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Test pit

Test pits are excavation in miniature. All the processes that are carried out on a full scale-excavation, such as digging, recording, drawing, photography and taking soil samples, take place during the excavation of a test pit. Over the next three years we hope to dig as many test pits as possible. If you are interested in digging a test pit in your garden please contact Jane@archeox.net.

Test Pit 18 - Bartlemas Farmhouse Grounds.

Address: 
Bartlemas Close, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX4 2AE, UK

Test pit 18 was located in the garden of Bartlemas Farmhouse in an area of rough vegetation, 1.6m west of a modern fence-line and 7.9m south of the south side of the boundary ditch after its turn west. The N-S course of this boundary ditch is thought to be very old and may mark the edge of the Leper Hospital's lands (see test pits BT_1, 2 and 4; and Bartlemas Chapel excavation reports for more information).

click here to read full report

 

 

Test Pit 23, Restore, Elder Stubbs Allotments

Address: 
Restore, Elder Stubbs Allotments, Rymers Lane, Cowley

The test pit was dug north of the active allotments used by RESTORE, in an area that had been under grass for some time, on the edge of the old orchard. Old maps suggest that before the land became orchard and allotments it may have been used for pasture

 Click here to read the full report

Test Pit 12 - 26 Abberbury Road

Address: 
26 Abberbury Rd, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX4 4ES, UK

Test pit 12 was located in the garden of 26 Abberbury Road in a lawn sloping very gently up to the south. The area of lawn in which the test pit was dug was  part of an old orchard, of which a few trees survive in the back gardens on this side of Abberbury Road; the garden is approaching the highest point of Rose Hill and backs on to the allotments. Historic Ordnance Survey maps show this area as agricultural land until its development in the twentieth century.

Test Pit 11 - Abberbury Road

Address: 
21 Abberbury Rd, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX4 4ET, UK

Test pit 11 was located in the garden of 21 Abberbury Road in a lawn sloping down to the north. The lawn is surrounded by mature trees and lies on the northern slopes of Rose Hill. Historic Ordnance Survey maps show this area as agricultural land until its development in the twentieth century. There is known Iron Age and Romano-British archaeology within half a kilometre including burials, domestic surfaces and Roman kiln sites focused on Annesley Road.

Test Pit 17 - Bartlemas Farmhouse

Address: 
Bartlemas Farmhouse, Bartlemas Lane, Cowley

The test pit is close to a Bartlemas Farmhouse dated partly to the early 16th century, but an older part to the east may have been the warden’s house for the Bartlemas leper hospital founded in the 12th century. This area was clearly occupied during the medieval period as pottery from the pit demonstrates. There is also clear evidence from the make-up layer of clay and domestic/animal waste that the ground level was raised at some point, probably to prevent flooding.

Test Pit 26 - Long Lane Littlemore

Address: 
Long Ln, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX4, UK

A test pit was dug in the back garden of a semi-detached house built in the 1930's. Prior to this the site was used for agriculture, including use as an apple orchard, and neighbouring gardens still retain old apple trees. The pottery finds demonstrate activity, but not necessarily occupation, during the medieval period.

Click here to read full report

Test Pit 16 - Edgeway Road, Marston

Address: 
Edgeway Rd, Oxfordshire OX3, UK

Test pit 16 was located in the garden of a house on the south side of Edgeway Road in a small level lawn. The house is one of a short terrace of houses ending in an office block. The terrace and the office were built in 1988 on the site of a garage remembered by a local resident in the 1930s.  A jump in house numbering suggests that the relatively new terrace may occupy the site of older cottages that preceded the garage, and the test pit results would seem to confirm this.

Test Pit 15 - The Rectory, Mill Lane, Iffley

Address: 
Mill Ln, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX4, UK

Test pit 15 was located in the garden of the Rectory, Iffley in a lawn sloping down to the river to the west. Historic Ordnance Survey maps and the proximity of the church suggest that this area should be in the centre of the medieval village.  However the land may always have been within the confines of a medieval manor close to domestic buildings rather than heavily-used village or agricultural land.

Click here to read full report.

 

Test Pit 14 - Iffley Allotments, Children's Play Area

Address: 
Lenthall Rd, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX4, UK

Test pit 14 was located in the turf of the central children’s play area, gently sloping to the west and much nearer the gently domed summit of Rose Hill.  Historic Ordnance Survey maps show this area as agricultural land until the development of Abberbury Road.

Click here to read more

Test Pit 13 - Lower Allotments, Iffley

Address: 
Church Way, Oxford OX4 4DZ, UK

Test pit 13 was located on the western edge of the Rose Hill allotments in an area sloping to the west and the river. Historic Ordnance Survey maps show this area as agricultural land until the development of Abberbury Road. This particular area of the allotments was, however, also part of the Glebe field, the remnant of which survives to the west.

Click here to read full report.

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