Beginning with the Roman pottery industry, which covered a huge area from Headington to beyond Blackbird Leys and sent pots far afield, through medieval milling and quarrying and concluding with the physical development of the Cowley car works and the history of the people who worked there.

 

East Oxford has always attracted the different and marginalised.This theme would include the history and archaeology of the leper hospital at Bartlemas, the workhouse buildings, workhouse farm and industrial school.

 

Where did the old route to London really go? Where was the Roman road that linked the potters with the main road between Dorchester and Alchester? The rivers have been crucial trade and transport routes – find out about the paper mills, locks and river-side industries.

 

Where were the Civil War defences built by the Royalists in St Clement’s and Cromwell’s men in South Park? Trace the history of several eighteen and nineteenth century barracks in the area and the military academy. How did the Cold War affect buildings in East Oxford?

 

Have you noticed the corrugated ground in South Park showing where medieval fields were laid out? Trace the lands and fields of manors and farms, churches and monastic organisations.

 

And that isn’t all. The story begins with evidence for ancient, pre-Roman homes, farms and work-places beneath our streets…