Abstract
This PhD Thesis discusses the multi-disciplinary approaches, including archaeological fieldwork undertaken, to examine the formation of the settlement of Stanford in the Vale, Oxfordshire (previously Berkshire), as well as the adjacent settlement of Charney Bassett, which forms a comparison, from its earliest origins to the present day. Furthermore, as shown by this thesis the changing nature of Stanford in the Vale is important in understanding one aspect and group of rural settlements in modern Oxfordshire, as it is one of 20 settlements which were granted a medieval market charter. Therefore, this Thesis notonly puts Stanford in the Vale in to its wider context by examining these types of settlement but also demonstrates a range of multidisciplinary techniques used to examine villages granted medieval market charters, including the use of geophysics, test pitting, excavation, standing building recording, as well as human geographical theory. Through the use of these techniques it is possible to demonstrate that Stanford in the Vale was a town during the medieval period which subsequently collapsed into a village, and there after the reasons for
this collapse. From this study, a characterisation of the 20 villages granted market charters is formed, into four distinct categories, which thereafter can be used to categorise other settlements of this type within England. Within the conclusions the importance of joint academic and community archaeology is examined, as untallied during this Thesis, and therefore its importance in use when examining the development of rural settlements over time such as that of Stanford in the Vale and Charney Bassett. Lastly a number of recommendations have been made at the end of this thesis discussing work which could be further undertaken to increase our knowledge of the areas in which this Thesis studies.
| Date of Award | 29 Sep 2022 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Simon Roffey (Supervisor) & Phil Marter (Supervisor) |