Former Acland Hospital, Keble College, Oxford Archaeological Excavation Report

Between March 2016 and January 2017 Oxford Archaeology conducted a
series of archaeological investigations at the former Acland Hospital, Keble
College, Oxford, in association with redevelopment of the site as student
accommodation.
The excavation uncovered a Roman field boundary ditch and two areas of
medieval activity comprising a roadside ditch or boundary ditch parallel to
Woodstock Road and a group of three pits on the Banbury Road frontage. The
medieval features are situated beyond the northern limit of contemporary
suburban development and may represent off-site activity such as gravel
quarrying, although they could alternatively be associated with an outlying
farmstead, such as the historically-attested hamlet of ‘Buricroft’. Two pits
dated to the 17th century were also recorded.
The site was subject to extensive quarrying during the 18th and early 19th
centuries before the construction of Northgate House during the 1840s and
the development of Acland Hospital during the late 19th and 20th centuries.
No evidence was found for the Civil War bastion shown close to the southwestern
corner of the site on de Gomme’s map, which presumably lies further
south.