Aston Children’s Home, Aston, Oxfordshire Archaeological Excavation Report

The site lies on the south side of Back Lane, Aston, at NGR SP33938 03281.
Following a two-trench evaluation in 2021, excavation of an area of 0.15ha took
place in advance of construction of Aston Children’s Home from 26 August to 11
November 2022. Apart from an access strip, the excavation area lay 18-53m
back from the lane.
Below subsoil, stripping revealed ditches and pits cut into the natural, except in
the NE part of the main area, where fragmentary stone structures survived,
associated with surviving vertical stratigraphy including floor surfaces and
occupation layers.
Other than a little residual prehistoric flintwork and a scattering of Roman
pottery and metal finds, almost all of the evidence related to medieval
occupation between the 11th century and the end of the 14th century. Three
main phases of medieval activity were tentatively identified from the pottery,
Phase 1 dating from c 1050-1100, Phase 2 from c 1100-1250, and Phase 3 from
1250-1400. Only a single small feature dating later than this was found, and finds
from the late medieval and post-medieval periods were few.
The site was divided by a succession of ditches, most aligned north-west to
south-east and south-west to north-east parallel to Back Lane. In Phases 1 and
3, however, some boundaries ran approximately north-south, but as the full
extent of the properties was not exposed, the reasons for this are unclear.
The middle part of the site contained a zone of dense intercutting pits, which lay
adjacent to and partly overlay ditches of Phase 1 and Phase 2, and were
bounded on the north-west by ditches of Phase 3, suggesting separation of the
frontage of the medieval properties from the backyard containing the pits. No
structures belonging to Phase 1 or Phase 2 were found.
In the NE part of the main excavation area an east-west stone foundation
marked the south side of a Phase 3 building, with two floors, one of cobbles, the
other of gravel, separated by an occupation layer, and with a hearth north-west
of this. Stone-lined drains were found running south-east and east, and probably
delineated the limits of the building on the west, although insufficient of the
building survived to recover its overall dimensions or character. Pottery from
the building was of late 13th and 14th century date, and a group of intercutting
pits south-west of the drains that contained domestic waste was probably
associated.