Excavations at Abingdon West Central Redevelopment: Iron Age, Roman, Medieval, and Post-Medieval Activity in Abingdon
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Excavations at Abingdon West Central Redevelopment: Iron Age, Roman, Medieval, and Post-medieval Activity in Abingdon Kate Brady, Alex Smith, and Granville Laws with contributions by Leigh Allen, Steve Allen, Edward Biddulph, Ceridwen Boston, Jon Cotter, Kate Cramp, Rose Grant, David Higgins, Lynne Keys, Quita Mould, Rebecca Nicholson, Andrew Norton, Lena Strid, Ruth Pelling, Ruth Shaffrey, Carole Wheeler, and Hugh Willmott SUMMARY Investigations to the south of Ock Street and to the west of West St Helen’s Street carried out by Oxford Archaeology in 2002–3 have revealed new evidence for the development of Abingdon from the Iron Age to the post-medieval period. The outer late Iron Age/early Roman settlement boundary ditch identified in previous investigations was traced through the site, and new evidence for a recut of this ditch was found. The remains of the medieval building that later became The Lamb Inn on the southern side of Ock Street were revealed and appear to have been occupied at some point by a leather worker and possibly a tanner. Tenements uncovered fronting West St Helen’s Street were also found to have been the site of small-scale industrial activity. Parts of a medieval building in the centre of the development area, discovered during an evaluation in 1996–7, were further exposed, including the discovery of a garderobe, strengthening evidence that it was the vicarage of St Helen’s rather than the Chapel of St Edmund as was once suggested. Clay-pipe manufacture appears to have occurred at the site of the Lamb Inn from the early seventeenth century, with the end of this industry coinciding with the end of the Ely occupancy of the Inn in the early eighteenth century. The excavations revealed evidence for the destruction of buildings during the English Civil War in the seventeenth century, and a small cemetery in the south of the development area may also belong to this period. etween November 2002 and December 2003 Oxford Archaeology carried out a series of Bevaluations, excavations, and watching briefs within the centre of Abingdon (NGR SU 4962 9702) in advance of a residential development by Lovell Partnerships Ltd. The development site was bounded by St Edmund’s Lane to the south and Ock Street and The Square to the north, and covered an area of approximately seven hectares (Fig. 1). The site lies on the first gravel terrace of the river Thames at a height of approximately 54 m ordnance datum (OD). It slopes down gently to the south towards the river Ock. BACKGROUND In 1996 and 1997 Oxford Archaeological Unit (now Oxford Archaeology) carried out a field evaluation in advance of the development of the present site. The results of this evaluation have been previously published elsewhere,1 but are particularly relevant to the discussion of this site and so are incorporated in some detail. The evaluation revealed several large defensive ditches from the late Iron Age/early Roman oppidum, in addition to what was almost certainly one of the ditches that marked the limit of the 1 T. G. Allen, ‘Abingdon: West Central Redevelopment Area’, SMidlA, 27 (1997), pp. 47–54. Published in Oxoniensia 2007, (c) Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society 108 KATE BRADY, ALEX SMITH, AND GRANVILLE LAWS Fig. 1. Site location Published in Oxoniensia 2007, (c) Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society ABINGDON WEST CENTRAL REDEVELOPMENT 109 Fig. 2. Overall plan of archaeological investigations, north of St Edmund’s Lane medieval town of Abingdon. A large medieval building was identified within the centre of the site, and a series of medieval and post-medieval pits were revealed further west. In the south of the site was a small cemetery, probably dating to the Civil War. Three areas beneath upstanding buildings were inaccessible during the 1996–7 evaluation. These were evaluated (post-demolition) in 2002 by machine trenching to determine their archaeological potential. The areas (Fig. 2) comprised the former Southern Electricity Board (SEB) building to the south-east of the site fronting West St Helen’s Street, the former Neave House to the west fronting Winsmore Lane, and the former Regal Cinema to the north of the site fronting Ock Street. In the light of the evaluation results, both the SEB and the Cinema site were subject to full area excavation, while the better preserved parts of the Neave House site were also excavated. A limited excavation was carried out in the previously defined area of the possible Civil War cemetery to the south of the site. The cemetery was carefully uncovered in order to define its extent and to record and extract the burials. An archaeological watching brief was maintained in the area towards the centre of the site and involved the observation of machine trenching