Fawler is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the valley of the

River Evenlode The River Evenlode is a tributary of the Thames in Oxfordshire. It rises near Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, in the Cotswold Hills and flows south-east to the Thames, its valley providing the route of the southern part of the Cotswold Li ...

, southeast of

Charlbury Charlbury () is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the River Evenlode, Evenlode valley, about north of Witney in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England. It is on the edge of Wychwood, Wychwood Forest and the C ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

, England. There are traces of a

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house in the territory of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Nevertheless, the term "Roman villa" generally covers buildings with the common ...

at Oatlands Farm. The

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

was built in 1660. Finstock railway station on the

Cotswold Line The Cotswold Line is an railway line between and in England. History Early years The line between Oxford and Worcester was built under an 1845 Act of Parliament and opened in 1851 as part of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway ...

is closer to Fawler than to Finstock.

Place-name

The place-name is recorded from 1205 as ''Fauflor'', derived from

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''fāg flōr'', "variegated floor". Authorities including the philologist

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...

take this to mean a tessellated pavement, identified as the

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

floor of

North Leigh Roman Villa North Leigh Roman Villa was a Roman Britain, Roman Roman villa, courtyard villa in the River Evenlode, Evenlode Valley about north of the hamlet of East End in North Leigh Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Oxfordshire. It is a scheduled ...

nearby.

References

Sources

* {{West Oxfordshire Hamlets in Oxfordshire Civil parishes in Oxfordshire West Oxfordshire District