Excavations at Wakerley, Northants, 1972-75

Abstract

Department of the Environment revealed an extensive Iron Age settlement and traces of widespread Roman agricultural and industrial activity at Wakerley, Northamptonshire (FIG. 2). The settlement was situated in Wakerley parish, immediately to the south of the road running between the villages of Wakerley and Harringworth and nine miles north-northeast of Corby 3 (FIG. 3). It was sited on sloping ground, overlooking the valley of the River Welland, and some \ mile from the river itself. From the site there are extensive views of the river valley to the north and west and of the hills and dales of Rutland that lie beyond. A deep natural gully occurs in the hillside, just to the west of the settlement and, as a result, the site is in an open position and fully exposed to the westerly winds. The settlement was located between the 250 and 300 ft. contours on a wide expanse of Lower Lincolnshire Limestone. Clays of the Lower Estuarine Series and outcrops of Northampton Sand and Ironstone occur on the lower slopes of the valley below the site and in the adjacent gully to the west. It is likely that a convenient supply of water would have been available in this gully in earlier periods, but this has been piped away in modern times. Some 150 m to the southwest , on the opposite side of the gully, an Anglo-Saxon cemetery was excavated by D. A. Jackson during 1968 and 1970 (report forthcoming). A small number of burials of Saxon date were found within the area of the excavation described below. Further to the southwest , some 600 m from the Iron Age and Roman site, the stone foundations of a Roman aisled barn, measuring 30 by 14 m, have also been excavated. The barn overlay earlier buildings and it is hoped that further work on this site will be possible in the future. Extensive quarrying southwest of the settlement has revealed isolated Iron 1 T. M. Ambrose has described the small finds and shared in the general preparation of this report. 2 A. L. Pacitto directed the excavation of an unusual concentration of iron-smelting furnaces, and his report is incorporated in the section on iron-working. P. J. Woods (with the assistance of R. E. Turland) excavated the three Romano-British pottery kilns and has described the results in this report. With the help of R. E. Turland he also carried out all the post-excavation work on the Romano-British pottery and has described and discussed the pottery in relation to the site as a whole. Grateful thanks are due to Miss S. A. Butcher for her report on the brooches and to Alison Cook for her report on the Anglo-Saxon grave-goods. Mr L. Biek and Dr R. F. Tylecote contributed to the section on iron-working, and thanks are due to them for visiting the site and making valuable suggestions during the excavations. Other specialist contributions are gratefully acknowledged from F.

The use of reflectance values for the interpretation of natural and anthropogenic charcoal assemblages

“…Charcoal was relatively inexpensive and could often be produced locally, close to the site of industrial activity. Charcoal as a residue of pyrotechnical processes occurs widely in relevant archaeological contexts (for example from Iron Age and Roman deposits associated with iron smelting at Wakerley, Northamptonshire; Jackson et al 1978). Therefore, analysis of charcoal recovered from the archaeological record can be a useful tool for archaeologists to determine various types of human activity involving the use of fire for example metallurgical processes (Bayley et al 2001), glass production (Henderson 2000), pottery firing (Livingstone-Smith 2001) and domestic hearths (McDonnell 2001).…”

Ariconium, Herefordshire

“…A similar practice may be suggested by one of the furnaces investigated by Bridgewater (1965; Area A; Figs 2.2 and 2.3), although at the time the thickness of the clay was interpreted as possibly representing a reworking of an earlier feature. Comparable structures have also been recorded at other major ironworking centres such as those on the Weald and in Northamptonshire (Cleere 1970;Jackson and Ambrose 1978), all of which can be classified according to Cleere's typology as Group B slag tapping furnaces (Cleere 1976).…”

“…2.5, 'furnace D'). A charcoal store has also been identified at Chesters (Fulford and Allen 1992), while ore roasting hearths have often been recorded, as at Bardown, on the Weald (Cleere 1976) and at Wakerley, Northamptonshire (Jackson and Ambrose 1978). Post and stake-holes have been recorded suggesting that timber-built structures were present (see Figs 2.5 and 2.11) probably providing shelter, storage and other ancillary functions but unfortunately none are reconstructable.…”

ThePraetoriumof Edmund Artis: A Summary of Excavations and Surveys of the Palatial Roman Structure at Castor, Cambridgeshire 1828–2010

“… 353 RCHM 1975, 24; Johnston 1987; Jackson and Ambrose 1978; Jackson and Tylecote 1988; Condron 1997; Schrüfer-Kolb 1999 and 2004. See also Wacher 1986, 170.…”