Monitoring construction groundwork. Sample hang-dug excavations. Recording by: GNSS, traditional hand-drawn sections, digital photography. Environmental soil samples taken Between June and December 2024, intermittent monitoring and investigation was undertaken during development groundwork at Earls Barton Primary School, in the historic core of Earls Barton village, Northamptonshire. There were two discrete areas of development: a new car park and a new classroom block. The earliest known land-use at the site was woodland in the late 18th and early 19th century, which appears to have been associated with a deer park, first mentioned in the early 14th century. The new car park was built in a former grassed space of approximately 0.14 ha., at the foot of a hill-slope within the school grounds. It was the site of watercress beds from the late 19th to the mid- 20th century, on the edge of a former stream. Ground reduction revealed a single feature of archaeological interest: a substantial pit with near-vertical sides and a flattish base that was possibly associated with 18th century leather production, a well-documented craft occupation at Earls Barton. The new classroom was constructed 40m upslope from the carpark and closer to the village centre, in a former playground which was terraced from the hillside in the mid-Victorian period. Removal of playground surfacing and a retaining wall revealed part of the defensive perimeter of a previously unknown late Saxon burh (fortified settlement). The remains consisted of a palisade-revetment trench and double enceinte of counterscarps and ditches. The morphological characteristics of the fortification compare with late Saxon defensive works known from elsewhere in England. The earliest dating evidence, however, was a small assemblage of pottery associated with the dismantling of timber palisade-revetment, which provides only a broad c. 11th century date, possibly even 12th century. There are presently two theories for the origin of the burh. The first is that it belongs to the period of the Saxon re-conquest of the Danelaw which began in AD 913, a joint offensive carried out by King Edward of the West Saxons and Æthelflæd of Mercia, the son and daughter of King Alfred. The second, is that it was constructed by a wealthy thegn, who may have also been responsible for building the tower of Earls Barton's church, which is thought to date from c. AD 970. Subsequent analytical study to contextualise the findings has resulted in a greater understanding of the spatial extent of the burh, a perimeter of c. 740m (c. 3.9 ha.), which undoubtedly encompassed the turriform church (a Grade I Listed building) and, in some manner, incorporated the so-far-undated ditched defensive earthwork (a Scheduled Monument) that surrounds the NW side of the church. The significance of the burh is that it not only does it probably represent the origin of the medieval township that is now the village of Earls Barton, but it allows reconsideration and re-contextualisation of the two nationally-acclaimed monuments. The Assessment includes a Scope of Further Analysis of the results of the investigation. This essentially concerns the opportunity to narrow-down the chronology of the burh via the application of scientific dating mechanisms of AMS radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology.
Martin D Wilson (Wed,) studied this question.