Whichford House

Whichford is a village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England, about 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Shipston-on-Stour. The parish adjoins the county boundary with Oxfordshire and the village is about 4+1⁄2 miles (7 km) north of the Oxfordshire town of Chipping Norton. The parish includes the hamlet of Ascott, about 1⁄2 mile (800 m) east of Whichford village. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 336.

Ascott is a village in Warwickshire, England. Population details can be found under Whichford.

Great Rollright is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Rollright, in the West Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, and about 2.5 miles (4 km) north of Chipping Norton. The village has a Church of England primary school.

Rollright is a civil parish in West Oxfordshire, England. It contains the villages of Great Rollright and Little Rollright and some of the prehistoric Rollright Stones. The parish is on West Oxfordshire's boundary with Cherwell District and Oxfordshire's boundary with Warwickshire. Richard Coates has proposed that the name Rollright is from the Brittonic phrase *rodland rïx 'wheel enclosure groove', where *rïx 'groove' refers to the gorge near Great Rollright and *rodland 'wheel enclosure' refers to the King's Men circle of the Rollright Stones.

Sutton-under-Brailes is a village and civil parish 17 miles (27 km) south of Warwick, in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. Adjacent parishes are Barcheston, Brailes, Cherington, Stourton and Whichford. In 2001 the parish had a population of 89.

Traitor's Ford is a ford on the River Stour, in the English county of Warwickshire close to its border with Oxfordshire. It is about 2 miles (3.2 km) outside Brailes and half a mile from the village of Sibford Gower, and is on the route of the Macmillan Way long distance footpath. The ford can be seen in the film, Three Men and a Little Lady.Immediately to the north of the ford, the modern road of Traitor's Ford Lane meets with Ditchedge Lane, a track that is believed to be an ancient trading route. One theory for the naming of the ford is that the name was originally Trader's Ford, named because of its location on this trading route. Another theory is that a traitor was hung here following the Civil War battle of Edgehill, when several local Parliamentarian sympathisers were executed by Royalists.

Sharp's Hill Quarry is a 2.4-hectare (5.9-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Banbury in Oxfordshire. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.This is the type locality of the Sharp's Hill Formation. It is very fossiliferous and dates to the Bathonian stage of the Middle Jurassic, around 167 million years ago. It is very important for understanding the Bathonian succession in north Oxfordshire. Strata of the underlying Chipping Norton Formation are also present.

Stourton is a village and civil parish beside the River Stour about 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Shipston-on-Stour. The population taken at the 2011 census was 159. Stourton is contiguous with the larger village of Cherington.

Cherington is a village and civil parish beside the River Stour about 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Shipston-on-Stour. Cherington is contiguous with the village of Stourton.

Long Compton is a village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England near the extreme southern tip of Warwickshire, and close to the border with Oxfordshire. It is part of the district of Stratford-on-Avon; in the 2001 census had a population of 705, increasing to 764 at the 2011 Census.The village is in the Cotswolds. It is served by the A3400 (formerly the A34) from Oxford to Stratford-upon-Avon. As the name implies, it is a long village. In the centre is the large church of St Peter and St Paul, which dates from the 13th century. The parish contains Weston Park, within which was the depopulated settlement of Weston-by-Cherington. About one mile south of Long Compton are the Rollright Stones, a neolithic monument.

Brailes is a civil parish about 3 miles (5 km) east of Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire, England. It includes the two villages of Lower and Upper Brailes but is often referred to as one village as the two adjoin each other. The parish includes the village of Winderton about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northeast of Brailes, and the deserted medieval village of Chelmscote about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) north of Brailes. The parish is bounded to the east by Ditchedge Lane and Beggars' Lane, which are a historic ridgeway that also forms part of the county boundary with Oxfordshire. The northeastern boundary is a minor road, part of which follows the course of a Roman road. The River Stour forms part of the southern boundary, and another part is formed by Sutton Brook, a tributary of the Stour. To the west, north and the remainder of the south the parish is bounded by field boundaries. Brailes is surrounded by hills. Upper Brailes is on the side of Brailes Hill, which at 761 feet (232 m) high is the fourth-highest point in Warwickshire. The east side of the village is bordered by Mine Hill, which is over 620 feet (190 m) high and is topped by a television mast, and Holloway Hill, up which the B4035 road runs towards Banbury. Between Holloway Hill and the Oxfordshire Boundary, the B4035 passes near the top of Gallow Hill, which is 679 feet (207 m) high.

The Rollright Stones are a complex of three Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monuments near the village of Long Compton, on the borders of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. Constructed from local oolitic limestone, the three monuments, now known as the King's Men and the Whispering Knights in Oxfordshire and the King Stone in Warwickshire, are distinct in their design and purpose. They were built at different periods in late prehistory. During the period when the three monuments were erected, there was a continuous tradition of ritual behaviour on sacred ground, from the 4th to the 2nd millennium BCE.The first to be constructed was the Whispering Knights, a dolmen that dates to the Early or Middle Neolithic period. It was likely to have been used as a place of burial. This was followed by the King's Men, a stone circle that was constructed in the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age; unusually, it has parallels to other circles located further north, in the Lake District, implying a trade-based or ritual connection. The third monument, the King Stone, is a single monolith. Although its construction has not been dated, the dominant theory amongst archaeologists is that it was a Bronze Age grave marker. The British philologist Richard Coates has proposed that the name "Rollright" is from the Brittonic phrase *rodland rïx 'wheel enclosure groove', where *rïx 'groove' refers to a narrow valley near Great Rollright and *rodland 'wheel enclosure' refers to the King's Men circle. By the Early Modern period, folkloric stories had developed about the Stones, telling of how they had once been a king and his knights who had been turned to stone by a witch. Such stories continued to be taught amongst local people well into the 19th century. Meanwhile, antiquarians such as William Camden, John Aubrey and William Stukeley had begun to take an interest in the monuments. Fuller archaeological investigations were undertaken in the 20th century, culminating in excavations run by George Lambrick in the 1980s. The site is listed by Historic England as a scheduled monument and was first designated in 1882.In the 20th century, the stones became an important site for adherents of various forms of Contemporary Paganism, as well as for other esotericists, who hold magico-religious ceremonies there. They also began to be referred to more widely in popular culture, being featured in television, literature, music and art.