The Excavation of Medieval And Post-Medieval Tenements at Lincoln College, Turl Street, Oxford

SUMMARY
Proposals for a new facility at Lincoln College led to excavations and a watching brief located adjacent to All Saints Church and to the rear of a late medieval side street later known as Rotten Row. The earliest evidence comprised many pits dating from the late eleventh to the mid-thirteenth centuries that were probably located to the rear of one or more tenements that fronted High Street. The pits probably served a variety of purposes including quarries and were later used for the disposal of rubbish. From the late thirteenth century one or more masonry buildings were constructed that subsequently extended northwards over most of the site. One of these contained several phases of stone-built ovens and hearths indicative of use as a kitchen and workshop since crucible fragments were found within later demolition deposits. By the early seventeenth century this building was rebuilt on a different alignment, presumably influenced by the layout of Rotten Row. It had a fireplace built into its north wall associated with a flue/drain that contained furnace or mould fragments though it may have later taken on a more domestic function with addition of a well-house. After its demolition during the late seventeenth or eighteenth century, its north wall was retained to eventually form the boundary between the Rectors’ and Fellows’ Garden from 1808.