St Peter and St Paul’s Church Church Lane Aston Rowant Oxfordshire

Between August and December 2011, Oxford Archaeology carried out an archaeological watching brief at St Peter and St Paul's Church, Aston Rowant, Oxfordshire (SU 7269 9901). The work was commissioned by Montgomery Architects, on behalf of St Peter and St Paul's Parochial Church Council. It involved a watching brief on the excavation of the footings for a WC and kitchenette extension, and the associated drain runs and soakaway, and the excavation of a small grave for the re-interment of human remains.
The watching brief revealed evidence for Victorian activity on the north side of the church, in the form of a brick-capped drain run and a small spread of bricks that possibly pertain to the remains of a temporary surface/pathway that had been removed in antiquity. Three grave cuts were revealed in the footings for the extension, but no burials were reached, and no dating evidence was recovered. A further four grave cuts were revealed within the soakaway. A single burial, that of a juvenile, was reached within one of the grave cuts. The fact that these graves intercut each other, combined with the discovery of coffin fittings, indicates that all four were probably post-medieval in date. Within the drain run trenches, two masonry features possibly relating to previous grave memorials were observed. Aside from the single articulated skeleton, the groundworks revealed a quantity of disarticulated human bone