Excerpts from a report by The Oxford Archaeological Unit dated January 2003

In July, August and September 2002 Oxford Archaeology (OA) carried out an archaeological watching brief and a recording programme at the church of St Laurence, Appleton, Oxfordshire (NGR SP 445 015). The work was commissioned by McBains Cooper on behalf of the Parochial Church Council in advance of the construction of a new extension on the side of the church and installation of a new floor and under floor heating.

The village of Appleton is Saxon in origin with the earliest reference dating to the 7th century (VHC Berkshire IV 1927, 336). The origins of the church are obscure although the earliest known part of the church, the nave, dates to the 12th century. The nave is separated from the northern aisle by an arcade of four bays which dates from 1190 to 1200. The pointed arches rest on cylindrical piers with moulded bases. The chancel was probably rebuilt in the 13th century and the plain pointed southern doorway and the priest door is of the same date. Windows were also added during the 13th century. The western tower, the blocked tower arch and several windows were added in the 15th century. The south porch was added in the early 16th century. During the 17th century, the north aisle was rebuilt and the north chapel was also added. The north porch was built in about 1700. In 1883, restoration work involved, amongst other things, the lowering of the floor by nine inches as well as the construction of the chancel arch and the pulpit (VHC Berkshire IV 1927, 339-340).

The foundation walls of an earlier, smaller church were discovered within the nave. The earlier church had a doorway in the western wall. The church was extended eastwards in the late 12th or early 13th century and some of the contemporary column bases reused the earlier wall as foundation blocks. The western wall, beneath the later blocked arch also had a doorway possibly leading to an earlier tower. Twenty-two earth-cut graves were located within this area. Most were orientated west-east but four were orientated north-south. Some graves in the western end may be contemporary with the early church whereas some of the graves in the eastern end are clearly post-medieval.

Four earth-cut graves and ten brick-lined vaults were present in the north aisle. The earth-cut graves had been truncated by the widening of the aisle in the 17th century or by the 18th and 19th -century vaults. Five of the vaults were flat-topped. The barrel-vaulting had been removed when the floor was lowered in 1883. Inscriptions from memorial slabs indicated that the individuals in the brick-lined vaults almost certainly all belong to the Sellwood family.

In the first instance four small test pits measuring 0.5 m square were excavated inside the church to ascertain the nature of the sub-floor deposits. The ground level inside the church was then reduced by 0.4 m. This was carried out by hand in the north aisle and by a mini digger with a toothless bucket in the nave. The barrel-vaulted tombs and flat-topped brick-lined graves were opened and reduced by two courses of bricks to the impact level. The entire floor area was cleaned by hand and recorded at the impact level. The vaults subjected to intervention were recorded before and after opening. Coffin fittings and skeletal remains were recorded on site prior to reburial. The footprint of the extension was excavated using a mini digger with toothless bucket. This was recorded prior to pouring concrete for foundations.

All archaeological features were planned at a scale of 1:20 or 1:10 and where excavated their sections drawn at scales of 1:20. All exposed features were photographed using colour slide and black and white print film.

More indirect evidence comes from the capping stones (99 and 110) for the brick-lined graves 98 and 75. The surviving inscription on both the stones refers to the Sellwood family. Complete memorial plaques to various members of this family are situated above the north porch and commemorate individuals who died in the 18th and 19th century. This suggests that all the brick-lined barrel vaults in the northern aisle are of the Sellwood family.

The church of St Laurence has undergone several phases of construction. The earliest structural evidence of a church predates the Transitional Norman arches, which divide the nave from the northern aisle. Walls 54, 56 and 63 are all part of the same structure forming the western and northern walls of a smaller, earlier church. The gap between wall 56 and 63 is slightly truncated on the northern side by grave 155 but is clearly a western doorway. The eastern limit of this earliest church is not known but it was evident that wall 54 extended beneath the present-day chancel. The relationship between the southern end of wall 63 and the existing southern external wall was uncertain but it is very likely that this also formed the southern perimeter of this earliest structure. The date of this structure is uncertain since no datable material was uncovered during the course of the investigation. It is, however, earlier than the late 12th century.

In the late 12th century or early 13th century the church was extended. The Norman arches were built reusing wall 54 as foundation blocks for the column bases for pillars 57, 58 and 59. Column bases 60 and 61 are part of the same construction as wall foundations 119 and 121. Wall 121, which runs north-south beneath the blocked 15th century arch, is also in two parts. The central gap forms a western doorway which may have been the entrance to an earlier tower which may have been rebuilt in the 15th century when the blocked arch was added.

The graves within the area of the present-day nave are impossible to date since these were not excavated. It is, however, likely that some are contemporary with the earliest church. Indeed, the burials in the western end of the nave may originally have been outside the earlier church. Over time, as burials became more numerous within the nave and space became scarcer, a west-east orientation for the graves appears to have become less important. Therefore, in order to cause as little disturbance to pre-existing graves as possible, four (151, 171, 175 and 177) were orientated north-south, perhaps along the line of an aisle. This consideration to earlier graves may therefore indicate that grave memorial slabs were present on the, church floor marking the location of earlier burials.

The northern aisle was widened in the early 17th century (VCH Berkshire 1 1927, 339). No archaeological evidence for the earlier 13th century northern external wall was found inside the northern aisle. However, the earth-cut graves 66 and 68 had been truncated by the foundation trench (64). The graves were therefore originally located outside the church on the northern side and are likely to date to the medieval period.

Ten brick-lined vaults were present in the northern aisle. The brick-lined barrel-vaulted and flat-topped brick-lined graves date to the 18th and the early part of the 19th century. Five of the vaults were flat-topped (75, 93, 99, 104 and 109). The deposits of mortar on the uppermost course of bricks indicated that all of these vaults had originally been barrel-vaulted. The capping stones were removed on all of the vaults apart from 109 which was located beneath the font. The brick vaulting was removed when the floor was lowered in 1883.

The brick graves are likely to contain members of the same family interred during the 18th and 19th centuries. The broken pieces of memorial slabs and the commemorative plaques above the northern porch strongly suggests that these graves are the final resting place of members of the Sellwood family.