Taston

Survey of English Place-Names: [1]

• Thorstan 1278–9.[1]
• Thorstane 1316.[1]
• Torstone 1492.[1]
• Taston 1608–9.[1]

The original Old Danish name[lower-alpha 1] might have been:

• Þórr steinn.[lower-alpha 2] [lower-alpha 3]

The name element Thor is a reference to the Norse God Thor.[lower-alpha 4] [lower-alpha 5] The name element stan is from Old English stān ( " stone " ).[lower-alpha 6]

The toponym might be:

• Thor stone.
• Thor's stone.

At the centre of Taston are the base and broken shaft of a Medieval preaching cross.[17] It is a Grade II* listed building.[12]

Middle Farmhouse is a house built of coursed rubble in the 17th and early 18th centuries.[13] Part of the roof is of Stonesfield slate. The farmstead has a four-bay barn that was built of stone early in the 18th century and altered in 1884.[14]

The Firkins is a small house near Thorsbrook Spring. It is built of rubble and probably dates from early in the 18th century.[15]

At Thorsbrook Spring, about 140 yards (130 m) southeast of the preaching cross, is a Victorian Gothic Revival memorial fountain. It was built in 1862 in memory of Henrietta, Viscountess Dillon,[16] wife of Henry Dillon, 13th Viscount Dillon.

The Danish Viking warlord Guthrum based his army at Cirencester for about a year following his defeat at the Battle of Edington. [lower-alpha 19] [lower-alpha 20] In 879 Guthrum moved his large army from Cirencester to East Anglia, as had been agreed in the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum.

Taston is about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the Akeman Street Roman road, which connected Cirencester directly with Alchester (Roman town) near Bicester. Alchester was a strategic location with connecting routes north and south:

• The route north connected with Watling Street at Lactodurum (Towcester).[lower-alpha 21]

• The route south connected with the River Thames at Dorchester on Thames.[lower-alpha 22]

It would be expected that Guthrum's army used Akeman Street to travel from Cirencester to East Anglia. [lower-alpha 24] It is possible that not all of Guthrum's army recruits continued all of the way to East Anglia. There is a cluster of Danish and Old Norse place names to the north of Akeman Street.[lower-alpha 25] Oxfordshire became increasingly populated by Danes of Viking age origin as waves of migrants crossed the North sea and followed the River Thames inland to Oxford.[lower-alpha 26]

There is a cluster of Old Danish and Old Norse place names near Taston:

Taston is very close to a series of defensive earthwork's known as Grim's Ditch around Ditchley Park. The earthwork's extend south as far as Akeman Street Roman road and were probably built or re-used by the Roman army to resist attack from the Dobunni.[lower-alpha 29] The North Oxfordshire Grim's Ditch is one of many earthwork's of a similar name in the south and east of England. The reason why they are all called " Grim's Ditch " is not known, since they are believed to have different origins. The name " Grim " was a common Old Danish personal-name during the Viking Age.[20] The name was associated with the Norse god Óðinn, known as Wōden to the Anglo Saxons.[lower-alpha 30] [lower-alpha 31]

Dane Hill is a small hamlet on the A4260 road from Oxford to Banbury.[19] The hamlet might mark the most westerly extent of Danish controlled territory into Oxfordshire, following the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum.

A 19th century map shows how territory was divided between the Anglo Saxons (Pink) and the Danes (Blue):[lower-alpha 32]

• Wantage – Kingdom of Wessex – Alfred the Great (Pink).
• Warwick – English Mercia – Ceolwulf II of Mercia (Pink).
• Oxford – Wessex and Mercia (Pink).[lower-alpha 33]
• Buckingham – Kingdom of Guthrum (Blue).[lower-alpha 34]
• Northampton – Danish Mercia (Blue).[lower-alpha 35] [lower-alpha 36]

The Anglo Saxons later gained territory from the Danes, and Buckingham became a Mercian burh, one of a network of fortified burhs created to defend Mercia and Wessex against the Danes.[lower-alpha 37]

• Burnham, Andy (2018). The Old Stones. Watkins Media Limited. ISBN 9781786781543.
• Williams, Gareth; Naylor, John (2016). King Alfreds Coins, The Watlington Viking Hoard. Ashmolean museum, University of Oxford. ISBN 978-1-910807-13-2.
• Oliver, Neil (2012). Vikings; A History. Phoenix. ISBN 978-1-7802-2282-0.
• Crossley, Alan; Elrington, C R, eds. (1979). 'Medieval Oxford', A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 4. British History Online. pp. 3–73. Retrieved 2 June 2023.