Introduction

INTRODUCTION

This Inventory of the earthworks of Northamptonshire covers parishes in the central part of the county. In it the policy regarding content and scope largely follows that of earlier Inventories.

Apart from Roman Roads (Appendix), the monuments are listed in the following order, under the names of the Civil Parishes in which they lie:

(1) Prehistoric and Roman Monuments.

(2) Medieval and Later Earthworks.

(3) Undated Earthworks, etc.

Each parish entry has a short introductory note, summarizing the physical topography, major monuments and history.

National Grid references are given for all monuments; a map of the whole area is in the pocket inside the back cover. Superior letter before a monument number refers to the sheet number in the OS 1:10000 map series, as listed at the head of the parish.

The entries in the Inventory are necessarily much compressed and where a site has been adequately described elsewhere, few details are given and the reader is directed to the relevant publication.

Many of the plans included in the text have been prepared from air-photographic evidence. Every attempt has been made to avoid inaccuracy, but a number of drawings showing crop or soil-marks have been plotted from oblique air photographs only and therefore the locations shown may in some cases differ slightly from the actual, although general comparative sizes are correct. Furthermore, crop and soil conditions prevailing when the air photographs were taken have sometimes made interpretation difficult. Only those features considered as being archaeologically significant have been included in the illustrations. No attempt has been made to show the correct widths of ditches. Pit alignments and other arrangements of pits are shown conventionally; the precise number of pits, and variations in their size and shape, have not been reproduced.

The present locations of finds are, if known, indicated in the Inventory. Chance finds which are unrelated to monuments have not been included except when their importance warrants it or when it is likely that one of the monuments described in the Inventory was their provenance.

Roman roads in the area are described together in an Appendix, and are identified by the numbers given to them by I.D. Margary in Roman Roads in Britain, I (1955).

All earthworks listed in the Inventory have been inspected by our Investigator, and those which are of major importance, or have proved difficult of analysis, have been re-examined on a number of occasions. Some monuments have been destroyed since their investigation, but these have been included in the Inventory. Most of the recording was carried out in 1974–75 and alteration to the monuments occurring since 1975 have not been described.

Work of this nature can seldom escape the inclusion of some errors, but it is believed that those in this survey are neither numerous nor serious. Any corrections may be sent to the Secretary with a view to their inclusion in subsequent Northamptonshire Inventories.

The present rate both of destruction and discovery of monuments renders unlikely the finality of any inventory, particularly with regard to prehistoric and Roman remains. Archaeological sites are constantly being discovered and it is hoped that a record of material found subsequent to this publication will be incorporated in appendices to later Inventories.