Middle Iron Age roundhouse, Rugby and Daventry Crematorium site

1 A watching brief was carried out during soil stripping in advance of the construction of a new crematorium at Hillmorton, Rugby. A single significant feature was identified, thought very likely to represent the footprint of an Iron Age roundhouse. It consisted of two distinct curving gullies which formed discontiguous circumferential arcs with a projected diameter of 13m. A small assemblage of middle Iron Age pottery, fragmentary animal bone and heat-cracked pebbles was excavated from the gullies. The roundhouse forms part of a growing corpus of similarly constructed features known from the region and represents further evidence for prehistoric land-use outside the major river valleys. It is suggested that the roundhouse was part of a local tradition of buildings of mass wall construction with perhaps seasonal usage.