This collection comprises site data (images and GIS) from an archaeological evaluation at Northfield Hostel, Littlemore, Oxford, In November 2021, undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology.

A total of 7 trenches were excavated across the 0.61ha site, which is located approximately 100m to the east of a Roman pottery production site identified during the construction of the Oxford Eastern Bypass. Archaeological remains were identified in trenches 3, 4 and 5. No evidence for any activity pre-dating the Roman period was identified, with the earliest dated feature being ditch 403, in trench 4, which produced pottery of mid-Roman date. The fill of this ditch was cut by a small pit or posthole, 405, that produced pottery of late Roman date, as did ditch / gully 503, to the southwest, indicating a C3 - C4 phase of activity and collectively suggesting use of the site from as early as the mid-2nd to the 4th century. No evidence for industrial activity on the site was seen in the form of either pottery wasters or kiln furniture, or industrial residue dumps, although the quantity of pottery recovered from the features investigated suggests a proximity to settlement or a working area. Consequently, it is possible that the activity identified on the site is related, albeit perhaps being on the periphery, to the kilns/ pottery production site noted during construction of the Eastern Bypass.

No evidence for Early Medieval (Saxon) or Medieval activity was identified during the evaluation, while a single sherd of post-medieval pottery recovered from the subsoil in trench 3 was most likely introduced onto the site via agricultural manuring practices.

Modern disturbance/ truncation to the natural substrate/ archaeological horizon was only seen in trench 7, where part of a large modern pit was seen, while in trench 6 the original subsoil and topsoil appear to have been left in-situ, buried beneath a thin layer of imported redeposited silt-clay and topsoil seemingly laid as part of the landscaping works associated with the construction of the Hostel complex.