Exploring Routeways at Mill Meadow, Oxfordshire
AOC Archaeology Group is currently working with East West Rail ahead of the construction of a new rail link between Oxford and Cambridge. We’re investigating and recording the archaeology along the route of the new railway before construction takes place, providing an excellent opportunity to learn about past life in this part of Britain.
Between May and September 2020, we carried out archaeological excavations at Mill Meadow, south-west of Launton, Oxfordshire, revealing a fascinating landscape dating to the Neolithic (4000-2500 BC), Bronze Age (2500-800BC), Roman (43-410 AD), Saxon (410-1066 AD) and medieval (1066-1480 AD) periods.
One of several Neolithic and Bronze Age stone tools
Neolithic flint knife
The earliest evidence for human activity at the site dates to the prehistoric period. Finds of Neolithic and Bronze Age flint tools demonstrate the intermittent use of this landscape over a very long period of time. The flint tools recovered include a knife and scrapers, as well as waste flakes from flint tool production.
Braided palaeochannels within an area of low ground at the site indicated the course of a past river, which ran across the site before silting up. Finds from within these lost channels included pottery dating to the Roman and Saxon periods, suggesting that the river ran during these periods, though its origins may be earlier.
Two of many iron horseshoes found on the road surface
A medieval glass bead found on the road surface.
A number of intercutting features within the valley may have dated to the Roman or post-Roman periods, with one feature containing a Roman brooch. These features were sealed by the most significant discovery at the site: a medieval road. This road predated any roads or trackways marked on historic maps of the area, reflecting an early date, and is currently thought to have been established between around 1100 AD and 1300 AD. A number of finds were found on the road surface, indicating that it was well used. These included over 25 horseshoes, a ceramic spindle whorl and a colourful glass bead. The course of the road follows the same path as Bicester Road, which runs through the village of Launton, suggesting it may have been an early iteration of the same route. The site at Mill Meadow is close to the Roman town of Alchester and the Saxon town of Bicester, and it may be that the road we have discovered here was important for people travelling across the landscape between settlements.
An aerial view of the excavation, showing the road surface.
Image: Adam Stanford © Aerial-Cam
An aerial view of the excavation in this landscape context, showing how the course of the medieval road relates to the course of Bicester Road, which runs through the village of Launton. Image: Adam Stanford © Aerial-Cam
The higher ground at the site revealed evidence for an agricultural landscape. Ridges and furrows from medieval farming practices showed where arable agriculture had once taken place. A series of gullies represented drainage channels, running towards the lower ground. Larger ditches were probably field boundaries, marking out the division of the landscape. A curving arc of postholes is interpreted as representing a fence line, also potentially linked to the agricultural use of the site.
Now that excavations at this site have finished, we will be conducting post-excavation work to further study the finds from the site and place it into its landscape context.