Phase 11 Accommodation Development Jowett Walk Balliol College Oxfordshire

In September 2002, Oxford Archaeology (OA) carried out a field
evaluation on land belonging to Balliol College at Jowett Walk, Oxford.
The evaluation was commissioned as part of an ongoing development for
the construction of new College buildings and follows on from Phase I of
the development in the mid-1990s. Three trenches were opened; a fourth
trench location was abandoned owing to the density of local live services
and the damage likely to be caused to an extant tennis court.
The Phase II evaluation revealed in the westernmost trench an
undated pit or posthole with a post pipe in the base. To the east, the next
trench contained a small undated pit that was truncated by a north-south
aligned ditch of post-medieval date. Also located in this trench were a
possible medieval or post-medieval ditch on an east-west alignment and a
north-north-west/south-south-east aligned ditch. Further east again was a
second north-north-west/south-south-east aligned ditch with associated
gully. Three postholes in the base of the ditch might have formed part of
an associated structure. Both ditches were undated but their alignments
could suggest part of a prehistoric ditch system or possibly an enclosure.
A further post-medieval ditch was recorded at the east of the evaluation
area.