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A watching brief was maintained during the period of ground works that may have affected or revealed unknown archaeological features. The main element of this recording was a photographic survey using both digital photographs and archivally stable black and white film carried out during ground works. A complete floor plan of exposed features within the church was also produced after the removal of the limestone floor and wooden pews from the nave, aisles and tower areas of the church. The watching brief also involved recording of burials and excavation of human remains where necessary. Human remains were subsequently reburied within the church. A written report was then produced to accompany and further understanding of both the photographic survey and the archaeologically annotated plan. Balliol College is undertaking a development at St Cross Church in Oxford, which will see the conversion of the large majority of the church into the college's archive store. OA was commissioned by Montgomery Architects, on behalf of Balliol College, to carry out a watching brief during the programme of ground works. OA had previously been commissioned to undertake an Historic Assessment of the church (February 2009) and a programme of Archaeological Recording of features within the floor which had been exposed by the removal of pews and floorboards (November 2009). Features exposed were to be expected in a church of this size and date. However, the foundations for the new archive units need concrete rafts at a maximum depth of 300 mm below the existing floor level, on permanent shuttering. In some areas of proposed development, voids were as shallow as 220mm, which raised issues concerning the impact of the development on the archaeology of the church. Subsequent ground works involved the removal of limestones slabs in the central aisle and the west side of the south aisle and the lowering of the floor surface to a depth of 300mm in these areas. A trench 1500mm wide running north south underneath the tower needed to be reduced by 700mm. Another smaller trench, 300mm deep, was cut around the south west exterior of the church. An archaeological watching brief was maintained for the duration of these ground works, during which at least seven more burials were exposed as well as human remains in the trench on the south west exterior. Mortar floor packing was exposed the south aisle and 19th and 20th century services activity in the area of the font in the west end of the south aisle. Two test trenches were excavated archaeologically into the area of the proposed service trench under the tower to investigate potential significant archaeological activity. A watching brief was maintained during the removal of the remainder of the trench, during which an adult skeleton, thought to be medieval, was exposed, excavated and re-buried within the church. Partially articulated human remains, previously disturbed, were found in the narrow trench dug from the west exterior to the south exterior. |
