Untitled - Council for British Archaeology

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often abbteviated in the G.18th and C.19th,
e.g. RICH for RICHARD, W" for WILLIAM, ELIZ.
for ELIZABETH.'
The Christian names were studied, by date
of birth, from 1612 to 1900. Up to 1850
names which were popular were given to a very
large percentage of the persons born. For
example, in the period 1750-1800, of 47 males.
born; 13 were named WILLIAM, 11 were named
JOHN, and 8 were named THOMAS. In the same
period, of 50 females born, 10 were named
EtIZABETH, 9 were named MARY, 6 were named ANN
and 6 were- named HANNAH. In the next period
1800-50, apart from HANNAH, the same names
were still the most popular, and were used
only slightly less frequently. However, in
the last period, 1850-1900, there were many
more names and non dominated as in earlier
years.
Up to the end of the 1820's all persons
(with one exception, Barbara Ann Izzard, born
in 1778) were given a single Christian name.
The majority of persons continued to be given
single Christian names until the middle of the
1840's. From this time, however, most persons
were given two Christian names.
Of approximatelY 140 surnames in the church
-yard, almost'half appeared only once.' If
more than one member of a family was cOmmemr
orated, an idea of the minimum time lived by
that familY in the village could be ascertained
from:the dates on the memorials. In this
way, it could be seen .that about one third Of
the families lived at Middleton Stoney for
fifty years or less, much less in many cases.
However, certain families were commemorated
over very long periods of: years i.e. the
LANDS, 1695-1809; the-WILLIAMS (if these are
all related) 1739-1883; the COGGINS, 1781-
1898; the VARNEYS, 1817-1966; the TUGWOODS,
1843-1934; the VILLIERS, 1874-1969. The
VILLIERS were members of the family of the
Earls of Jersey, Lords of the Manor at Middleton
Stoney since 1748, and hitherto had been
commemorated inside the church.
Occupations were given for very few persons.
Three were Rectors, one was a domestic servait,
four were eoldiers, and three were Clerks of
the Pariah. Apart from one death on active
service, ho caùses of death were given on the
memorials.
All the memorials at'Middleton Stoney were
made of stone', with the exception of One metal
one, unfortunately mot dated, but in a predominantly
Victorian area. There were ho
wooden memorials. -Most of the memorials were
in the form of headstones, but there were two
altar tombs, and a small number of kerbstones,
recumbent, and crossiiemorials. Some of the
early memorials were decorated with sculpted
flowers or cherubs, and in one Case cherubs
and a skull.
All the C.17th and C.1dth memorials were
situated on the S. zide.of the church. Together
with many of the early C.19th memorials
they were in very closely-packed rows or
groups. Unless they had been moved up together
at some later date it may be that in
these earlier years it was not unusual for
memorials to be arranged in this way.
The survey at Middleton Stoney enabled conclusions
to be drawn both about the persons
commemorated and the changing styles of comr
memoration. Some of the statistical information
would also be available in the parish records,
but would take a very long time to extract.
Churchyard surveys provide results -
comparatively quickly, the majority of which
cannot be obtained easily, if at all, from
other sources. If supplemented with photographs,
they are a valuable way of preserving
this small, but important, facet of history.
PREHISTORIC
AERIAL RECONNAISSANCES 1975 - James Pickering
Twenty three flights were made from R.A.F.
Bicester in mid April to record soil marks in
clay as part of a wider study of soil marks
from differential drying.of soils of different
natural structures. A number of indications
of sites were recorded and these have been investigated
by Mrs. Strong of Waddesdon.
In the first week of July 20 flights were
made from R.A.F. Benson to record cropmarks in
the area and as part of a wider study of the
incidence of cropmarks in different soils.
Whilst there was overlap with records obtained
in 1974, many new features were recorded. In
spite of the many years of air photography in
the Thames Valley, a substantial amount of details
in this year's photographs of the area
for some miles around Benson are additional to
those published in the recent archaeological
survey ot the River Gravels of the Upper
Thames Valley by the Oxfordshire Archaeological
Unit. Additionally, despite the excep-