ARCHAEOLOGICAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT ON 40 ST THOMAS’S STREET, OXFORD, OXFORDSHIRE NGR SP 50653 06167 FEBRUARY 2021 John Moore HERITAGE SERVICES 40 St Thomas’s Street, Oxford Archaeological Impact Assessment REPORT PREPARED BY Dr Stephen Yeates, MA, D.Phil, MCIfA, Tom Rose-Jones ILLUSTRATION BY Tom Rose-Jones EDITED BY John Moore AUTHORISED BY John Moore REPORT ISSUED 9th February 2021 ENQUIRES TO John Moore Heritage Services Unit 16 Wheatley Business Centre Old London Road Wheatley Oxfordshire OX33 1XW Tel: 01865 358300 Email: [email protected] JMHS Project No: 4429 John Moore HERITAGE SERVICES 40 St Thomas’s Street, Oxford Archaeological Impact Assessment CONTENTS Page SUMMARY 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Origins or the Report 1 1.2 Location 1 1.3 Description 1 1.4 Geology and Topography 1 1.5 Proposed Development 1 2 RELEVANT LEGISLATION AND PLANNING POICY GUIDANCE 3 2.1 Legislation and Treaties 3 2.2 National Planning Guidelines and Policies 3 2.3 Local Planning Policy 5 3 METHODOLOGY 6 3.1 Archaeological Impact Assessment Aims and Objectives 6 3.2 Archaeological Impact Assessment Sources 6 3.3 Archaeological Impact Assessment Modelling and Analysis 7 3.4 Archaeological Time Periods 7 4 HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 8 4.1 The Historical Development of St Thomas’ Suburb 8 4.2 Known Archaeology 9 4.3 Cartographic Research 21 4.6 Site Visit 29 5 DISCUSSION 30 5.1 Archaeological Background 30 5.2 The Archaeological Potential of the Proposal Site 31 5.3 The Impact of Previous Development on Potential Archaeological Remains 31 5.4 The Impact of the Proposal on Designated Heritage Assets 32 5.5 The Impact of the Proposal on Non-designated Heritage Assets 33 6 CONCLUSIONS 33 7 BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES CONSULTED 33 7.1 Books and Documents 34 7.2 Historic Maps 35 7.3 Gazetteer of sites 36 APPENDICES Appendix 1. Grading Heritage Assets and Levels of Impact 43 Appendix 2. Glossary of Historical and Archaeological Terms 46 John Moore HERITAGE SERVICES 40 St Thomas’s Street, Oxford Archaeological Impact Assessment FIGURES Page Figure 1: Site location 2 Figure 2: City of Oxford Urban Historic Environment Record Sites: Pre- medieval sites 10 Figure 3: City of Oxford Urban Historic Environment Record Sites: Medieval sites 13 1 Figure 4: City of Oxford Urban Historic Environment Record Sites: Post- medieval and undated sites 17 Figure 5: Agas’s Map of 1566 (NB East is to the left) 21 Figure 6: Agas’s Map of 1578 22 Figure 7: Speed’s Map of 1605 22 Figure 8: Hollar’s Map dated 1643 23 Figure 9: Hollar’s map dated 1650 23 Figure 10: Logan’s Map of 1675 24 Figure 11: Rocque’s Map of 1761 (NB East is to the right) 24 Figure 12: Jefferys’s Map of 1767 25 Figure 13: Davies of Lewknor’s Map of 1797 26 Figure 14: Bryant’s Map of 1824 26 Figure 15: Hoggar’s Map of 1850 27 Figure 16: First Edition Ordnance Survey Map of c 1876 27 Figure 17: Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1900 28 Figure 18: Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1921 29 Figure 19: Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1939 29 John Moore HERITAGE SERVICES 40 St Thomas’s Street, Oxford Archaeological Impact Assessment SUMMARY The site of 40 St Thomas’s Street, formerly the High Street St Thomas’s, was historically located in the parish of St George in the Castle, which later became the parish of St Thomas’s. The site is located on the Thames floodplain, on the location of a terrace. The site is bounded on the east by the Lodge and a modern apartment building. On the south side there is a historic street, and on the west side the location of a churchyard. There are domestic buildings to the north. The search area data was obtained from a search with a radius of 0.25km, which still produced a significant number of records that accumulated to 162 sites. Activity was evident in the area from the later Neolithic and early Bronze Age period, with a Bronze Age Beaker Burial associated with this settlement. There was also some Iron Age and Roman activity noted in the search area. Even though these periods produced some artefacts and showed that there was some pre-medieval activity located on the river terrace, amongst the braided channels of the Thames, in this place it is limited. This means that though there is a potential for archaeology from this period it is at present considered to be very low. One possible factor that could alter this is if the site of St Thomas’s Church was chosen because it was an earlier archaeological site. In the early medieval period there is an apparent increase in the amount of activity, which becomes