for services, ground reduction for car parking, and the digging out of an area of Japanese knotweed. The 1996–7 evaluation had identified the area as being archaeologically sensitive, with the well-preserved structural remains of a medieval building, possibly a vicarage or remains associated with St Edmund’s chapel (thought to be sited nearby; see discussion below). Detailed excavation of this area was not required, due to the use of piled foundations, which have a limited impact on surviving archaeological remains. All of the work was undertaken in accordance with advice and a written brief issued by Hugh Coddingdon, Deputy County Archaeologist for Oxfordshire County Archaeological Services (OCAS), archaeological adviser to the Vale of White Horse District Council. A written scheme of investigation, prepared by OA, outlined proposals to mitigate the effect of the development on the surviving archaeological remains. Published in Oxoniensia 2007, (c) Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society 110 K AT E B R A D Y, ALEX SMITH, AND GRANVILLE L AW S ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT Prehistoric. The location of Abingdon at the confluence of the river Thames and the river Ock is likely to have been the most significant factor in the establishment of a substantial middle Iron Age settlement, a late Iron Age to early Romano-British oppidum or proto-town, and eventually a medieval abbey town. In the late Iron Age coin finds suggest that this water course was also utilized as a political boundary, forming the division between the lands of the Catuvellauni (to the east), the Atrebates (to the south), and the Dobunni (to the west). Lambrick outlines several broadly contemporary (c.100 BC–AD 4) major earthwork sites in the stretch of the Thames Valley either side of Abingdon that were also located on this natural and political boundary. Furthest north, the massive North Oxfordshire Grim’s Ditch (near Woodstock and Charlbury) enclosed an area that expanded from 1 sq. km to 80 sq. km. Romano-British villas were later situated within the boundary. Near Eynsham, the smaller Cassington Big Ring was situated on the banks of the Thames. The next site south-east along the Thames is the oppidum at Abingdon (the archaeological background of which is discussed below), while situated further south was Dyke Hills, Dorchester. This was very similar to the oppidum at Abingdon, perhaps with a similar function, but within a different tribal territory. Furthest south, near Wallingford, was the site of the South Oxfordshire Grim’s Ditch, a linear earthwork which at least partially enclosed a large loop in the Thames. The results of a long-running programme of archaeological work in Abingdon suggest that it has been occupied quite intensively since at least the early Iron Age, with earlier prehistoric activity indicated through finds of flint and pottery.4 The densely populated status of the settlement in the middle Iron Age was indicated by the discovery of more than a dozen house sites beneath the abbey house and its car park. Excavations at sites such as Abingdon Vineyard have shown that before the Roman period Abingdon was already a thriving riverside market centre. It was defined by two or three huge ditches to the north and west, and the river Thames to the south and east (Fig. 3). These ditches have been revealed in the north of the town and to the west in the 199– evaluations and the current excavations (see below).8 Romano-British. Early Roman Abingdon existed within the same boundary ditches as the Iron Age settlement (Fig. 3) and was densely occupied. It had an internal rectilinear layout and high- status finds, including fineware pottery. Three Roman masonry buildings have been identified in Abingdon, one in East St Helen’s Street,9 parts of one or more under the Railway Inn,10 and a third under Abbey House and gardens.11 By the early second century AD some of the defensive ditches had been deliberately backfilled as the town expanded over them.1 Roman ditches, pits, ovens, and graves have all been found, George Lambrick, ‘Frontier territory along the Thames’, British Archaeology, 33 (1998), pp. 1–1; Paul Booth et al., The Thames through Time: the Archaeology of the Gravel Terraces of the Upper and Middle Thames: the Early Historical period: AD 1–1000 (Oxford, 200), pp. 368–1. Ibid. 4 T. G. Allen, ‘Abingdon, Vineyard redevelopment’, SMidlA, 20 (1990), pp. 73–8. Ibid., n. 4; T. G. Allen, ‘Abingdon, Vineyard development’, SMidlA, 19 (1989), pp. 44–; idem, ‘An “oppidum” at Abingdon, Oxfordshire’, SMidlA, 21 (1991), pp. 9–9. Allen, ‘Abingdon, Vineyard redevelopment’, n. 4; idem, ‘The Vineyard, Abingdon’, unpublished client report (199). R. A. Chambers and J. Moore, ‘Abingdon: Vineyard redevelopment, archaeological assessment’, SMidlA, 18 (1988), p. ; T. G. Allen, ‘Abingdon, Abingdon Vineyard 199: areas 2 and 3, the early defences’, SMidlA, 23 (199), pp. 64– 8 Ibid., n.