Goodchild's interest in archaeology was raised as a schoolboy at Cranleigh School, an independent boarding school in Surrey. From 1936, he attended the University of Oxford to study history. There he got to know the University of Oxford Archaeological Society who undertook excavations in the area around Oxford. During one of these excavations, Goodchild learned, among others, the archaeologist Olwen Brogan (1900–1989) and the later pioneer of aerial archaeology, John Bradford (1918-1975). While still a student, Goodchild and Bradford excavated the Gallo-Roman temple of Frilford in Oxfordshire.
