Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Wednesday, 12 January 2022

Roman trading town revealed in Northamptonshire


The MailOnline has a handsomely illustrated account of the discovery at Chipping Warden in south Northamptonshire of the site of an Iton Age community which originated about 400BC and which then, about seven centuries later had apparently evolved into a trading community with wide range of crafts being practised alongside an exceptionally wide road. The road and the nearby valley of the Cherwell appear to have been the routes which nourished this Roman community. Was it perhaps in some way the equivalent of a modern motorway service station or even of Bicester Village? The area, known from its soil as Blackgrounds has been known as having once been a Roman settlement since the eighteenth century, has been excavated in advance of the destructive and unnecessary impact of the dreadful HS2 project.

The article, with its numerous photographs, can be read at HS2 dig finds ancient road and 2,000-year-old coins


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