Marcham

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Marcham
Berkshire
All Saints Church, Marcham - geograph.org.uk - 91518.jpg
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

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References

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.