Untitled - Council for British Archaeology

117St. Helen's Church and the adjacent almshouses. A 10 x 31m. trench was dugnext to the cemetery,on its completion a larger excavation was attempted.However concrete and brick levels finally thwarted digging.The site was shown to have a considerable build up of 1.5m. of postmedievaldebris over 0.5m. of medieval and prior accumulation of soil. Ascatter of Romano-British pot lay over river alluvium and not first terracegravel. All definite features were post-medieval although a C16th ditch mayhave been redug from medieval times. From the early C17th buildings andgardens occupied the site. In the C19th and C2Oth the property was possiblyenlarged, and certainly reorganised several times to the establishment ofmassive foundations, a fire place and stokehole and a complex of drains of theclothing factory.ABINGDON, Wilsham RoadA small excavation was carried out on the site of two circular cropmarkswhich will be affected by proposed housing developments (PRN 4536 and 8471;SU 49459585). Although no dating evidence was recovered the ditches arethought to belong to two round barrows. The excavation was treated as atraining excavation and students came from Didcot, Thame and Lewknor.BICESTER, Kings End FarmAn extensive Romano-British settlement has been located 1-5km. W ofBicester during the construction of part of the Kings End Farm housing estate(PRN 11,204; Centred on SP 573227). Dated features have already shown thata settlement existed here throughout the Romano-British period. Apart frompits and ditches cutting into the underlying limestone the remains of a stonecill wall and a scatter of probably later Romano-British period inhumations,one accompanied by hobnails, have been recorded. The full extent of this siteis not yet known. The archaeological recording is being undertaken by PeterBiebrach and other local volunteers.BICESTER, 37-39 and 49-57 Sheep StreetThe demolition of buildings nos. 37-39 and 49-57 Sheep Street (SP 584225)allowed mechanical trial trenching in an area of the town known to have beenoccupied during the medieval period. On both sides little stratificationremained beneath the post-medieval buildings that had fronted on to SheepStreet. The natural limestone bedrock, cut by three small undated pits, layclose to the surface. To the rear of these buildings lay deeper, post medievalgarden soils. No recognisable medieval material was found.CHALGROVECropmarks from rectangular enclosures (PRN 4490 SU 629970) and potteryfrom features encountered (PRN 11133) whilst enlarging part of a moat(PRN 1115) for a new trout pond, belong to a newly discovered Romano-Britishsettlement occupying several acres at the W end of Chalgrove village (PRN4490 and 1133; SU 629970).A large fragment of handmade Saxon pottery and Romano-British ware havebeen found on recently disturbed ground just S of the parish church (PRN's11,143, 11,144). This material comes from an area in which until 1976 Romano-British settlement was unknown. However, it is now obvious that from theabove and the results of the Southern Feeder Gas pipeline in 1976 that thisarea was as settled in the Romano-British period as elsewhere in the UpperThames Valley.