Higham Ferrers Kings Meadow Lane Roman roadside settlement

Oxford Archaeology (OA) is currently excavating a substantial Roman roadside settlement at Higham Ferrers, on behalf of the Duchy of Lancaster as part of a major development centred on Kings Meadow Lane.

Brief summary of discoveries to date

The present excavations cover an area of roughly 1.3 ha extending approximately 175 m north-south sited towards the top of the slope on the east side of the valley of the River Nene, a line followed by a roughly north-south aligned Roman road which follows the right bank of the river. The excavations lie principally east of the line of the Roman road.

The excavations to date have revealed traces of at least 20 stone-founded Roman buildings, most of which appear to be set within a framework of rectilinear enclosures lying east of the line of the Roman road. The buildings concentrate in the southern two-thirds of the exposed area, the northern part of the site being occupied by rectilinear plots defined by ditches containing a small number of cut features, including a few graves, but no structures. Further south, the system of rectilinear enclosures, including elements identified by geophysical survey but lying outside the extent of the stripped area, extend for some distance east of the road line behind buildings which face onto the road and (in some cases) themselves lie well to the east of it. A well-compacted gravel 'path' extends the length of the site on the east side of the road, with buildings fronting directly onto it.

As seen at present the buildings are of several different types. They include three circular structures, one structure with a curving end, perhaps remodelled more than once, and a number of rectangular structures, mostly of simple form but some with evidence of internal partitions. Few of the buildings have yet been revealed fully and the ongoing process of cleaning makes it clear that much evidence will be revealed beneath deposits incorporating demolition, robbing and post-Roman plough damage horizons. In some cases the latter processes have removed most traces of internal features. Elsewhere, however, some buildings have well-preserved floor surfaces and evidence of hearths and other internal features. In addition there are further walls and areas of stone surfaces which appear to represent 'external' features, presumably indicating walled property units with, in some cases, (localised) stone-surfaced yards.

The building alignments are various; some of the rectangular buildings, for example, are found with their short axis fronting the road margin, in the manner typical of roadside settlements, others with their long axis parallel to the road line, in some cases adjacent to it and in others set back at some distance from it.

There are substantial quantities of pottery, dominated by local (Nene Valley) products as would be expected here. Bone, both animal and human, is well preserved and the former is plentiful. Metalwork is also generally in good and sometimes very good condition. Individual artefacts of significance include an eagle-headed cart fitting, of a type commonly (though not exclusively) regarded as military, a ring with an intaglio, an iron steelyard arm and a group of three iron keys from a grave. Small quantities of iron (smithing) slag have been recovered but appear at present to be very localised. Building material consists of locally available limestone and ironstone and a column fragment which was reused in the foundations of the shrine building lying west of the axial road.

Much of the pottery seen so far is of later Roman (3rd-4th century) date. While this is to be expected there are increasing quantities of earlier material, particularly of 2nd century date. There is a suggestion that the structures at the southern end of the excavated area may be earlier in date than those just to the north, i.e. with an emphasis on the 2nd century rather than later. The coins recovered so far are principally of later 3rd and 4th century date, although a number of earlier pieces are present.

Directly opposite the suite of buildings along the eastern side of the road, on the edge of the sharp slope down to the river, a concentration of hundreds of metal finds, particularly rings, votive leafs and brooches, but also including lead 'curses' military fittings and coins, define a shrine area. No physical evidence of a structure remains, but the plot of the finds suggest a circular building. The provisional dating of the finds (allowing for the possibility that some could have been `heirlooms') suggest that the shrine was built late in the 1st century, and survived until the 3rd century.

A possible successor to this shrine was revealed in an earlier phase of excavation to the north in 2001. Isolated within a large rectilinear enclosure aligned to the road were the poorly preserved foundations of a solitary stone based building, provisionally interpreted as a temple. Two column fragments were recovered from one of two wells close by. A further column fragment was an older surface find from the edge of the same general area (Woodfield 1978). It is not certain that any of these fragments derive from the excavated building, though this must be considered likely.

The whole settlement appears to have been abandoned in the late 4th/early 5th century. Early Saxon (5th-6th century) finds from the area of the eastern roadside buildings suggest a possible re-occupation (or continuation) of part of the settlement. Similar material was recovered from the 1961 excavation to the south and a sunken featured building was encountered in an earlier excavation just to the north (see below).

In the context of the region the walled town of Irchester lies only c 4.5 km to the south-west while the small villa at Redlands Farm, Stanwick is only 1.5 km to the north and the major villa and associated rural settlement complex at Stanwick a further 1-1.5 km away. The Higham Ferrers site can thus be placed in a landscape for which there is already good quality (though largely unpublished) evidence for a diversity of 'urban' and rural settlement types. Evidence from the site has the potential to make a very substantial contribution to understanding the interrelationships of these various settlements and their roles in the wider landscape.