Fish was the food of the day for the dons of medieval Queens College, writes CHRIS KOENIG

The chairman of the UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change — who last year jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize — would certainly have approved of the dietary habits of medieval dons at Queens College, Oxford.

Evidence unearthed by archaeologists, called in to survey the site of the college's new senior common room dining room and underground kitchen, shows just how much fish, rather than meat, they ate in those days.

Indeed, twice a week (Wednesdays and Fridays), the dons of yore ate no meat at all. And Dr Rajendra Pachauri this month called on us all to stop eating meat for just one day a week, suggesting that halving our meat consumption would reduce greenhouse gases more than if we halved our car use.

The Oxford Archaeology dig found that the area had been a kitchen in medieval times. They also discovered just how important communal dining was in those days for the well-being of an Oxford college.

Sarah Parker, spokesman for architects Berman Guedes Strettons, who are charged with building the new dining room and kitchen, said: "The tradition of communal dining, once central to building college communities, has somewhat ebbed away. This is partly as a result of the relaxing of collegiate rules and competition from the food outlets of Oxford.

"Queens College, however, is determined to create a facility that makes it the most desirable place for its members to eat."

The archaeologists have unearthed the western and eastern walls of the 14th-century west range. Within the structure they have found animal and fish bones, medieval pottery and a fossilised cat.

Queen's was founded in 1341, the sixth to come into existence in the city, by Robert Eglesfield. He was chaplain to the wife of Edward III, Queen Philippa. But the building we know today was largely built in the early 18th century by the Oxford family of Townsend, probably working to designs by Nicholas Hawksmoor. The screen and cupola, containing a statue of Queen Caroline, was not built until the 1730s and is modelled on Luxembourg Palace, Paris.

Mr Eglesfield laid down strict rules about how members of his foundation — Fellows, chaplains and "poor boys" — should behave. He regulated almost every detail of their lives, laying much stress on their eating habits. Even today college members are summoned to meals by the clarion call of a trumpet, though the instrument used now dates only from the 17th century.

The founder stipulated in the statutes that all possessions of the college, including livestock, should be marked with the college crest of a flying eagle, so perhaps the archaeologists' most interesting find was a piece of 14th-century tile that appears to bear part of that crest.

Queens College home bursar Linda Irving-Bell said of the new building work: "It is exciting to be providing state-of-the-art facilities that will allow the great dining traditions of Queen's to continue well into the future. I am sure that our predecessors would approve."

As to fish eating though, eels made up much of the medieval diet. Sadly, Oxfordshire rivers now contain only about one per cent of the eels that they once did. And, of course, at Christmas the scholars made up for their meatless days by feasting on a Boar's Head — as they still do (even though Christmas Eve was designated a meatless day).