Pits, pits and more pits: Cotswolds dates alignment in Northamptonshire

Feb 19, 2025

Photograph of pit alignment 1, north of Dallington Brook

from article by Jo Barker, Post-Ex Manager, Cotswold Archaeology

Two extensive lines of pits, commonly referred to as ‘pit alignments’, have been discovered on either side of the Dallington Brook in Northamptonshire. They were found during archaeological excavations carried out in 2022 and 2023 by Cotswold Archaeology’s Milton Keynes field team, working on behalf of Bloor Homes in consultation with Quercus Heritage Limited.

These pit alignments are a distinctive type of boundary that are now recognised as an important and yet enigmatic element of the late prehistoric landscape.

Pit alignments are regarded as a predominantly first millennium BC phenomenon although they are often not well dated and pit alignments 1 and 2 are no exception! However, Cotswolds Archaeology have been lucky enough to radiocarbon date a waterlogged twig fragment found at the base of one of the pits and it indicates that these alignments were dug sometime in the Early Iron Age (700–400 BC)!

The pit boundaries discovered adjacent to the Dallington Brook were defined by up to 54 pits, most of which were evenly spaced, 1.5–2m apart. Variations were noted in their size and shape (circular, oval or sub-rectangular), which could suggest that they were dug by different individuals or separate groups of people. Similar observations have been made for other pit alignments in Northamptonshire and have been attributed to gang-work. It is also possible that these huge boundaries were created in stages, perhaps over several seasons, which would explain the slight variations in the pits themselves, as well as slight ‘wobbles’ in their otherwise straight formations.

Both pit alignments 1 and 2 were in excess of 200m long and it is possible that they continued beyond the excavation area; a line of similar pits identified during road improvements on New Sandy Lane in 2010 could represent an easterly continuation of pit alignment 1.

Evidence was found to suggest that the pits forming alignment 2 were often water-filled, due to their location on the floodplain, and this was also noted by the field team during a very wet winter on site!