Description

In May 2008 an archaeological evaluation was undertaken by Channel 4’s ‘Time Team’ at a site known locally as ‘The Garrison’, in Radcot, Oxfordshire to investigate the remains of Queen Matilda’s moated castle complex of the 12th century Anarchy Period and a 17th century Civil War Royalist enclosure.
The layout of the medieval castle complex and later Civil War earthworks had been previously investigated in a geophysical survey undertaken by Abingdon Archaeological Geophysics, which revealed the castle keep and associated ancillary buildings, as well as the line of a large defensive ditch. A small evaluation trench was subsequently dug across part of the keep by John Blair of Oxford University.
The evaluation by Time Team added to the information gathered previously by revealing the north-eastern corner of the keep and also the supporting pier for the first floor of the castle within the interior. The remains of the heavily robbed gatehouse and main access road into the castle complex and the northern moat were identified, as well as a heavily robbed structure interpreted as a chapel. The remains of a medieval ancillary building were also revealed. These structures post-dated deposits containing 11th/12th century pottery, consistent with an early post-conquest construction date, which could link it with Hugh of Buckland, the local major landowner around the turn of the 12th century. Possible evidence of the subsequent strengthening of the keep was observed, perhaps associated with Matilda's fortification of the castle during the Anarchy Period of the mid 12th century.