Area 8A
Along the northern boundary of this area is a feature that may well represent what remains of the old alignment of Hollow Lane as shown on Thomas Jefferys’ map of 1768. The most obvious feature in this area is the cricket box, running north south, and to the west of that, taking up the south west quadrant of this area, are at least two features, possibly three. Aligned north south in the middle of the area is some possible archaeology, very broken in appearance but a closely grouped response. To the west of this feature is the second feature again broken but closely grouped with what is possibly a west facing apsidal feature. Less obvious is a possible feature running east west and giving the impression of a link between the east and west north south aligned features. The geophysics results suggest possible Roman. An excavation on the second feature found a possible foundation consisting of what appeared to be gravel, sand and possibly lime mortar mix. In places this feature was solid enough to be foundational and elsewhere less so breaking apart easily. There were very few finds, of which none were dateable leaving the Roman interpretation open. It is planned to return to the feature, excavating a larger area to help identify and understand these features. Since the excavation, an ongoing examination of all of the finds made from the grounds of Abbey College (over an unknown number of years) has found some Roman pottery, a small number of tesserae and some amphora pot end pieces. This would add a little credence to the fact that there is likely to be a Roman building somewhere on site or nearby.