The Test Pit was dug in the rear garden of an 80’s house, built when the Greater Leys Estate was constructed. Prior to the building work a number of trenches were dug in the confines of the planned area of the estate as part of an archaeological evaluation and discovered evidence of extensive late Roman pottery works and one example of early (1st Century) Romano-British occupation (HER PRN 26336, Tempus Reparatum). More recently, the land appears to have been in agricultural use: in 1749 owned by the Duke of Marlborough (Bodleian Library, MSC1749 (95)), in 1853 as part of Blackbird Leys Farm, owned by Christopher J Waddell, Esq (Bodleian Library – G.A.Oxon B 91 (46)). Google Earth shows the land as fields in 1945. Read more.