An excavation on the site of the New Abbey House Council offices found Iron Age houses, a Roman building and stone-lined well, Roman skeletons in lead coffins, Saxon buildings, features relating to Abingdon abbey including the cemetery where townspeople were buried, and a previously unknown cemetery from the English Civil War.
Period Archives
Clothing Factory
Remains of Abingdon’s clothing factory, a major establishment in the 19th century, were found in an excavation in West St Helen Street in 1977.
Roman pottery, a medieval ditch which was probably a property boundary, and much medieval butchery waste were also found. The site is now occupied by the St Helen’s Church Centre.
Twickenham House
Early Bronze Age pottery, traces of Iron Age occupation, an early Roman building, and medieval and later pits and refuse dumps were found in an excavation in the gardens of Twickenham House in 1987.
Human bones which may have been anatomical specimens belonging to a 19th century surgeon who had lived there were also found.
30 East St Helen Street
Barton Court Ruin
An excavation at the ruin of Barton in 1965 found decorated plasterwork, probably from a panel above a fireplace, and a farthing of King Charles I.
Barton was a manor house just outside Abingdon. It originally belonged to Abingdon Abbey. It was rebuilt in 1556 by Thomas Reade, using stone from the tower of the Abbey’s church. The house was attacked and destroyed in the English Civil War.
Lombard Street
Fragments of a decorated Islamic glass beaker, made in Cairo in about 1250 AD were found in an excavation by AAAHS in 1983.
The beaker is is decorated with an inscription which says ‘Glory to Our Lord the Sultan’, and a horseman with polo sticks.
The beaker was found in a pit of the 15th century, about two hundred years later than the beaker was made. It is not known how or exactly when the beaker came to Abingdon.
The work was in the cellar and back garden of a medieval house which was being redeveloped. Roman and medieval remains were also found.
3 Stert Street
Small excavations were carried out in the cellar and back garden of this medieval house when it was being restored in 1970.
A stone wall, a well, Roman and medieval pottery and a medieval bone flute, made from a swan’s bone, were found.
A piece of Roman roof tile has also been found at the property.
Bowyer Road
Small excavations here in 1978 and 2011 found prehistoric flints, traces of a Roman farm and human skeletons.
One of the skeleton was radiocarbon dated to between 1492 and 1664 AD. This may have been a cemetery for people who died in the English Civil War.
