Stanton Harcourt

Stanton Harcourt is a village in Oxfordshire, England (919 in parish, United Kingdom Census 2001). The nearest major town is Witney, approximately 5 miles to the north-west. The outskirts of the city of Oxford lie just over 5 miles to the east of the village.

History

Stanton, meaning "farmstead by the stones", [Mills, A.D. and Room, A. "A Dictionary of British Place-Names" Oxford University Press] was probably named after the prehistoric stone circle known as the Devil's Quoits, formerly southwest of the village. [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=6925 Victoria County History of Oxfordshire] ] The village was mentioned in the Domesday Book. It became known as Stanton Harcourt after Robert de Harcourt of Bosworth, Leicestershire inherited lands of his father-in-law at Stanton in 1191. [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=8119 Victoria County History of Oxfordshire: Stanton Harcourt] ] The manor has remained in the Harcourt family to the present day. During World War II, there was a Royal Air Force airfield at Stanton Harcourt. Amongst other things, it is notable for having been a transit point for Winston Churchill and for being a starting point for a bomber raid on the German battlecruiser (or light battleship) "Scharnhorst". The airstrips are, for the most part, now gone, but some of the original buildings remain including a Turret Trainer, crew room and various other miscellaneous buildings. The hangars have been converted into office and industrial units.

Stanton Harcourt also has a history of Morris dancing going back to the 19th century. The traditions are kept up to today. [ [http://www.icknieldwaymorrismen.org.uk/stanton_harcourt.html Icknield Way Morris Men] ]

Archaeology

Within the parish of Stanton Harcourt there occur a series of palaeochannel deposits buried beneath the second (Summertown-Radley) gravel terrace of the river Thames. These deposits, which have been attributed to oxygen isotope stage 7, were the subject of archaeological and palaeontological research under the direction of Kate Scott and Christine Buckingham [Buckingham C., Roe D, & Scott K., 1996, "A preliminary report on the Stanton Harcourt Channel Deposits (Oxfordshire, England)", "Journal of Quaternary Science" v.11 no.5] . Clear evidence was found for the co-existence of species of elephant and mammoth during interglacial conditions, disproving the widely held view that mammoths were an exclusively cold adapted species [Scott K., 2001, [http://www.cq.rm.cnr.it/elephants2001/pdf/247_254.pdf Late Middle Pleistocene Mammoths and Elephants of the Thames Valley, Oxfordshire] ] .

The excavations at Stanton Harcourt were featured in an episode of the Channel 4 television program "Time Team".

References

External links

* [http://www.pixture.co.uk/Airfields/Pages/Stanton%20Harcourt.htm Pictures and information about RAF Stanton Harcourt]

* [http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/place_page.jsp?p_id=10182 Stanton Harcourt Qxfordshire through time]