The ‘George and Dragon’ and Village Hall sites, Fritwell

Oxford Archaeology (OA) was commissioned to undertake an archaeological trench evaluation
of two adjacent plots of land in Fritwell, Oxfordshire, comprising the village hall (SP 52829
29338) and the George and Dragon public house (SP 52833 29237). In total six narrow
trenches were excavated, three in the car park of the George and Dragon public house and
three in the grounds of the village hall. Archaeological traces were encountered only in Trench 4
and Trench 6, close to the village hall. Two shallow ditches on a north-south alignment were
exposed in Trench 4 and three ditches on a broadly similar alignment and one on a slight curve,
were found in Trench 6. An iron arrowhead of 13th – 14th century date was recovered from the
lower fill of ditch 407 in trench four, and pottery dated to between 900 and 1300 was present in
the fills of the three ditches in Trench 6, indicating that all of the ditches, which were probably
field ditches or drains, were filling during the medieval period.