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Stonesfield
Stonesfield is a village and civil parish about 5 miles (8 km) north of Witney in Oxfordshire, and about 10 miles (17 km) northwest of Oxford. The village is on the crest of an escarpment. The parish extends mostly north and northeast of the village, in which directions the land rises gently and then descends to the River Glyme at Glympton and Wootton about 3 miles (5 km) to the north-east.
South of Stonesfield, below the escarpment, is the River Evenlode which touches the southern edge of the parish. At the centre of Stonesfield stands the 13th-century church of St James the Great as well as a Methodist chapel, Stonesfield Methodist Church, slightly further west.
The village is known for Stonesfield slate, a form of Cotswold stone mined particularly as a roofing stone and also a rich source of fossils. The architecture in Stonesfield features many old Cotswold stone properties roofed with locally mined slate along with some late 20th-century buildings and several properties under construction. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,527.
The Domesday Book of 1086 records Stonesfield as Stunsfeld, meaning "fool's field". It was still spelt "Stunsfield" as late as 1712 and Stuntesfield in 1854 before mutating to its present place name under the influence of the fame of the Roman mosaic discovered in one of its fields, its slate quarries, and the dinosaur fossils discovered there.
Stonesfield is on the Taynton Limestone Formation, a type of Cotswold stone that until the 20th century was mined as a roofing stone called Stonesfield slate. It is common on roofs of older buildings in the Cotswolds and Oxfordshire. Many of the older buildings of the University of Oxford have Stonesfield slate roofs. The quarries were also one of Britain's richest sources of Middle Jurassic vertebrate fossils.
Under Roman rule, a road was constructed from Watling Street just north of the former Catuvellauni capital Verlamion (Roman Verulamium and modern St Albans) to the Dobunni capital Corinium (modern Cirencester), probably incorporating older British trails. Because Fosse Way continued to Aquae Sulis (Bath), known as Aquamannia in the early Middle Ages, this major thoroughfare became known as Akeman Street. The portion of the road passing just southeast of Stonesfield is now preserved as part of the Oxfordshire Way.
Due east of the modern village, a major Roman villa was built just north of the road, probably in the 3rd or 4th century although coins as early as the 1st-century reign of Vespasian were possibly discovered nearby. It has been variously identified as the home of a wealthy Romanized Briton, the estate of an officer of the Romano-British rebel Allectus, and the estate of an officer of Count Theodosius and his imperial dynasty. About 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Stonesfield, on the other side of the River Evenlode and in the next parish, the remains of the North Leigh Roman Villa survive in the care of English Heritage.
Lying near Oxford University, Stonesfield's slate quarries produced the first fossils to be formally identified as those of a non-avian dinosaur. A partial femur found in 1676 was published by Robert Plot as belonging to a Roman war elephant and then to a Biblical giant; the specimen was lost but later identified from Plot's illustration and description as belonging to a megalosaur. Other Stonesfield fossils were acquired by the physician Christopher Pegge, the chemist John Kidd, and the geologist William Buckland. With guidance by the French anatomist Georges Cuvier, Buckland eventually realized they came from a bipedal lizard-like carnivore unlike any now living, publishing his description in 1824 with the name Megalosaurus, the "great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield". The fossils used by Buckland are now displayed at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Other species later found at Stonesfield include the crocodile Steneosaurus, the pterosaur Rhamphocephalus, and the type specimens of the theropod genus Iliosuchus and the quadruped Stereognathus. This last species belongs to the cynodont clade, a form of protomammal.
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Stonesfield
Stonesfield is a village and civil parish about 5 miles (8 km) north of Witney in Oxfordshire, and about 10 miles (17 km) northwest of Oxford. The village is on the crest of an escarpment. The parish extends mostly north and northeast of the village, in which directions the land rises gently and then descends to the River Glyme at Glympton and Wootton about 3 miles (5 km) to the north-east.
South of Stonesfield, below the escarpment, is the River Evenlode which touches the southern edge of the parish. At the centre of Stonesfield stands the 13th-century church of St James the Great as well as a Methodist chapel, Stonesfield Methodist Church, slightly further west.
The village is known for Stonesfield slate, a form of Cotswold stone mined particularly as a roofing stone and also a rich source of fossils. The architecture in Stonesfield features many old Cotswold stone properties roofed with locally mined slate along with some late 20th-century buildings and several properties under construction. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,527.
The Domesday Book of 1086 records Stonesfield as Stunsfeld, meaning "fool's field". It was still spelt "Stunsfield" as late as 1712 and Stuntesfield in 1854 before mutating to its present place name under the influence of the fame of the Roman mosaic discovered in one of its fields, its slate quarries, and the dinosaur fossils discovered there.
Stonesfield is on the Taynton Limestone Formation, a type of Cotswold stone that until the 20th century was mined as a roofing stone called Stonesfield slate. It is common on roofs of older buildings in the Cotswolds and Oxfordshire. Many of the older buildings of the University of Oxford have Stonesfield slate roofs. The quarries were also one of Britain's richest sources of Middle Jurassic vertebrate fossils.
Under Roman rule, a road was constructed from Watling Street just north of the former Catuvellauni capital Verlamion (Roman Verulamium and modern St Albans) to the Dobunni capital Corinium (modern Cirencester), probably incorporating older British trails. Because Fosse Way continued to Aquae Sulis (Bath), known as Aquamannia in the early Middle Ages, this major thoroughfare became known as Akeman Street. The portion of the road passing just southeast of Stonesfield is now preserved as part of the Oxfordshire Way.
Due east of the modern village, a major Roman villa was built just north of the road, probably in the 3rd or 4th century although coins as early as the 1st-century reign of Vespasian were possibly discovered nearby. It has been variously identified as the home of a wealthy Romanized Briton, the estate of an officer of the Romano-British rebel Allectus, and the estate of an officer of Count Theodosius and his imperial dynasty. About 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Stonesfield, on the other side of the River Evenlode and in the next parish, the remains of the North Leigh Roman Villa survive in the care of English Heritage.
Lying near Oxford University, Stonesfield's slate quarries produced the first fossils to be formally identified as those of a non-avian dinosaur. A partial femur found in 1676 was published by Robert Plot as belonging to a Roman war elephant and then to a Biblical giant; the specimen was lost but later identified from Plot's illustration and description as belonging to a megalosaur. Other Stonesfield fossils were acquired by the physician Christopher Pegge, the chemist John Kidd, and the geologist William Buckland. With guidance by the French anatomist Georges Cuvier, Buckland eventually realized they came from a bipedal lizard-like carnivore unlike any now living, publishing his description in 1824 with the name Megalosaurus, the "great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield". The fossils used by Buckland are now displayed at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Other species later found at Stonesfield include the crocodile Steneosaurus, the pterosaur Rhamphocephalus, and the type specimens of the theropod genus Iliosuchus and the quadruped Stereognathus. This last species belongs to the cynodont clade, a form of protomammal.