Oxoniensia 69

A list of expenses in the archives of Ewelme Hospital relates to Edward Querton, a boy who studied at Ewelme School in 1464--5. The article re-examines the layout of the school building and how it might best be interpreted, as well as discussing the identity of Querton and his family and analysing his expenses. Includes

Recent repairs and alterations undertaken at the manor house in Stanton St John have been accompanied by a study of the fabric, layout and setting of the buildings, including a dendrochronological analysis and a detailed recording of the elevations of the house. The results of the study are presented, together with a review of the historical and landscape background to the manor. Three ranges of an early-fourteenth-century stone-built house survive, including what appears to be an inner gatehouse with a chamber over, as well as two further connected two-storey chamber blocks. The lower part of a presumed garderobe survives, and the site of a lost hall has been provisionally identified. All are set within an earlier layout, with parts of barns and stables surviving, having been rebuilt at various times. The early-fourteenth-century work suggests a relatively small high-status house, facing a court and incorporating an inner gatehouse. All three ranges date from the time of John de St John who held the manor from c.1270 until his death in 1316. Stanton was not the St Johns' most valuable manor, and its significance may have lain rather in its close proximity to Oxford.

Report describing the excavation of archaeological deposits on land to the west of Coxwell Road, Faringdon (immediately south of the excavation reported in pages 181--285 of the same issue), carried out prior to housing development. Evidence for a number of phases of periodic activity was recorded, ranging from the Mesolithic to the post-medieval period. There is evidence for a substantial open site during the Early Iron Age; this includes only modest evidence for occupied structures, but is dominated by a large number of pits, the large volumes of many of which suggest they can be regarded as grain storage pits. The imbalance between storage pits and occupation structures points to an unexpected type of site. A small part of the site was reused during the Roman period, the most significant aspect of which was a second-century or later shrine or temple. Struck flint of Mesolithic date, pottery of Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age date and a single Middle Iron Age pit indicate some activity on the site during other periods. The site was subsequently overlain by medieval ridge-and -furrow cultivation. Specialist reports include

An area totalling 0.24ha was excavated in 2000, revealing two successive ditch systems dating to the Late Iron Age and early Roman period. A cluster of shallow pits may represent mid--late Roman ovens and two post-built structures may represent buildings. The ditches were interpreted as stock management features relating to a low-status rural settlement, part of which was investigated in 1998. Relatively large amounts of Late Iron Age and Roman pottery confirmed the presence of a low-status settlement in the immediate vicinity, and suggested that the Roman conquest had only a gradual impact on local tastes in pottery, and by implication, food preparation. Specialist reports include

An area of one hectare was excavated at the western margin of a known prehistoric and Romano-British settlement complex. A few flints suggested intermittent activity perhaps from as early as the Mesolithic period, but the earliest features, including a possible ring gully and a small enclosure, were probably of later Middle Iron Age date. These features were succeeded in the Late Iron Age by a rectilinear field system, which was itself of two phases. Groups of pits, postholes and an infant burial were associated with the field boundaries, but there was no clear evidence of structures. Modest quantities of finds indicate that these features were related to a low status settlement concerned with the practice of mixed agriculture, occupation of which had probably ceased by the end of the first century AD. Specialist reports include

Report on the excavation of two sites in 2002 during a programme of archaeological recording along the route of a new gas pipeline between Filkins and Carterton in Oxfordshire. At Site 1, located 0.6km south of Filkins, the investigation of previously known cropmark evidence was carried out, revealing probable agricultural activity dating to the Middle Iron Age, and a trackway dating to the first to second centuries AD. Associated with the trackway were eight inhumation burials and three cremation burials, which dated to the mid-third century AD. Site 2 was located 0.4km southwest of Carterton and comprised the remains of a Romano-British drying oven. An assemblage of pottery dating to the first to third centuries AD was recovered from its fill. No other archaeological features were identified on the pipeline route. Specialist reports include

Notes on items reported during the previous year and purchased by Oxfordshire Museum Service, including a Roman coin hoard from Wendlebury; a medieval silver gem-set seal from Crowmarsh; a medieval miniature circular silver brooch from Upperton, Brightwell Baldwin; a silver-gilt late medieval ring from Radley; a gold dress appliqué or button (possibly late-sixteenth-century) from Bletchingdon; a sixteenth-century silver-gilt dress-pin from Cholsey; and a post-medieval silver strap-end depicting a wild man astride a lion from Bicester.

Revised figures 4 (page 103) and 8 (page 110) for the article published in Oxoniensia 67 (2002), pages 79--115.