Hargrave

23 HARGRAVE

(OS 1:10000 ^a TL 07 SW, ^b TL 06 NW)

The parish, covering some 570 hectares, lies S.E. of Raunds, adjoining Bedfordshire and the old county of Huntingdonshire on land between 170 ft. and 270 ft. above OD. Most of the parish is on Boulder Clay except along the sides of a small valley which drains N.E., where Oxford Clay is exposed.

A large Roman settlement (1) indicates that the underlying Boulder Clay constituted no hindrance to occupation at that time.

Prehistoric and Roman

Roman pottery from an unspecified building site, perhaps in the village, has been recorded (Beds. Arch. J., 7 (1972), 14 Hargrave 2).

^a(1) Iron Age and Roman settlement (TL 035722), in the N. of the parish, on Boulder Clay at 220 ft. above OD. In 1893 Roman pottery and a stone coffin were found here as well as coins and 'relics of a settlement' (TL 03357228). More pottery and a coin were discovered in 1965. Another coin, now in Huntingdon Museum, may have come from the same site. Air photographs show (at TL 035722) two semicircular ditches which may be part of an enclosure, 140 m. in diam., and further N. at TL 03577238 are indications of a rectangular building, 30 m. by 10 m., orientated almost E.-W., with at least one internal wall. Roman and Iron Age pottery have recently been found on the site. (Ass. Arch. Soc. Rep., XXII (1893–4), 82–7; VCH Northants., I (1902), 218; BNFAS, 2 (1967), 11; Beds. Arch. J., 7 (1972), 14, Hargrave 1; OS Record Cards; RAF VAP CPE/UK 1925, 3266–7)

Medieval and Later

^a(2) Site of medieval building (TL 034715), immediately N. of the village in the bottom of a small valley, on Oxford Clay at 180 ft. above OD. A large quantity of pottery of 13th and 14th-century date, together with limestone rubble, has been found (BNFAS, 3 (1969), 23).

^a(3) Settlement remains (TL 034707), formerly part of Hargrave village, W. of the church on the S. side of the village street. An area of low earthworks including platforms and banks is separated from the adjoining ridge-and-furrow by a large bank and ditch. The site had already been abandoned by 1802 (map in NRO). Other building sites exist, or existed, elsewhere in the village, on plots between standing houses (RAF VAP CPE/UK 1994, 2406–7).

(4) Cultivation remains (Fig. 91). The common fields were enclosed by Act of Parliament in 1802 (maps in NRO). Ridge-and-furrow of these fields can be seen on the ground, or traced on air photographs over much of the parish, mainly arranged in end-on or interlocked furlongs. Within this ridgeand-furrow, and elsewhere, long low ridges up to 700 m. long and formerly headlands, still survive on the ground. There is a remarkably complex group W. of the village around TL 022705. (RAF VAP CPE/UK 1925, 2262–8, 3264–9; 1994, 2403–8)

Undated

^a(5–7) are enclosures in the W. of the parish, only visible from the air. No dimensions are known. (BNFAS, 6 (1971), 13, Hargrave (1), (2) and (3))

^a(5) Enclosure (TL 01777028), on Boulder Clay, small and roughly square.

^a(6) Enclosures (TL 02257140), possibly two or three, on Boulder Clay.

^a(7) Enclosure (TL 01787110), roughly triangular, on Boulder Clay.