The oak tree has long provided people in Britain with a wonderful natural resource. In this book the authors reclaim the disappearing forestry and carpentry skills of our ancestors and show how, in an era of climate change, oak can continue to enrich our future as a key element in an ecologically rich countryside'. This book explores how people managed and exploited oakwoods since Neolithic times, and the skills required in the use of timbers for ship-building, furniture and constructing houses. The appendix contains a list of historic and named oak trees in Britain compiled from 18th and 19th century sources and drawing on the work of N D G James.

The Upper Thames Valley is an important area for prehistoric monuments and has one of the highest concentrations of cursuses, distinctive linear or elongated earthworks, in Britain. In the 1980s the Oxford Archaeological Unit along with the Abingdon Area Archaeological and Historical Society had the opportunity to extensively investigate one of these sites at Drayton. This site has produced many significant results for our present understanding of the date, construction and use of cursus monuments on the lowland river gravels of Britain. This volume reports on the excavations at Drayton, and includes an account of small-scale excavations undertaken at the Lechlade cursus by OAU and Lance and Faith Vatcher. It also provides a gazetteer of known cursus monuments in the Upper Thames Valley.

The latest in a series of reports on the archaeological excavations near London Bridge Station, this volume focuses on important discoveries relating to the origins and development of Roman Southwark. From the prehistoric period on this area formed the northernmost end of a series of sandy islands in the tidal reaches of the Thames. The earliest Roman features were drainage ditches and quarry pits associated with the construction of a road to the Thames bridgehead. Eight buildings were recorded along the eastern side of the road, including a blacksmiths' workshop. All of these buildings were destroyed by fire in the Boudican revolt of AD 60/61. New timber and masonry buildings were constructed in the area during the late 1st and 2nd centuries. These included shops, a market hall, and a warehouse. Excavations revealed that extensive land reclamation took place on the marginal eastern fringes of the island before the construction of 2nd and 3rd century houses. One of these houses contained a mosaic, and painted wall plaster was recorded to the west of the road with part of a large building interpreted as a mansio .

The Norwich Survey was established in 1971 to examine and record the city's archaeology. This, part three in the series of reports, looks at five excavations within and around Norwich: Northern Conesford (Cathedral Close), Castle Fee in South Conesford, Westwick (St Benedicts Street), North-east Norwich (Magdalen Street) and the suburb of Heigham. The data from these excavations improve our understanding of changes to the city in the medieval and post-medieval periods.

This volume discusses and catalogues all examples of armorial devices from horse furniture known from the Norfolk SMR. In what is a vaulable reference tool for archaeologists and military historians alike, the volume presents all manner of 12th- to 14th-century pendants, studs, mounts and badges which depict geometric patterns, animals, buildings, plants, humans, monsters and everyday items. Fine line drawings illustrate 246 objects. The volume includes a glossary of technical and decorative terms.

The enigmatic remains of Baconsthorpe Castle in north-east Norfolk belie the story of a very grand fortified manor house. Owned by the Heydon family from the early 15th to the late 17th century, the house once comprised an inner moated enclosure, an outer court and gatehouse, a barn, mere and gardens and park. This report outlines the history of Baconsthorpe based on documentary and iconographic evidence, and archaeological investigations of the 1950s and, especially, the excavations of 1972. As well as an analysis of the standing remains and earthworks, this volume presents the artefactual evidence, including ceramics, metal objects, coins, glass, building material, sculpted stone, evidence for leatherworking and zoological remains.

This volume presents the results of four excavations, three in Norfolk (Tilney St Lawrence, Nordelph and Downham West) and one in Lincolnshire (Morton), of Romano-British routeways constructed some time before the 3rd century AD. Data from the sites, which comprise canals, roads and especially the Fen Causeway crossing the southern Fenlands, are discussed in turn and the final chapter draws some more general conclusion as to their function, chronological sequence and their roe in the development of the area in Roman times.

The future of London archaeology is the focus of this volume, which follows on from The Archaeology of Greater London (MoLAS 2000). It sets out aims for improving and facilitating research and managing the archaeological resource more effectively. What will be useful for non-specialists are the summaries and reviews of the evidence for the main chronological periods; Prehistory, Roman, Saxon, Medieval and post 1500. A final chapter considers how a research strategy for London can be developed.

An excavation report of a Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon site investigated by the Oxford Archaeological Unit at Melford Meadows, just outside Thetford. The Roman remains comprised buildings probably belonging to a small farmstead occupied from the late 1st to the end of the 4th century, and a cemetery, whereas evidence from the Saxon occupation comprised buildings, pits and domestic artefacts dating from the 5th to late 6th/7th century.

