What's happening?

The University of Oxford has given a grant supporting the present pilot phase, which runs from the end of 2008 to summer 2009. It is based in the Department for Continuing Education but the project team also work from their homes in East Oxford.

During this time we are:

• Working to raise financial support for the full-scale project
• Contacting groups in the east and south-east of the City of Oxford. It’s a chance to develop skills, confidence, enthusiasm and a sense of the value of a local urban landscape. Take the opportunity to have free, carefully structured training - often in useful skills. You will work within a team, be involved in hands-on practical research and learn about the past. If your group is interested please contact us.
• Eager to hear from individual locals who might already have an interest, relevant knowledge and skills or simply enthusiasm. You could become part of the project too. Please register your interest through our ‘contact us’ page.
• Establishing this website
• Doing the basic background research.

The next stages

If we secure funding the East Oxford Project will have three main phases:

1. Researching and surveying: including geophysics (see Archaeology & history), landscape survey, map investigations and small test-excavation trenches. All these activities will be led by local people supported by the Project team.
2. A community excavation.
3. A final stage when information will be passed on to local creative arts groups to inspire dance, art, photography, film and writing; and when the stories uncovered by the project’s work will be published on the website and in more conventional ways.

The website will be expanded to become a place to find and share information about the area’s past, and to ask questions about its archaeology and history. It will continue to be maintained as a rich and reliable source of facts and stories.

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