noticeable from the mid-11th century, although the form of the settlement has not been formalised by that date. Archaeological activity from the 12th century onwards appears to show that our historical understanding of the area is correct and that from this time the street system is laid out and that bridges are built across the channels and that tenements are built. Some of these tenements are constructed on areas which have indications of land reclamation. In the Post- medieval period the area is predominantly associated with dwellings, though some industrial sites can be recognised. In the Imperial and Industrial periods the area saw the development of more industrial sites, which were associated with the construction of the canal and the railways. There is a high probability that medieval and later activity will be identified on the site. The nature of the construction of the modern building on the site and its foundations is not known, but there is the potential for archaeological remains to survive intact. Neighbouring archaeological excavations indicate that remains may extend to at least a meter in thickness, from approximately 57.17m. Any surviving archaeological remains are likely to be subject to impact as a result of the proposed development. There were three scheduled monuments in the search area and three listed buildings adjacent to the site, however all are too far away to be impacted upon physically. Given the potential for archaeological remains, and potential for impact to these, a suitable mitigation strategy should be put in place prior to and/or during development. John Moore HERITAGE SERVICES 40 St Thomas’s Street, Oxford Heritage Impact Assessment 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Origins of the Report This report was requested by Robin Swales Design and is intended to identify any potential impacts to the Archaeological environment caused by proposed development at 40 St Thomas’s Street, Oxford (NGR SP 50653 06167). 1.2 Location The site lies in what is considered historically to be the parish of St Thomas; however, the Victoria County History (VCH 1979) points out a number of problems with this assumption. For most of the high medieval period this area was probably regarded as the parish Osney, and focused on the abbey of that name, which is known to have had a church dedicated to St Nicholas in 1141 near its precinct, which had some parochial rights. Prior to Osney Abbey obtaining parochial rights and the maintenance of the church this area outside the wall was part of the parish of St George in the Bailey, or in the Castle, which was in existence by 1074 (VCH 1979). This parish is known to have extended either side of the town walls. The location of the church in the castle grounds proved inconvenient, which ultimately led to the establishment of St Thomas as the parish church outside the walls. At the time of the Conquest the area was located in the Hundred of Headington (Morgan 1979); it was later in the Liberty of Oxford, and then the Liberty of Osney. This was located in the historic County of Oxfordshire. The site is now located in Oxford City, and in the modern County of Oxfordshire. 1.3 Description The site is located on an irregular shaped piece of land that extends north to south. On the northeast side there is a new apartment development, with a listed building (The Lodge) located to the east. On the south side is St Thomas’s Street, formerly the High Street, St Thomas’s. 1.4 Geology and Topography The site is located on the valley floor between 55 and 60m Ordnance Datum, most likely at a height of 57 to 58m. The underlying rock strata is the Oxford Clay Formation and West Walton Formation (mapapps.bgs.ac.uk/geologyofbritain/home.html) a sedimentary bedrock formed in the Cretaceous period. Over this bedrock there is a deposit of Northmoor Sand and Gravel Member a superficial deposit of sand and gravel that was laid down 3 million years in the Quaternary. This would imply that the site was formerly located on the remains of a gravel terrace. 1.5 Proposed Development The proposal is for the demolition of the existing nursery building and replacement with an office/commercial building, as per: P-04 A Proposed floor plans, P-13 A Proposed Elevations, dated 12/01/2021 1 John Moore HERITAGE SE RVICES 40 St Thomas's Street, Oxford Archaeological Impact Assessment Figure 1: Site location 2 John Moore HERITAGE SERVICES 40 St Thomas’s Street, Oxford Heritage Impact Assessment 2 RELEVANT LEGISLATION AND PLANNING POLICY GUIDANCE 2.1 Legislation and Treaties United Kingdom The acts listed below cover the protection of significant heritage remains and as such are relevant to this report.