Marcham
| Marcham | |
| Berkshire | |
|---|---|
 All Saints Church, Marcham | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SU4596 |
| Location: | 51°39’58"N, 1°20’38"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 1,811 (2001) |
| Post town: | Abingdon |
| Postcode: | OX13 |
| Dialling code: | 01865 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Vale of White Horse |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Wantage |
| Website: | Marcham Parish Council |
Marcham is a village and parish in Berkshire, two miles west of Abingdon, in the Ock Hundred.
Archaeology
In Trendles Field behind the former Noah's Ark Inn, in the extreme south-west of the parish, the remains of an Iron Age and Roman village have been excavated.[1] Evidence has been found of round huts and grain storage pits, to which a religious shrine was later added.[1] At the end of the first century AD a stone-built Romano-British temple was built on the site of one of the huts and a smaller stone building, possibly a shrine, was built on the site of the Iron Age shrine.[2] The temple seems to have remained in use well into the 5th century.[1]
This site is subject to an ongoing archaeological project. In 2009 it was announced that the remains of a possible amphitheatre had been found.[3]
History
The name Marcham is derived from the Old English Merceham, menaing “wild celery homestead”.[4][5]
==Parish Church The parish church is All Saints. Its tower dates from early in the 13th century. It has a ring of six bells.[6] The remainder of the church was rebuilt in 1837.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Marcham) |
- Marcham Society
- Marcham and District News
- Marcham Football Club
- Denman College
- Archaeology at Marcham
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Pevsner, 1966, page 146
- ↑ Pevsner, 1966, page 147
- ↑ "School of Archaeology, University of Oxford: The Vale and Ridgeway Project". http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/research/research_projects/marcham. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
- ↑ "Domesday place-names of Berkshire". Archived from the original on July 15, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070715015318/http://www.gwp.enta.net/berknames.htm. Retrieved April 6, 2008.
- ↑ "Royal Berkshire History - Marcham". http://www.berkshirehistory.com/villages/marcham.html. Retrieved April 6, 2008.
- ↑ "Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers, Old North Berks Branch". http://onb.org.uk/live/towers/index.html. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
Sources and further reading
- Hingley, R. 1985. Location, Function and Status: a Romano-British 'religious complex' at the Noah's Ark Inn, Frilford. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 4 (2), 201-14.
- Page, W.H.; Ditchfield, P.H., eds (1924). A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 4. Victoria County History. pp. 354–360.
- Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 146, 176, 177.