Oxoniensia 43

[SU 5894 approx] Brings together evidence for Dorchester's Roman cemeteries at Queensford Farm and Church Piece Warborough. Both were in use in 4th century, perhaps into 5th. The report on the skeletal material from Queensford is summarized: seventy-eight burials were found out of an estimated original cemetery size of 1300-1500. The Church Piece cemetery was briefly examined following recovery of a simple lead coffin; cropmarks and debris attest to buildings (one tripartite) within the cemetery area, as well as to at least 500 graves.

Excavations were aimed to define and date the eastern town defences and examine the latest Roman layers. However the defences were not found on this site. First century layers were sealed by thick makeup; the first urban buildings came in 3rd century and were of timber, with few coins and sparse fine wares. There was widespread demolition in 4th century, and by 5th refuse layers were being deposited, with late Roman and some Saxon pottery not illuminating the continuity problem; there was no late Saxon occupation in evidence. A clear increase in the proportion of animal bones in the late Roman period may parallel the situation at Wroxeter and at Latimer.

SP 512062. Historical and fabric analysis. The undercroft survives of an important stone house probably built between 1090 and 1150 as the headquarters of a large urban estate in western Oxford. From 1435 to 1540 a college of Austin Canons occupied the site, but the college buildings were only completed under Wolsey and were destroyed at the Dissolution. Excavation recovered the chapel foundations, and the old chapel roof of c 1515-25 was re-used for the chapel now extant. Portions of the gatehouse and a subsidiary range still stand. A few small finds are recorded.

Magnetic survey was made and trenches were cut to discover the eastern extent of the Benedictine Abbey. In a pre-Conquest burial site east of St Leonard's Church, the burials had been cut into late AS pits and were themselves followed by early medieval pits and walls. Quantities of Roman and AS pottery were found, with some of Saxo-Norman and medieval date, some floor tiles and a few skeletons.

New survey indicates the heavy losses sustained by the county's stock of twenty-two long barrows. Most are completely unprotected and even some of the few scheduled barrows have been badly damaged by ploughing and other destructive agencies.