Woodeaton
| Woodeaton | |
|---|---|
 Holy Rood parish church |
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 Woodeaton
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| Woodeaton shown within Oxfordshire | |
| Population | 80 (2001 census) |
| OS grid reference | SP5312 |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Oxford |
| Postcode district | OX3 |
| Dialling code | 01865 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | |
Woodeaton or Wood Eaton is a village and civil parish about 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Oxford.
There was a Romano-Celtic temple north of where the parish church now stands, and probably a Romano-British settlement and shrine as well. The shrine was used successively by Roman pagans and Christians.
A small square temple was built in the first century AD. This was replaced with a more substantial building that had moulded stonework and decorated plasterwork, and a rectangular perimeter wall was added that enclosed an area around the temple building.
Numerous notable bronze artefacts have been discovered at and around the site and are now housed in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. A sixth-century Anglo-Saxon pendant has also been found at the site, but the reason for its presence at a Roman site is not clear.
The Old English toponym was originally Eatun. By the 12th century it had become Wood Eaton, perhaps to distinguish it from Water Eaton just over 1 mile (1.6 km) to the west.
The Domesday Book records that by 1086 the Norman nobleman Roger d'Ivry held the manor of Eaton. In about 1160 Helewis Avenel gave a virgate of land at Woodeaton to Eynsham Abbey. The Abbey had a grange and manor court house in Woodeaton, recorded in 1366, but no trace remains. The Manor remained with the abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538.
At the centre of the village, by the village green, are the base and shaft of a 13th-century stone cross. The cross is both a scheduled monument and a Grade I listed building.
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Wikipedia