THE biggest archaeological dig Oxford has ever seen is under way at the site of the Westgate Shopping Centre.

More than 60 archaeologists are working there to investigate the remains of 19th century housing and a medieval friary.

It comes as builders prepare for the construction of two major new sections of the shopping complex, which is undergoing a £440m overhaul.

Oxford Archaeology, the firm carrying out the survey, said many of the remains were hidden underneath the car park that is currently being demolished.

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Project manager Ben Ford added: “We hope to have a series of talks and open days throughout 2015 as the dig progresses.”

The start of the excavations will be focused on old housing at St Ebbes that was built in the 1820s.

Much of the area was cleared in the 1960s to make space for the construction of Westgate, but some buildings survived below.

The excavations under way – at the former sites of New Street and Friar Street – are thought to be the first in the city to target 19th-century working class housing, the Westgate Oxford Alliance said.

And archaeologists believe its findings could add to the national understanding of the effects of industrialism.

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Peter Thompson inspects a well.

Oxford City Council city archaeologist David Radford said St Ebbes had also been affected by a cholera outbreak in the 1830s.

It was the subject of a study by Sir Henry Acland, a former Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University.

Mr Radford said: “When they were first built in the 1820s the houses in ‘the friars’ part of St Ebbes were advertised as attractive places to live, but by the 1830s tragedy had struck and the area suffered a devastating outbreak of cholera.

“St Ebbes became the subject of a ground-breaking early medical study of cholera by local doctor Henry Acland and attempts were made to improve sanitation.”

Later the excavations will also examine remains of the Franciscan friary formally occupied by the Greyfriars.

After they were forced to flee England during the Reformation, the grounds, near where Abbey Place and Paradise Square were built, were renamed the “Paradise Gardens”.

Excavation work at the site is expected to continue into the summer.