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.
An Iron Age and Roman farm was excavated before a housing estate was built here.
A minor Roman road, heading towards the centre of Abingdon, was also found, as well as some Bronze Age pits.
A Neolithic long barrow and several Bronze Age round barrows, known from aerial photographs, were investigated in trial trenches.
The work was done as part of plans for a multiplex cinema next to Marcham Road Tesco, but the multiplex was never built.
A Neolthic ’causewayed enclosure’ was found in excavations in 1927, at a gravel quarry on Radley Road. Further excavations took place in 1963. The enclosure was built in about 3500 BC, according to radiocarbon dates. Pottery, animal bone and flint implements were found in the ditches of the enclosure. These enclosures were communal gathering places for the first farmers in Britain.
The site is now occupied by Cameron Avenue and Gordon Drive.
An excavation here before the day centre was built found three early Saxon ‘sunken-featured’ buildings (6th or 7th century AD), and a Late Saxon ditch (around 1000 AD).
The ditch may relate to use of the area by Abingdon Abbey.
Salvage excavations while building work was taking place here in 1977 to 1978 found a Roman cremation burial with a pottery flagon, a human burial which was probably prehistoric or Roman and a medieval kiln, possibly for malting. Other ditches and pits which may have been Iron Age or Roman were recorded.
When the Morland’s Brewery site in Ock Sreet was redeveloped, a number of archaeological trenches were dug at different points across the site.
The site was quite intensively used from about 1100 AD onwards, with some evidence from earlier periods. The remains of a medieval tannery were found, showing that this had long been an industrial area.
Remains of a medieval tannery were found in excavations at 75 Ock Street in 1999, before the site was developed for housing.
Roman ditches, and medieval remains mainly of the 11th to 13th centuries were also found. These included foundations of at least three buildings close to Ock Street, and many rubbish pits.
Remains of buildings of the 13th and 14th centuries, set on either side of a stone-paved alleyway, were found here.
This shows that the medieval town was larger than once though, extending a long way down Ock Street.