Agricultural land, beside Spring Road, was purchased by Abingdon Town Council and converted into a cemetery in 1940

Every now and again the grave diggers would find things of historic interest: old graves, broken pots, and jewelry (Neolithic, Iron Age, Roman, Saxon, and more recent.)

Around the year 2000 AD, a large trenched area was dug in the unused part of the cemetery to allow archaeologists to investigate some of the undisturbed land before it was used for cemetery burial. A book all about the dig, in 2000 AD, called ‘Saved from the Grave – Neolithic to Saxon – Spring Road Municipal Cemetery’ was written by T Allen and Z Kamash.

This picture shows some of the Neolithic pots in Abingdon Museum. One may have come from the cemetery. I cannot be sure because the label says, ‘found near Abingdon.’

The photograph of pots at the back are of ones found at Barrow Hills and were given the name of ‘Abingdon Ware’ because that type of pot was first found in Abingdon. It would be good to get some ‘Abingdon ware’ on show at the local museum where it will be appreciated most.

The pot at the front is half of an elliptical dish, called Peterborough Ware – because the first one, with this patterning, was found near Peterborough. To me, this looks identical to the dish shown in the ‘Saved from the Grave’ book – found in Spring Road Cemetery.

I expect the current grave diggers still find artifacts that need recording.

P.S I will be updating this entry in the light of further information from the musuem.