Life by the River: a Prehistoric Landscape at Grendon, Northamptonshire

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a prehistoric landscape by the river Nene at Grendon Lakes, partly revealed in the 1970s and partly during excavations in 1998 and 2001, which are reported in full. Two major phases of archaeological activity are evident, one interpreted as Neolithic–Early Bronze Age, the other as Iron Age. The gap between these is bridged by an environmental sequence reconstructed with the aid of a pollen core from an adjacent palaeochannel, which shows that human activity continued in the intervening period. The landscape is comparable in form, though not in scale, with that investigated 13 km downstream at Raunds, and helps shed light on the distinctive features of Midlands river valleys like the Nene in prehistory. In conclusion it is suggested that the different characters of the Neolithic and Iron Age features at Grendon mask some underlying similarities in the way they structured people's movements and encounters.

Colluvial and alluvial response to land use change in Midland England: An integrated geoarchaeological approach

“…Since the production of these pollen diagrams research has continued to the south at Wellingborough, Turnells Mill Lane (Brown and Meadows, 1998;Brown, 1999a), Wollaston (Brown, 1999b) and Grendon (Last et al, 2005). The Turnells Mill Lane pollen diagram confirms that some deforestation of the local slopes had already occurred by the Mid Neolithic, indicated by small declines in oak, lime and elm (Ulmus).…”

Archaeology, common rights and the origins of Anglo-Saxon identity

“…76 Similar alignments have been identified at other places in Northamptonshire -for example, at Grendon and Newbottle -and at Ketton in Rutland. 77 Like their medieval successors, early grazing lands could be bounded or enclosed. Bronze Age 'terminal reaves' defining the lower limits of upland pasture have survived at places like Venford reave on Holne Moor and Saddlesborough on Shaugh Moor (both Dartmoor), and East Moor on Bodmin.…”

Pursuing ‘the Pressure of the Past’: British Prehistoric Research, 1980–2010

“…Almost certainly in relation to this broad methodological change, a shift is also evident from 2000 onwards in the kinds of prehistoric evidence being discussed: subtler features such as Neolithic pit clusters come to the fore (eg, Garrow et al 2005), and detailed yet broad landscape histories are generated on the basis of the findings from just one site (eg, Last 2005). 7 As outlined above, fieldwork records show that, during the 1980s, investigations primarily involved surveying extensive landscapes or otherwise cutting small trenches across, around or within previously known features.…”

“…Projects were undertaken with the explicit intention of assessing landscape perceptions, the movement of prehistoric people in relation to architectural features or the landscape more broadly, instances of plural or contested meanings, the role of structured deposition, or evidence for social exclusion (eg, Chapman 2005; Kirk & Williams 2000;Last 2005). Throughout the period in question, in both PPS articles and fieldwork records, the research rationale given for undertaking fieldwork are fairly consistent.…”