St Alban’s Quad, Merton College, Oxford Archaeological Watching Brief Report

Oxford Archaeology undertook an archaeological watching brief during
construction work within the east wing of St Alban’s Quad at Merton College,
Oxford. The archaeological work was commissioned by Ridge and Partners LLP
on behalf of Merton College for the conversion of existing workshops into a new
music room. A number of rubbish or quarry pits were revealed and subjected
to limited excavation to formation level. These were dated to the 12th–14th
centuries, after which a garden soil developed over the site which contained a
late 14th or early 15th century French jeton together with late medieval pottery.
Post-medieval evidence included wall fragments that probably formed part of a
building within the late-17th- to mid-19th-century Principal’s Garden.