Excavations at the site of Baltic House uncovered evidence of occupation dating from Roman times onward. The earliest excavated feature was a Roman barrel-lined well dated AD 50-80 and containing the skulls of a horse and bull - perhaps a sacrificial offering. The well lay to the south of a large V-shaped ditch which formed part of a late 1st-century defensive boundary along the northeast side of the Roman settlement. A 2nd-century cellared building was also recorded here. In the medieval period the site lay in an area surrounded by a religious houses. The earliest medieval finds dated from the 10th or 11th century. Industrial activity between the 13th and 15th centuries included metalworking, represented by the manufacture of bells and kitchen vessels, and nitric acid distillation.In the 18th century the area was redeveloped with the creation of Jeffrey Square and smart terraced houses. At the end of the 19th century the Baltic Mercantile and Shipping Exchange was constructed. The building was badly damaged by a terrorist bomb in 1992, and the site is now occupied by the London headquarters of Swiss Re, a striking new office tower designed by Foster and Partners. This publication summarizes the archaeological sequence and history of one of London's most fascinating sites in a fully illustrated and integrated text.

This volume brings together the results of two evaluation and excavation projects undertaken by Oxford Archaeological Unit at Eynsham Abbey between 1991 and 1993. It reports on the medieval moated site and associated fishponds, the late Anglo-Saxon/medieval abbey, and finds, together with discussion.

Reports of two church excavations, St Martin-at-Palace, Norwich and St Michael, Bowthorpe, undertaken prior to their re-building and re-use. The reports cover the earliest evidence for occupation of the site and the phases of re-building, repair and ruin (in the case of St Michael's) from the Anglo-Saxon period through to their present state.

Identified from cropmarks and excavated in 1974, the site consisted of three enclosures belonging to a small farmstead lasting from at least the later 1st century BC to the middle of the 2nd century AD. The evidence of the houses is that the site had been inhabited by a single family group at all times and had developed in tandem with the growing complexity of landscape division, and almost certainly was closed down in favour of another site nearby. After it was abandoned, its earthworks were incorporated into the Roman field system and, eventually, the corner of an enclosure was used for a small cemetery of nine burials

This report provides a chronological account of excavation findings at 25 Cannon Street, supported by many illustrations and specialist contributions. The dig revealed a long sequence of occupation, and adds to findings made on the site in 1954. Redeposited pottery provided rare evidence for Middle Bronze Age activity in the area of the City of London. Early Roman quarrying and timber buildings were followed by increased development from c. AD 70. By the late 2nd century the area included masonry buildings, some possessing tessellated floors. Building alignments indicate the route of a Roman road immediately to the north of the site, beneath Watling Street. One Roman building was occupied until the late 4th century, its ruins covered by 'dark earth'. Four cellared buildings had been constructed on the site by the mid 11th century, and pre-dated Friday Street and the Church of St Werburga, later St John the Evangelist. The church was founded between 1098 and 1108, and was rebuilt with a wider chancel in the 13th or 14th century. Medieval and later buildings, cellars and cesspits were associated with occupation up to the Great Fire.

The north bank of the Thames near Cannon Street Station was occupied by some of London's most prominent buildings in both the Roman and Medieval periods. Substantial stone walls revealed at the site in 1969 were initially interpreted as part of a Roman townhouse attached to the 'Governor's Palace' building complex to the west. In 1994-7 new excavations uncovered a prehistoric marsh, a riverside quay dated to AD 84 and a revetment constructed in c. AD 100-200. Later Roman buildings were recorded on terraces overlooking the Thames. Two of these buildings predated the townhouse, and one of these may have been a goldworker's premises. Important new evidence for the ground plan and use of the later townhouse has revealed that it developed separately from other large Roman buildings to the west. Part of a Tuscan order column recovered from the site suggests that the building had some architectural pretensions and a high status. In the late 4th century the townhouse was demolished and the settlement abandoned. The first evidence of reoccupation at the site took the form of early 11th century pitting succeeded by sunken-floored or cellared buildings. The walls of the 14th century Pountney's Inn, later the Manor of the Rose, were recorded along Suffolk Lane. This volume presents the results of the archaeological work at this important site in a clear chronological narrative supported by many detailed illustrations and specialist reports.

The suburb of Wigford lies near the heart of the historic city of Lincoln. Before excavations began in 1972, nothing was known of the prehistory of the area and so the arrival of the Roman army represented the first historic event. This volume publishes the results of the excavation of several sites, made possible by a series of urban development schemes. Each of the excavations differed in the extent and depth of the stratigraphy uncovered and each belonged to a different period, from the Iron Age to post-medieval.