Site Name: Barford St. Michael

Site Location: North Oxfordshire
Related Achive: Manning

The Manning documentary archive records that part of a Roman gold chain was found in a field at Iron Down near Barford St. Michael. Pottery, greyware sherds, dating from the first and second centuries, were also found during ploughing at Iron Down.

The remains of a Romano-British settlement were found at Blackingrove Farm. Between 1853 and 1863 Mr C. Faulkner found a number of items including a Roman urn, samian ware pottery, some with makers marks, coins, a thin lead plate, a skull, tiles and animal bones. Beasley also recorded brooches, pins and a stone coffin containing bones and a bronze image being found on the site. This evidence suggests a village rather than a single dwelling.

References:

A. Beesley (1841) History of Banbury.

Transactions of the North Oxfordshire Antiquaries, 1853-55, p118.

Archaeological Journal, Vol VIII (1851), p423

'News and Notes' (1959) Oxoniensia XXIV, p98.

L. F. Salzman (1939) Victoria History of Oxfordshire, Vol I, p331-2.