Blisworth - initial evidence of IA Settlement

The area south of the Church in Blisworth (shown at the top of this view) is well sheltered from the east winds, was bounded by a stream on the west (before the canal was built) and was supported by springs emerging between limestone strata to the north and east.  The northern part of the area was occupied by the Wakes from ~1250 to 1530 where they must have built, at first, large wooden houses.  Records from 1718, in the collections for "Bridges History", refer to Blisworth House as the original seat (ie. location of the seat) of the the Wakes.

Iron Age round houses are generally characterised as having low circular walls of stone and daub topped with an apex of natural timber branches covered in straw or reed thatching.  Their diameter is typically 8 to 11 yards and a 10 yard diameter template is used here (in cyan) to show where the ground markings are suggestive of remains of round house wallings.  Some features have been left without marking them up.  For the features marked with an "A" there is some suggestion that the site had been used a number of times.  This is not an unusual situation - see for example the case approximately 1 mile to the east.  The technique of gradient magnetometry is totally non-invasive and has been proven in the past to reveal mineral markings below the surface due to round houses etc and maybe a session with such an instrument would be interesting here.  However, the features towards the upper right are now built upon and, of the remaining features, 80% are located where permission for any survey, as currently understood, is unlikely to be granted.  It must be said that the professional aerial photograph analysts that have been approached have come up with many objections and doubt the need to jump to an iron age conclusion; a critique is added below.

Also marked are various linear features, notably a possible building outline 70 yards south of Blisworth House and some lines which appear to have continuity on the other side of the canal, the implications being that, before the canal was built (1794), there were field boundaries which extended across the shallow valley to the west and that, in this area, the level of the canal is not much lower than the original level of the stream which it subsumed.  Note that the building outline (dotted) appears oriented roughly parallel with a line of marks that would have been near the stream.  This prompts the imagination towards a Romanesque portal and platform which decorated the stream bank; I mention this to tease the reader.

The aerial photograph was taken in April 1947 by the RAF and quite a few scratches are observable over an image that is not of the best quality.  Furthermore, the photograph was not vertical and there is a little north-south fore-shortening which has not been corrected here.  Some image optimisation was needed for the faint circles to be reasonably easily visible.  The steps used here amounted to careful "levelling" of the tonal value across the area, enhancing contrast for narrow features and applying some degree of blurring.  The assessment of what remains leaves scope for the "total sceptic".  For those who wish to delve further there is an opportunity to download here some jpeg files which illustrate the image processing.

Critique:  Professional reaction to a suggestion that the circular features may be IA round house remains are as follows.  "For these to actually  be IA remains is highly unlikely", the reason for saying this is that, up to now, such have been rarely found in aerial pictures - but here we are dealing with some digitally enhanced pictures and the aerial survey work 1940s to 2008 tend to not use enhancements.  "These might be the remains of relatively recent haystacks" - but 10 yards diameter, even allowing for a spread of nutrient around the outside of the stack, is far too large a feature to be from such a stack.  Typical post-medieval stacks were ~ 4 to 5 yards diameter as sheaves cannot be thrown high enough to create the ~ 45 degree pitch covering over any stack that is much larger.  "Be wary in finding such in the confines of a village" as all sorts of medieval activities would have obliterated such remains, hence they are highly unlikely - but these features maybe regarded as within a semi-defensive enclosure at least from Saxon times and certainly from 1200AD onwards as the area included the gardens etc. belonging to the "squire", eg. Wake.  "The resolution of the original photos are poor and enhancement brings it own risks in terms of generating visual artefacts".  No archaeologist actually said that but their discomfort in commenting was clear enough owing to the subject being outside their field of expertise.  Their caution is wise and we must await a magnetometer survey.  "The eye-brain is notorious in generating convincing artefacts and the only safeguard is to employ multiple eye-brains".  Absolutely....