Abingdon’s rich archaeological story is surprisingly little known to many people. This book, by Dr Roger Thomas (Departmental Tutor in Archaeology), provides the first full-length account of the remarkable archaeology of ‘England’s oldest town’.

Abingdon claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited town in the country. The town and its immediate surroundings have produced an extraordinary range of archaeological discoveries, covering all periods: Palaeolithic handaxes, traces of Mesolithic settlement, a Neolithic causewayed enclosure, cursus monument, an oval barrow and a long barrow, the great Bronze Age barrow cemetery of Barrow Hills, the Ashville Iron Age farming settlement, an Iron Age defended oppidum and subsequent large Roman settlement under the town centre, a major early Anglo-Saxon cemetery, evidence for the late Saxon minster of Abingdon, the foundations of Abingdon’s great medieval abbey church, and evidence for the development of the medieval and later town. 

Despite all this, Abingdon’s archaeology is surprisingly little-known to many people. Especially, many local residents may not realise that they are living on the sites of nationally important archaeological discoveries. 

The book is published by the Abingdon Area Archaeological Society (AAAHS), with the aid of a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The book is accompanied by an interactive online map of Abingdon’s archaeology: https://aaahsmap.abingdon.gov.uk/ 

This includes links to detailed online reports on many of the sites described in the book. 

Roger Thomas, England’s Oldest Town? The Archaeology of Abingdon (2026). Saint Helen Publishing on behalf of AAAHS. x + 118 pp, illus, maps. ISBN 978-0-9560466-4-2