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.
Period Archives
Waste Court (Austin House), Bath Street
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.
Thrupp Cottage, Thrupp, Radley
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.
October House
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.
Red Lion, Vineyard
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.
South of the Vineyard
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.
35 East Saint Helen Street
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.
West St Helen Street
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.
Bath Street
Excavations in the rear garden of a house in Bath Street between 1990 and 1998 found Roman ditches and five Roman cremation burials, two late Saxon ditches, and medieval and later features. Much pottery of different periods was also found.
Lombard Street (West St Helen Street)
An excavation on a vacant plot in 1972, before the Salvation Army Citadel was built, found an Iron Age posthole, an Iron Age pit containing horse skulls, a Roman ditch, foundations of a medieval building, medieval and later rubbish pits and a deep build-up of soil in a former garden.