Back in CA 370, we described Oxford Archaeology’s excavation of the rare remains of a Romano-British temple-mausoleum associated with an early villa at Priors Hall, near Corby, Northamptonshire. The ceremonial structure was intriguing in its own right, but during the 2nd to 3rd century AD the site’s story had taken an unexpected turn: the mausoleum and surrounding landscape were transformed into a thriving manufacturing centre, whose abundance of kilns produced huge quantities of tiles, brick, pottery vessels, and lime mortar.
These features (dubbed Area A during our research) lay some 200m to the west of the villa remains, which spanned the 1st to 4th century in date and had first been discovered in 2011. It was clear that there was much more to learn about the wider estate – what had happened on the northern and eastern sides of the villa? In the snowy January of 2021, we returned to Priors Hall to find out.
Iron Age beginnings
Our new investigation covered an area of 4.75ha, and within this, on a south-sweeping slope c.100m to the north of the main villa (in what we call Area B), we found evidence of occupation that long pre-dated the known Roman remains. This was a small group of roundhouses clustered in an enclosure, which had begun its life during the Middle Iron Age (c.350-100 BC). This settlement had expanded steadily over time, reaching its peak during the Late Iron Age (c.100 BC-AD 50) as a small but prospering cluster of six to eight roundhouses and a smattering of other post-built buildings. These were enclosed by a large, sinuous ditch, while a metalled trackway bisected the internal area of the settlement, no doubt created to facilitate the movement of its inhabitants and their animals. Pottery and metalwork recovered from the final fill sequences of the settlement indicate that it was closed down and abandoned between AD 40 and AD 100 – around the same time that construction began on the villa site. Had the Iron Age community been displaced or, as we suggest, had its members been the builders and owners, or managers (perhaps as stewards) of the new estate?
Victorian vents and Roman roads