Post-medieval Oxford - Oxford City Council

To the north-west, the inner line is poorly understood. A substantial ditch was
recorded at St John’s College’s North Quad in the 1940s. The available finds suggest
it may have been dug in the late 17th century, however, it does not fit well with de
Gomme’s plan of the defences (anon 1943-4). At Keble College, excavations in 1967
recorded a substantial east-west aligned ditch but no dating evidence was recovered.
Later excavations some distance to the south in 1971 failed to record evidence for
the defences along the projected line (anon 1972: 239, 248).
East of Parks Road the inner line is better understood, with surviving stretches of
bank and better cartographic sources. At Rhodes House, South Parks Road,
investigations in 1979 noted several plough-soils at the bottom of a substantial bank
but no conclusive dating evidence was recovered (UAD 542). The ditch of the inner
defensive line was noted at Mansfield College in 1959 (UAD 1282) and subsequently
in 1992 an excavation at Mansfield College recorded a large ditch at least 7 metres
wide and 2 metres deep running parallel to the extant inner line Civil War bank (Bell
1993d; Durham 1994; Oxford Archaeological Unit 1992). Sections were drawn of the
ditch and rampart during a subsequent watching brief (Mumford 2006). The inner line
was also decisively identified during further excavations at Mansfield College
between 1998 and 1999 (Booth and Hayden 2000). The full dimensions of the ditch
were not recorded. A parallel gull and line of post-holes may have formed part of an
additional defensive barrier (ibid.: 306). A ditch recorded at the college in 2006 on the
same alignment, a short distance to the south of this site may have been a
continuation of the inner defences, however no dating evidence was recovered (Sims
2006: 3).To the east of Mansfield Road, investigations at the University Clubhouse in
2003 recorded a further 23 metre section of a substantial ditch some 5.8 metres wide
and 1.35 metres deep on an east-west alignment with a parallel bank surviving as an
earthwork on the south side (Brossler 2003: 4).
Further east, a substantial ditch was recorded during the excavation of cellars at
Jowett Walk in 1943-4 along the line of the first phase of the defences (Case and
Sturdy 1960: 134). An evaluation at Balliol College Master's Field, Jowett Walk, in
1994 recorded a large north-east-south-west ditch c.2 metres wide and 1.5 metres
deep. Two sherds of 17th century pottery were found in the top of the fill. The
alignment of the ditch does not conform to Logan’s or De Gomme’s plan of the
defences, however it may form part of a bastion (Bell 1994: 7.1, 8.1).
The outer line
On the western side of town, a large ditch and parallel bank of a probable 17th
century date (and shown on Loggan) was recorded in front of the Oxford Station in
1999. Here, the watching brief recorded a 20 metre section of the ditch on a northsouth
alignment, approximately 12 metres wide and at least 2 metres deep; it also
had a bank on the interior west side (Grundon 2000). The western defences also
incorporated the north and west arms of the moat around the site of Rewley Abbey.
Trial trenching on the site of Rewley Abbey in 1994 uncovered a 5 metre wide ditch;
a single course of roughly laid limestone pieces ran along the northern edge of the
ditch; the feature may be associated with a sconce depicted on de Gomme's map
(Munby et al. 2007: 31-3).
To the north of the town, a large quarry pit on the site of Acland Hospital that
produced 17th century finds has been suggested as a possible remnant of the outer
defensive line (Oxford Archaeology 2009). To the east, excavations during
construction of the Clarendon Laboratory in 1872 noted traces of a ditch about 9
metres wide and 3 metres deep. A 1908 map shows three ditches below the
Townsend Laboratory, with some sections. The central ditch is larger than the others.
It is not certain whether the ditch seen in 1872 was one of those drawn (UAD 739).
Building work at the University Museum 1855-60 noted the possible presence of Civil
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