Sites 27 and 29 North of Holts Farm and College Farm Access Track Merton and Wendlebury Oxfordshire

Between July 2014 and June 2015 Oxford Archaeology undertook an archaeological
evaluation of land between Merton village and the Bicester to Oxford rail line on
behalf of Chiltern Railways and Network Rail. The evaluation comprised the
excavation of nineteen trenches ahead of construction of an agricultural barn, a
footbridge crossing of the upgraded rail line and the new access track to the barn.
Trenches 13 and 14 were located to the immediate south of Merton and targeted
upon the projected line of the Roman road between Alchester and Dorchester-on-
Thames. These trenches identified a concentration of 2nd-century Romano-British
remains, possibly indicating settlement.
More scattered and less conclusive remains of late Iron Age or early Roman date
were also encountered in Trenches 2 and 10. These features were small shallow
pits with similarly small abraded sherds of pottery. The absence of other features in
these areas may suggest that these remains are peripheral to other activities or
settlement foci.
A possible medieval field boundary was recorded in Trench 15, although this
association relies upon the presence of a single sherd of glazed pottery and the
alignment of the ditches parallel to the ridge and furrow remains. Ridge and furrow
was visible both as slight ridges surviving in some areas and furrows within most
trenches and the accumulation of deep ploughsoils and possible headland deposits