St Mary's Cottage, 11 Station Road, Witney, West Oxfordshire

In October and November 2002 Oxford Archaeology (OA) carried out an archaeological watching brief at st Mary's Cottage 11 Station Road, Witney, Oxfordshire (NGR SP 3570 0923). The work as commissioned by Mrs J Swindells in respect of a planning application for extensions to the existing building and the creation of a new driveway. The watching brief revealed layers of soil containing limestone pieces at the base of the secavations. These layers may derive from the final phases of demolition of the adjacent medieval Bishop's Palace buildings in the 17th and 18th centuries. Above the general rubble layers were deposits formed during the construction of the present cottage and occupation layers/topsoil layers from recent times. A small quantity of medieval pottery and a worked stone moulding found in a general soil layer for the new driveway may date from the Palace phases of activity.