Between Villa and Town Excavations of a Roman roadside settlement and shrine at Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire Oxford Monograph 7

Oxford Archaeology (OA) undertook a series of
archaeological investigations on land around Kings
Meadow Lane, Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire,
from 1993 to 2003. This work revealed occupation
from the Mesolithic through to the medieval period,
including part of a substantial Roman roadside
settlement and shrine. This volume deals with the
Roman remains, in addition to excavated early
prehistoric and Iron Age activity in the local area.
The important early to mid Saxon settlement and
the medieval remains have been published
elsewhere (Hardy et al. 2007).
The earliest occupation is represented by an
extensive redeposited flint assemblage attesting to
significant (probably early) Mesolithic activity at
the site. Sparse Neolithic occupation was indicated
by two pits and a scatter of tools. A late Neolithic/
early Bronze Age ring ditch surrounding a probable
cremation burial was found to the east of the Roman
settlement, while a second cremation burial, within
an inverted early Bronze Age Collared Urn, was
found in the far western part of the site.
A middle to late Iron Age settlement was located
c 370 m north-east of the Roman settlement, and
consisted of a series of enclosures with associated
ring gullies and other settlement features.
The excavated part of the Roman settlement was
established in the earlier 2nd century, with evidence
for circular buildings, wells and a small cemetery.
The settlement was bounded to the west by a ditch
delimiting the eastern side of a north-south road.
The layout of the settlement changed significantly
during the late 2nd to 3rd century, with a series of
mostly rectangular buildings aligned upon the
eastern side of the north-south road. A gravel
‘pavement’ was constructed along the whole length
of the roadside frontage of the settlement, while on
the western side of the road, a monumental shrine
complex was constructed.
During the late 3rd to early 4th century the settlement
expanded to the north, although the shrine to
the west of the road fell into disuse at this time. The
religious focus may have shifted to a small ‘temple’
at the northern periphery of the settlement. The
settlement (or at least the excavated part of it) was
abandoned during the second half of the 4th century,
with the buildings being subjected to stone robbing,
a process that continued into the post-Roman period.
At the time of the Saxon reoccupation of the site
(mid 5th century onwards), many of the late Roman
boundary ditches still existed as remnant earthwork
hollows.