Untitled - Council for British Archaeology

D.H.,Kennètt;. 'The Ang107Saxon 'cemetery found at
Kempston,- Bedfordshire:, a reconsideration'i,typescript,.
1968,'availabla British Museum, Department of Medieval
and Later Antiquitiea-.
Kettering: Proc. Soc. Ant. 19 (1903), 307-310; Ant. J., 10 (1930)
254.
THE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE SURVEY
David Hall and Paul Martin
The season.of 1978-9 was fraught with weather unsuitable for fieldwork.
A dry autumn caused a iate startand.there-Was much loss of time
because of froat.and snow. Therefore the equivalent of only 7 parishes
was Surveyed.; Ashby-St..'Ledgers,.GeAdington,.Grafton Undarwood, Warkton,
Weekley, Welton and parts of Little Oakley, Stanion and West Haddon. .
Archaeological results were consistertwith previbus conclusions.
The boulderclays of Rockingham Forest were richin'ircin Age and Roman
remains but the north-west parishes were almost devoid of premedieval
settlement. Welton differs from the north-west. trend in having a.known
Saxon'Oemetery and a 'Roman villa (neWlY discOvered)..'Hgre *there was
stone building"material, various kinds of tile and,slate and painted architectural
fragments of tufa. -
°Perhaps the most important.discoveries were the earthwork sites
founapin the' woods, Most of theM likely to be prehistorié.The finest
earOlwork Was found in. Grafton Park Wood. It would seem, to be a typical
Iron Age farmatead in a rOughly,circular'enolosure about50.m diameter,
consisting of a:bank'and.ditch.. The bank, stands about iim. high. Parts of
square endlosures.were found in Geddington Chase and Castor Hanglands -
both medieval. ..Grafton Park als000ntains IronAge earthworks(partly
excavated by D.-Jackson see abre).
-These earthworks ara' similar io the one diseoyered in Salcey Forest
on the boundary of Hartwell parish- (thia Journal 1975).-It is Clear that..
in areas* of Meaieval woodland and parkland, where.there are Many thousands'
of acres never subjected to ploughing'since at least Roman times, there
is great-potential for the survival of early earthworks.:
.Thewoods also contained an'abundanca of MedieVal ramparts, especially
the parks. Thus Grafton Park Wood, Boughton Wood and Brigstock Park are
enclosad','but Geddington Chase is not; The old ridings'Of the latter'did
have low ramparts and formed wide cUrving tracks quite Unlike the straight
'modern' onesi . Many parts of these woods were shown to be postmedieval
with ridge-and-furrow in them.
'NASEBY PARISH.SURVEY 1976- DaVid'HalI,' Ruth Haraing and Paul Martin
The survey followed the techniques described in previous'Newaletters.
Naseby contains 3324 acres and lies.on one of'the.highest parts of the
,Northamptonshire.Uplands; most of the parish is above-500 feet OD and
about a third is well over 600 feet. Both the Avon and the Nene Tlse here.
The geology consists mainly of bOulder-clay drift-,deposits with areas
of gravel,,especially to the south,. Some Of the highest hills, including
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