Lady Grove, Didcot, Oxfordshire

Oxford Archaeology undertook a trial trench evaluation at the site of a proposed residential development at Lady Grove, Didcot, Oxfordshire (SU 5409 9123). A total of 58 trenches were excavated across an area of approximately 15ha, currently divided into five fields. Archaeological features were exposed in 29 of these trenches, and were dominated by ditches, which widely distributed but with a particular concentration in the north-western corner of the site. The ditches were mostly aligned north to south/east to west and seem to relate to fairly extensive systems of field boundaries. Discrete features were rare, but included a small number of undated post holes and pits and several natural features. Finds were very scarce, with 14 sherds of pottery (64g), worked flints and 130g of animal bone recovered, largely from the fills of a small number of the ditches. The pottery was dominated by small abraded sherds of Middle or Late Bronze Age date, with one ditch also producing a single sherd of Late Iron Age/Early Roman pottery. On this basis it seems likely that some of the ditches relate to a Middle Bronze Age field system of the kind well known from the local area, which may be overlain by a later, Late Iron Age and/or Early Roman field system - potentially associated with a nearby Roman settlement, on Hadden Hill. Desk-based research suggest that the site was wooded throughout much of the medieval and post-medieval periods, and the only evidence for later activity revealed by the trenching were the remains of furrows associated with the cultivation of the site following its clearance and enclosure in the mid 19th century.