St Peters and St Pauls Church, Olney

In September and December 1995, Oxford Archaeological unit undertook a watching brief at the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Olney, Buckinghamshire (NGR SP 4890 2509). The watching brief was undertaken during renovation and rebuilding work inside the tower, and also the excavation of new service trenches immediately to the North and West of the church. During the groundwork inside the tower the original Medieval graveyard was exposed and a small number of Medieval pot sherds were retrieved from this deposit. Numerous layers of compacted clay and mortar overlying the buried soil represented the remains of earlier floor surfaces within the tower, dating to the Medieval and Post Medieval periods. a umber of Post Medieval pits were discovered cutting through the earlier floor levels, and one appeared to have been used for casting lead related to the leaded windows. Part of a much larger, vertically sided feature was also discovered cut from the higher levels of the buried floor layers. In 1998 a further watching brief was carried out during the excavation of a French drain.