Untitled - Council for British Archaeology

21NORTHAMPTONSHIRE PARISH SURVEYS - David Hall and Paul Martin, Higham FerrersHundred Society and Northamptonshire Field GroupThe field by field parish surveys continued using the techniques desscribedpreviously (Newsletter 4, 1974). Eight parishes comprising 16,000acres were completed, including Eye in the Soke of Peterborough (now administeredas part of the new Cambridgeshire).The rate of progress was slower this season, partly because of the wetconditions and partly because of work undertaken in other counties.The general pattern of settlement distribution described in Newsletter7 (1977) continues to be established. Pre-Iron Age sites only occur onlight soils 'whereas Iron Age and later sites occur on any soil type. NorthwestNorthamptonshire is sparsely settled compared with the central NeneValley.A summary of the fieldwork findings is given below. Generally no crossreferencing with the County Sites and Monuments Record has yet been made norany historical back-up undertaken.Castle AshbyNeolithic flints and part of a Langdale polished axe were found at SP856609 and a tanged arrowhead at SP 85836108. An area of dark soil containingIron Age pottery is centred at SP 857604. Romano-British siteswere represented by pottery and building stone scatters at SP 859607 andSP 808585. A few Saxon sherds were recovered from SP 858602.Some of the medieval village has been lost under the gardens of thegreat house which was built in 1574 onwards on the site of an earlier 'castle'(fortified manor?). Formal gardens were originally laid out and four avenuesof trees added in 1695. The area was landscaped by Capability Brown in1761-7; many apparently isolated trees and other features line up to givethe outline of the earlier geometric design.Ridge-and-furrow is well preserved in the park and represented byploughed-over headland-earthworks elsewhere.EyeMany pre-medieval sites occur in this fen-edge parish, especially onthe gravel terraces at the N and SE. Bronze Age barrows (surviving asmounds or cropmarks) lie at TF 233012, TF 248062, TF 249059. A Bronze Agedomestic site with an abundance of hard sherds lies in former fen at TF217015. A single Iron Age site was found at TF 218016, also in formerfen. Romano-British occupation debris laid at TF 241022, TF 242042, TF251051, TF 252053 and TF 213030. A Saxon cemetery was located at TF 229035in the C19th.Four separate monastic sites lie on peninsulas of the parish, thechief being Fyebury; Northolm still has some moats and vague earthworks.The ridge-and-furrow pattern was very difficult to establish except inthe small area that remained open field until 1819. The remainder was inclosedat an early date by the monastic sites.Long BuckbyThis NW Northants clay parish contained several areas of gravel andhigh ground with outcrops of ironstone; as usual these light soils producedearly sites.