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.

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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 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.

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Test Pit 31 is the second of a number of planned test pits to be dug in allotments that border the south and east of Bartlemas Chapel. The aim of these small excavations is to see if it is possible to determine the extent of activity around the chapel prior to the boundary wall being constructed.

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See photographs on Flickr     

Click here to read project volunteer and artist Nick Hedges observations on Bartlemas Chapel.

3 November

Well, that’s me finished; I’ve got things to do so I’m having to miss out on the last two days of the dig – let’s hope someone will pick up where I leave off.

A test pit was dug to a depth of 1.0m. The natural geology was reached at 0.32m (72.65m above OD). On removing the turf, a thin, uneven spread of pea gravel could be seen immediately below the turfline, mixed with the soil from Spit 1

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A test pit was dug in the front garden of the Art T Centre to a depth of 0.45m. The natural geology was reached at c.0.8m below ground surface.

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The Knights Templar in Temple Cowley 

Caroline Morrell

 Introduction

The majority of the pottery recovered from the excavation appeared to be post medieval in nature although there were one or two pieces which may have been medieval in origin, possibly Brill Ware.  Click here to read the full report.

The excavation revealed extensive evidence of this fire in the form of charcoal, burnt stone and fragments of medieval roof tile. It also revealed the foundations of a substantial wall likely to have been linked to the south wing of the Manor, although its alignment does not tie in well with the surviving part of the Manor. There has clearly been activity on this site for a very long time, as prehistoric worked flints and Roman pottery were found, as well as medieval and post-medieval ceramic material.