Archaeological Mitigation at Magna Park, Lutterworth, Leicestershire: June 2020 to March 2021

Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) carried out a programme of archaeological investigations at Magna Park, Lutterworth, Leicestershire between June 2020 and March 2021. A total of just over 12ha was examined as part of the archaeological works, which were separated into eight mitigation areas. The archaeological works revealed the second largest middle Bronze Age cemetery yet found in the county, comprising a group of 30 cremation burials. A further two contemporary cremation burials located 500m away were likely part of the extended funerary landscape. The area of investigation is located along the present A5 which follows the Roman road of Watling Street. This major routeway was hugely influential to the development of the settlements at the site from the middle/ late Iron Age throughout the Roman period and into the medieval period. The site saw four separate farmsteads established in the 1st century BC, and two additional settlement sites established in the early Roman period. These were all gradually abandoned before the late 4th century AD. The presence of a possible shrine attached to one of the settlement areas is suggested by finds of nine silver coins dating from the 1st and early 2nd centuries, as well as brooches and other objects. Two smaller excavation areas examined parts of the periphery of the deserted village of Bittesby. Limited Saxon features along with a small routeway, plots and enclosures dating to the 11th–14th centuries were identified. Minor activity in these areas was recorded up to the mid-16th century.