW is more uncértain
because of a much greater area 'of grass land -
but many R.B. sites are known on clay, e.g.
at Weston, Astwell and Stuchbury etc.
Summaries of the parish surveys are given,
below. Further investigations, when fields
now under grass are ploughed, will no doubt
yield further evidence. In some Cases no
check Of the historical, record has yet beenmade.
The sand-ironstone crescent running N
around Northampton continues to produce abundant
evidence of Neolithic and B.A. domestic
and working sites, represented by concentrations
of flints. A case study of a single
site in Brixworth is given on p. 11.
I.A. and R.B. sites continue to be found in
abundance. A recurring finding is that mc..it
Roman sites yield a few sherds of early Saxon
pottery, and a ,re-checking of sites previously
discovered or known is required. It seems