The earliest identified activity was a late Iron Age pit and may be rare evidence of rural settlement of this date in the area. An Anglo-Saxon boundary ditch was also found, as well as 17th/18th century quarry pits which had probably been dug for gravel, possibly for the construction of the infirmary or for building and maintaining Walton Street.
All other archaeology found during the excavation relates to the burial ground which had served the hospital from its foundation in 1770, until 1855. Comprising a large group of human skeletons, coffin remains and grave furnishings, it is one of the largest 18th/19th century hospital assemblages to have been recovered from Britain.
A total of 348 individuals was found in graves which had been laid out in neat rows, either side of a footpath. A few graves had been dug in a disorganised fashion into the tops of 17th/18th century quarry pits. They may refer to victims of an epidemic such as cholera, although evidence for cause of death was not visible on the skeletons. Small pits, dug into the tops of graves or alongside graves, were also found and contained surgical waste, such as amputated limbs.
None of the graves had surviving markers and no plans of the burial ground survive, so practically all the individuals are unidentified. One male individual, from Ireland, was identified from a surviving nameplate on his coffin lid. He was killed while working as a fireman on the railway and his skeleton had extensive wounds from a massive impact to the spine and chest.
Other examples of trauma were common amongst the skeletons and are testament to the hazardous nature of working-class lives during this period of industrialisation. Accidents involving trains, threshing machines and printing machines were the most common, reflecting the influence of the railway, the printing press and farming. These would have all been activities practised in the area around the hospital with the Oxford stations (Oxford had two at this time) lying half a mile away, the University Press directly across the road from the hospital and the open fields of North Oxford surrounding the hospital.
Much of the trauma seen in the excavated bones concerns individuals who would have been admitted as emergencies, many of them with incurable wounds and/or infection and for whom surgery was the only option. Evidence of surgery primarily included amputations, reflecting a focus on procedures which were quick and accurate, in keeping with the practices of the era prior to the introduction of anaesthesia.
Upon their arrival, Radcliffe patients were taken to the attic where the accident ward, operating theatre and (later) surgical wards were located. With no anaesthesia, they would have undergone surgery either awake under restraint, or intoxicated with alcohol. In one remarkable example, the base of a child’s spine appears to have been removed when the individual was still alive, possibly to remove a cancerous growth. An invasive and risky operation, it reflects advanced medical intervention for its time which would have required a level of detail and time that was beyond most 18th/19th century surgical ability.
The excavated bones had more examples of patients who had survived their surgery, than had died on the operating table. However, post-operative infections leading to sepsis were common and often fatal. Coupled with the fact that antisepsis and sterilisation did not exist, hospitals were breeding grounds for disease due to overcrowding and lack of sanitation. The Radcliffe was no exception to this, with infection (such as, tuberculosis and syphilis) being the most common type of disease seen on the excavated bones.
Several excavated individuals had undergone an autopsy, whereby the tops of skulls and/or rib cages had been sawn open. There was also some evidence for the removal of body parts by anatomists, to be used as teaching specimens by Oxford University’s medical students. Anatomisation of unclaimed hospital patients was legally permitted with the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832 but is known to have been taking place illegally in the country before this date. It is not known whether the Radcliffe examples pre- or post-date this legislation.