Pembroke College Oxford Old Quad and Porter’s Lodge

Oxford Archaeology was commissioned to carry out an archaeological watching brief and
historic building recording at Pembroke College, Oxford focusing on the Old Quad and
the ranges at the north-west corner of this area.
The below-ground works were more limited than anticipated and comprised two test pits
within the lawn of the quad as well as the monitoring of some drainage outlet works
towards the east end of the quad. These works did not reveal any significant features.
The investigation has also included building recording in the Events Office at the west
end of the north range of this quad and the Porter's Lodge to the west. The main
development work here was the creation of two doorways between the Events Office and
the passageway to allow the Porter's Lodge to be relocated to the east side of the
passage. The work necessitated the lowering of the floor in the west half of the Events
Office. The suspended joist floor was recorded prior to removal and the floor reduction
was monitored. Various finds were recovered from the fill beneath the joists (clay pipes
and glass fragments) whose late 17th/early 18th-century date corresponded closely to that
of the construction of the building.
Prior to the current project the Events Office had a similar layout to that shown on the
1875 Ordnance Survey Town Plan and also on a plan from 1939 included in the Royal
Commission's Inventory on the Monuments of Oxford. Each plan showed a set of alcoves
or walk-in cupboards against the west wall and the area was shown to have been used
as a Bursary. The alcoves incorporated a sunken void beneath the southern part of the
floor, accessible via a trap door, and there was evidence of a similar void beneath the
northern alcove (subsequently filled in). As this area was a Bursary it may be that these
underfloor voids were used to store money or valuables, and at the south end of the
alcoves there was also a safe