The University Parks occupies the site of a prehistoric ritual and funerary landscape. The most notable features are a linear arrangement of Bronze Age ring ditches interpreted as having surrounded now-eroded barrows. These form the eastern part of a distinct linear barrow cemetery of a Middle Neolithic (4000 to 2200 BC) to early Bronze Age (2200 to 700 BC) ritual and funerary complex that extends under central and north Oxford, of which the key surviving part is within the Parks (University of Oxford, 2022:16).
There is also evidence of Iron Age and Roman agriculture, Saxon settlement, medieval farming activity and Civil War defences.
Given evidence of activity within the area of the University Parks for thousands of years, the archaeological potential of the site is extremely high, though not immediately obvious from the ground, nor apparent to the casual visitor.
A Conservation Management Plan developed for the University Parks in 2022 commits the University to a policy of preservation in situ in order to protect areas of high archaeological sensitivity from harm, as a result both of major works and any incremental smaller impacts. In particular, proposals to extend planting beyond established beds or clumps will be informed by the archaeological sensitivity of the Parks and must be approved by the City Archaeologist. The University’s commitment to protect the irreplaceable archaeological resource therefore places significant constraints on changes to both the infrastructure and planting in the Parks.
