Oxfordshire's Historic Archives

Historic Oxfordshire

Preserving and Enhancing Access to Historic Oxfordshire
Records of Archaeological Work held by the Ashmolean Museum

Site Name: Clifton Hampden

Site Location: South Oxfordshire
Related Achive: Manning


A number of finds from Clifton Hampden were documented by Percy Manning including:

  • A bronze palstave found in December 1852 with nine others during the excavation of a drain. It was presented to the Ashmolean Museum in 1853 by Jesse King of Appleford (AN New Cat. 345).
  • Fragments of a Bronze Age beaker were found with a skeleton during the digging by workmen of a vault at the churchyard. This find was recorded by Rev. J.C. Clutterbuck, a keen nineteenth century Oxfordshire antiquarian. Three sherds of this urn are now in the Ashmolean Museum (AN1896-1908 PR 375). The sherds are decorated with twisted cord impressions.
  • A Neolithic flint axehead was dredged from the River Thames opposite Clifton Hampden in 1906. It was presented to the Pitt Rivers Collection by W.H. Young of Wallingford and is now in the Pitt River Museum.

The Manning documentary archive also makes reference to crop marks in a field near Fullamoor Farm, showing what is described as a Late Celtic or Romano-British settlement. Circular marks can be seen in a field to the east of the farm but their date and function are uncertain (see aerial photograph).

In about 1865 a number of inhumation burials were discovered during drainage work on fields, north of the village, called "Long Hadden" and "Yards". Finds including "battle axes and swords" together with other iron objects were recorded. Percy Manning received information on this site from T. Carter of Clifton Hampden in 1895. This may have been an Anglo-Saxon cemetery but the location of the finds is no longer known.


References:

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries (1863), 2nd series, Vol II, p204

Oxoniensia (1956), XXI, p12

Aerial Photographs

Click on picture to see a larger image
Aerial photograph of Fullamoor Farm
Crop Circles at Fullamoor Farm in Clifton Hampden taken by Major Allen on 1 July 1933 (Ref Album 4,33)
© Copyright University of Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 2006. Last updated: June-2006
Ashmolean Museum icon: Go to Museum's Home Page
 
HLF icon: Go to HLF Home Page
 
OCC icon: Go to OCC Home Page