AAAHS carried out a geophysical survey and excavations at Bayworth Manor Farm in 2003. This was the site of a medieval manor house, with a chapel, which belonged to Abingdon Abbey in medieval times. The house was in ruins by 1727 and was later demolished. The excavations found floors and stone wall foundations, and debris from the demolition of buildings. A well, a paved courtyard and a paved path were also found. Some medieval pottery of the 11th or 12th century AD was found. Bayworth is mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086.
Well and paved area, Bayworth Manor FarmPaved area at Bayworth Manor Farm
A watching brief was carried out out in 2012, on construction work in the back garden of a house in East Saint Helen Street. Roman and medieval pottery, medieval and post-medieval pits, walls and pottery, and a stone-lined well which had been capped in Victorian or later times were found. One pit contained a large quantity of early 19th century broken wine bottles, plates and tankards. This led to a suggestion that the property might have been a public house at one time.
A small excavation was carried out when one of the shops in the Bury Street precinct was extended at the rear. Roman pits and Roman pottery dating to the 2nd to 4th centuries AD were found. Pits and domestic rubbish dating to the 12th to 16th centuries were also found.
An archaeological trench was dug by Oxford Archaeology in 2019, ahead of a development by Abingdon School. The development was to extend Austin House (previously known as Bath Street), a boarding house of the school in Bath Street.
Pits and ditches, and domestic rubbish of the medieval and post-medieval periods, were found. Some of the pits seem to have been the result of post-medieval quarrying for gravel.
Roman burials had previously been found nearby, but no Roman material was found in this excavation.
Excavations in the garden of Thrupp Cottage in 2002 to 2004 found pottery and the stone foundations of two buildings. Most of the pottery was medieval or later in date, but some of it may be Late Saxon.
Thrupp is a hamlet in the parish of Radley. Today it consists of just three houses, but it was once much larger. In medieval times, Thrupp belonged to Abingdon Abbey, and the hamlet supplied cheese and eels to the abbey.
Archaeological observations were made when foundations were dug for a house extension. Roman pottery, a Roman wall, and demolition debris from Abingdon Abbey were found. A large quantity of 17th century pottery, including cups and mugs, and clay tobacco pipes, were also found. This led to a suggestion that there may have been a tavern on the site, although there is no historical evidence for a tavern here.
Archaeological observations were made when new houses were built on the site of the Red Lion pub in the Vineyard. Bronze Age pits, medieval rubbish pits and quarry pits, and the back wall of a post-medieval building were recorded. The building, which would have fronted onto the Vineyard, had a possible industrial hearth.
Oxford Archaeology excavated six areas before redevelopment of sites in the Vineyard. Discoveries included traces of an Iron Age settlement, Roman burials, medieval rubbish pits and property boundaries, and three large ditches which were part of a defence from the English Civil War in the 1640s.
AAAHS excavated in the rear of this property in 1993. Discoveries included traces of a 19th century stone-mason’s yard, 17th and 18th century rubbish pits, and a large rectangular stone-lined pit with an arch on one side. This may have been a soakaway or a cess-pit. It had been filled with demolition debris, including pieces from a stone chimney which may have been medieval. Medieval and Roman pottery was also found.
An excavation in 1971, during the building of the St Helen’s Court estate, found two late Iron Age or early Roman pits, a medieval ditch and a stone cellar.
