Excavations, a royal visit and an escaped dog

Becky Peacock and I were pleased to be able to spend some time reminiscing about St Ebbe’s with Ann Spokes Symonds, and Tom Hassall. It was special to see Tom and Ann together as part of our discussion focused on a photo which Ann brought to show us, taken when she was Chair of Highways for the City and when Tom was carrying out excavations before the 1970’s Westgate development.

Tom Hassall is seen on Queen Elizabeth's right, with the County Treasurer holding her umbrella.

Photo courtesy of the Oxford Mail

Here are Tom’s memories of the Queen’s visit.

“It was announced that the Queen was coming to Oxford. And when the Queen comes to Oxford she’s always actually coming to do something with the University. And in that case I can’t remember which building she may or may not have been opening, but the main thing, of course, is that she was what’s called the Visitor of Oriel college and she was going to have dinner in Oriel college.

But they tried to give the City a turn and the City said “Well, there’s going to be a re-development, let’s show the Queen the excavations.” Which was fine except that we had only just started the excavation. But that’s what happened. That’s what that photograph is. We’d chosen that site because we’d got two complete medieval properties on it, one of which was subsequently sub-divided and we knew we were going to get about two-thirds/three-quarters of two complete properties which at that time was virtually unheard of to excavate on that sort of scale. Except at Winchester – that was the only place where something similar had been done.

But when she came, in May I think it was, we’d got the site opened up and we’d mainly got 18^th and 19^th Century cesspits, so that was what I had to tell the Queen about. And she asked the sorts of questions that any other middle-aged housewife would ask. The only problem I had was that at that time I used to have a dog on the site with me and he escaped just as she appeared which was a bit of a drama.

Tom Hassall telling the Queen about excavations at St Ebbe's before the first Westgate development.

Photo courtesy of the Oxford Mail

It was quite funny because I was told many years later that that evening she went to Oriel as visitor to have dinner and the other senior lady present was Kathleen Kenyon the redoubtable and very famous excavator of Jericho. I mean the real Jericho not the Oxford Jericho. And apparently KK as she was known turned to the Queen and said “I don’t suppose you found much to see down in St Ebbe’s did you?” And the Queen apparently turned round and told her how important it was to find out about the everyday life of ordinary people. And apparently completely flattened Kathleen Kenyon, which was quite funny.”

The work to find out about the everyday lives of ordinary people is continuing at the Westgate. Oxford Archaeology are carrying out extensive excavations, and these have included some 19th Century housing. Becky Peacock is interested in finding out how the memories we are hearing relate to the finds in these recent excavations. I am interested in how St Ebbe's as it was relates to Oxford as a whole and in re-visiting connections between people and place.

If you have stories to share about St Ebbe's then please get in touch at westgateoxfordarts@landsecurities.com. 

Tom Hassall and Ann Spokes Symonds at a St Ebbe's reminiscence session. 

Ann Spokes Symonds was Lord Mayor of Oxford and later Chairman of Oxfordshire County Council. She has written extensively on the history of Oxford.

Tom Hassall OBE MA FSA Hon MCIfA was the founding Director of Oxford Archaeology.

Ann and Tom are both Trustees of Oxford Preservation Trust. You can find out more about their work on the Oxford Preservation Trust website.