Post-medieval Oxford - Oxford City Council

Social and administrative organisation
Status
In 1542, Oxford was designated a city following the creation of the Oxford diocese
and the foundation of the cathedral at Oseney, reconfirmed in 1546 when the
cathedral moved to Christ Church (Page ed. 1907: 121). By 1667, the population of
the city had reached c.9000 making it the 11 th largest city in the country. However, by
1851, the population had only grown to c.11,000 and Oxford was no longer in the top
20 largest cities (Chalklin 2001: 77).
The Town Hall
In 1229, a building on the east side of St Aldates was acquired as a court room, and
a new gildhall was built in the 1280s. This was extended in 1550 and altered in the
16th and 17th centuries. In 1750, this was demolished (after being recorded by
James Green) and a new Town Hall designed by Isaac Ware was constructed
(Hibbert 1988). This Town Hall was replaced in the 1890s (VCH iv).
The Penniless Bench
The Penniless Bench was built as a lead-roofed lean-to on the east wall of St
Martin's church, Carfax in 1545 by the churchwardens. It was a meeting place for the
city council, but was probably used by beggars, giving rise to the name. On market
days it also served as a butterbench. The bench was rebuilt in stone in 1660 and
removed by 1750 (see Agas' map of Oxford, 1587 and Loggan’s map of 1673).
The Butterbench
The Butterbench was erected at the south-west corner of Carfax between 1709 and
1713. It was a colonnade in an entrant angle against the building, planned as the first
of four new corners to Carfax. Carfax was becoming very congested and part of the
bench was removed in 1773 when the covered market opened. The rest was
removed c.1822 (VCH iv: 189).
Social welfare – hospitals
The Radcliffe Infirmary
The Radcliffe Infirmary built with the legacy of John Radcliffe, funded by voluntary
subscription and designed by Stiff Leadbetter, was proposed in 1758 and opened in
1770 (Sherwood and Pevsner 1974: 305). The Infirmary had a series of ancillary
buildings to the rear. Extensive formal grounds and a burial ground fronting onto
Walton Street remained in use until the middle of the 19 th century. An extensive open
area excavation to the west of the Infirmary 2009 recorded extensive garden bedding
trenches, boundary wall and soakaways. The remnants of the 18 th century
brewhouse were represented by some stonewall fragments and a stone barrel
vaulted cellar. The cellar back-fill contained a large quantity of pottery dated to 1807-
1820 which corresponds to the documented date for the brewhouse demolition and
its replacement with a conservatory. To the south and west of the brewhouse, a
further stone cellar was later reused as a soakaway for at least two brick-lined rain
water drains. The collection and management of water within the hospital was also
evidenced in a stone-lined drainage cistern, fed by five stone lined drains from the
rear of the infirmary building and one from the building associated with the second
stone-lined vaulted cellar (Braybrooke 2010). Burials from the Infirmary Burial
Ground were recorded during the construction work in the 1930s (Dudley Buxton,
1937) and during subsequent evaluations in 2007 (Watson 2007) and 2009
(Braybrooke 2009b). In 2009, a total of 36 identifiable burials were recorded and a
OXFORD ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESOURCE ASSESSMENT- POST MEDIEVAL
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