The site was excavated using a 360� mechanical excavator fitted with a toothless ditching bucket. A ramp was dug in the south-east corner of the initial working area and then the east side of the extension area to allow safe access and egress into the working area. A gap was left deliberately in situ between Areas C31048 and C31049 to avoid a hedgerow aligned north/north-west to south/south-east that runs through the AR area. Area C31048 is 0.24ha in size, the west side of Area C31049 (B) is 1.38ha and the east side of Area C31049 (B) covered an area of 2.24ha. This gives a total excavated AR area of 3.86ha. In the Blackgrounds North AR areas there was substantial archaeological remains dating from the middle Iron Age into the Roman period. This consisted of part of a substantial middle to late Iron Age agglomerate settlement which spanned both areas and which also continued into the adjacent Blackgrounds Central and East site (this later area is subject to a separate forthcoming report). Agglomerate sites are not common within the East Midlands area, although Northamptonshire seems to have the most with around ten examples, with far fewer recorded in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. Blackgrounds North is close to the northern extent of the agglomerate type of settlement, which is most commonly found in one area of the West Midlands, at the southern extent of Warwickshire which borders on present day Northamptonshire. Of especial interest is that Blackgrounds North is possibly the earliest agglomerate settlement in the county, and it was one of the three largest, possibly of village size. The Blackgrounds Site as a whole was the only agglomerate site from Northamptonshire that continued in use into the Roman period as a similar sized settlement; it became a Roman small town. In Blackgrounds North there were two long lived multi-phase structures in the east of C31049, with a further 26 structures and 17 associated enclosures. A series of pits, pit and posthole clusters were also identified. Blackgrounds North has produced the most Iron Age inhumation burials from any single site in the county with six examples; collectively there had been only c15 burials found from this period in Northamptonshire. Additionally the Site included the only example of a pit which contained two burials. The Site also produced a significant quantity of artefacts and ecofacts with evidence for copper and iron working, bone working and other craft manufacturing. In the Roman period there was a north-west to south-east aligned holloway (identified in the west of area C31049), focussed on the main part of the small town (located to the south-east). The current Blackgrounds North site was largely agricultural during this period, although two contemporary burials were placed close to the routeway. During the late Roman period a small area of domestic occupation was established, adjacent to routeway whose metalled surface had survived. Occupation comprised stone walls, surfaces and a well and these were located in the extreme south-eastern part of area C31049. This activity likely demarcated the north-western extent of the small town located to the south-east, and investigated by the forthcoming the Blackgrounds Central and East AR areas. The finds and environmental assemblages should be retained and compared to the results of the Blackgrounds Central and East areas, so as to further the understanding of the landscape as a whole.
Farey et al. (Sun,) studied this question.