Observation and recording during excavation of a pipe-trench Archaeological monitoring, investigation and recording was carried out by Souterrain during excavation of a foul drainage connection trench within the Scheduled Monument earthwork site at Upton, Northampton, known as 'Upton Medieval Village and C17 Garden Earthworks' (SM NN 165). The trench ran from Park Barns, Upton, to an existing Anglian Water Authority sewer, a distance of c.31m. Scheduled Monument Consent permitted a pipe-trench route that would cause minimal visual affect to upstanding earthworks. A condition of the Consent was for a qualified archaeologist to monitor works and implement an appropriate scheme of mitigation with regard to buried archaeological remains. It was perceived that the trench would pass through a medieval croft. Prior to the pipe-trench excavation, an archaeological reconnaissance was undertaken of earthworks in the vicinity of the route, followed by a limited archaeological topographical survey by Differential GPS and the generation of a Digital Terrain Model (DTM). The walkover and DTM revealed nothing unmistakably indicative of buried archaeological potential in the proposed pipe-line route. The trench encountered an extensive layer of pebbly soil below the turf and topsoil. The layer was not dissimilar to plough-disturbed ground, although the narrow confines of the trench (c.0.6m) denied further clarification. Other than this, there were no identifiable features or deposits of archaeological significance, and no artefacts. It was therefore not possible gain an insight to historic land-use of the site. It was concluded that the pipe-trench caused minimal impact to below-ground archaeology. The report provides an illustrated synopsis of the archaeological context of the investigation, the methodology employed, and the results.
Martin D Wilson (Wed,) studied this question.