| Abstract: |
Oxford Archaeology (OA) undertook a trial trench evaluation within the ground floor of 51a St. Giles’, Oxford prior to the proposed redevelopment of the site. After removal of floor coverings in the ‘Dining Room’ the area was scanned with acable avoidance tool (CAT). Floor boards and their supporting joists were thenremoved from a wider L‐shaped area and a thin covering of dirt was cleared away fromthis area.The cleaning revealed structural archaeology in the southern part of the room but dueto the presence of live services within this area the decision was made to amalgamatethe two 1 x 1m Trial Pits into a single 2 x 1m Trench which was located running parallelto, and just inside the inside line of, the northern wall of the building.The position of the area exposed by the floor removal and cleaning as well as thetrench location were surveyed in relation to the internal walls of the ‘Dining Room’.The trench was excavated using hand tools to an approximate level of 1m below theexisting floorboards, and followed OA’s general approach to excavation and recording.All structural remains were left in situ.Upon reaching a depth of 1.0m below current ground level (bgl), a hand auger wasused to log the nature and depths of the underlying deposits.After monitoring and agreement from David Radford (OCC), the trench was backfilledwith the arisings from the excavation. In February 2019, Oxford Archaeology were commissioned by Savills onbehalf of St John’s College, Oxford to undertake a trial trench evaluationwithin a groundfloor room at 51a St Giles, Oxford. An area was clearedof floorboards and joists, and a thin layer of soil was removed, withinwhich a smaller 2m by 1m trench was excavated. In situ deposits andstructural remains dating to the Late Medieval / Early Post Medievalwere encountered at an uppermost height of 63.25m OD, which was0.22m below the existing internal floor levels. Hand auger holes reachedtruncated natural gravel at 62.22mOD, no indication of an overlying insituloess was observed. A large north‐south orientated limestone wallfoundation was revealed, abutted by a smaller limestone wallfoundation running to the east. A dark greyish‐brown homogenoushumic‐rich deposit to the west of the wall (outside) probablyrepresented mixed garden soils, whereas inside the structure less humicreddish‐brown deposits indicated possible ground raising. No floorlevels were associated with the structural remains. The internal andexternal deposits dated to the 16th century, with deposits overly thedemolition of the structures dating to the 17‐18th century,contemporary with the suggested construction dates for the currentextant buildings at the site. Residual abraded sherds of medievalpottery, present in most of the deposits, attested to earlier activity atthe site.The height at which structural remains survived under the floor in theexisting buildings (63.25 – 63.07mOD) is somewhat lower than thehighest levels recorded in the garden by a previous evaluation, at 63.32– 63.60mOD (TVAS, 2017). It is noticeable that the garden levels arehigher than the level of the outside path (adjacent to the building) aswell as the floors within the building, and suggests that the area of thepath and extant building footprint were reduced and levelled, perhapsfrom those still present in the garden during construction. Therefore,there is potential for better archaeological preservation in the higherparts of the garden |
