Record Type Archives

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.

Corporation Farm (Wilsham Road)

Between 1970 and 1973, rescue excavations were carried out by Abingdon’s Archaeological Society in gravel pits at Wilsham Road. Part of the area is now Abingdon Marina.

Discoveries included Bronze Age barrows, a Bronze Age farm, a Roman trackway and enclosure and early Anglo-Saxon buildings. These buildings may be linked to the large Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Saxton Road.

Anglo-Saxon bone carving of a fish, about 6.5 centimetres long (c) Simon Blacmore

Broad Street

Excavations in 1973, before the Charter was built, found Roman ditches, medieval rubbish pits and the remains of a medieval stone buildng.

This area was on the edge of medieval Abingdon. Debris from a Roman building was also found, but the building itself wasn’t 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.

Part of a Roman roof tile. (c) Michael Harrison

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.

Barton Court Farm

Excavations in 1972 to 1976, before the Daisy Bank housing esate was built, discovered an Iron Age enclosed farmstead, a Roman villa and Anglo-Saxon buildings and burials.

The Roman villa was probably the centre of a farming estate which extended as far as the River Thames.

Tithe Farm

Small excavations in 1968 and 1970, when the houses on Masefield Crescent were being built, found traces of Roman buildings.

Much pottery, coins, roof tiles, pieces of painted wall-plaster and part of a stone column were found. The site may have been a Roman villa.