The Beginning (The farmer and the badger)

In 1966, an archaeologist working for an academic journal called Oxoniensia was looking for something to write, in Thame.

The 1966 edition of Oxoniensia contains a report from Thame, which tells us that local farmer J M Castle had shown him an ancient pot, dug up previously by a badger.  The archaeologist identified it as a pottery type known as Belgic, which was common in the British Iron Age.

The pot found its way onto what was then the Oxfordshire Sites and Monuments Record, used by the planning authorities.