The Test pit was dug in the back garden of a 30’s house, built approx. 1935. The area is shown as a field in the First Edition Ordnance Survey Map and before that, which in effect means before the Enclosures, it is shown as “Cowley Marsh” (Cowley Enclosure Map, 1853; Christ Church Tenancy Map, 1777). The Marsh was bounded, to the North-West by the land granted to Bartlemas Chapel, which now consists of the Chapel itself and Oriel Sports Ground, and to the South-West by Cricket Road, then a track which separated the Marsh from the ridge-and-furrow fields which had been under cultivation from at least late medieval times. Read more.