Roman wells at Chester Farm, Irchester, Northamptonshire

During October and November 2016, Oxford Archaeology East was commissioned to undertake the excavation of two stone lined Roman wells on a community dug project at Chester Farm, Irchester, Northamptonshire.
The two wells, which both measured 0.7m in diameter, were entirely constructed of roughly hewn limestone blocks and measured 3.75m and 3.35m deep respectively. A substantial assemblage of 2nd to 4th century pottery and animal bone was recovered from both wells; along with lesser amounts of CBM, shell and metalwork. Several small pieces of waterlogged wood were also retrieved. A number of whole vessels were collected from well 800, whereas well 810 was dominated by animal bone; potentially indicative of differential zoning within the Roman town.
Sequential environmental sampling recovered seeds from the lower waterlogged fills which represent plants that would have been growing in the near vicinity of the features. This was reaffirmed by pollen analysis of the basal fill of each well, which produced relatively rich and diverse samples.