Otmoor is a unique piece of land situated north-eastish of Oxford. It's basically a very low-lying fen, with several treacherous marshy spots. It is imbued with folk tales, including ghosts of drowned men trapped in a bog when crossing the moor at night, nocturnal beasts snatching livestock, and strange ailments waiting to be caught by travellers. The 'seven towns' are the villages which ring it - Beckley, Noke, Oddington, Charlton-on-Otmoor, Fencott, Mercott and Horton-cum-Studley. I spent the first two years of my life in Horton-cum-Studley, as it happens.

I think very unlikely that anything megalithic would have been sited here - too marshy, too low, and not a ridge in sight, although it does ( if memeory serves me correctly), look across to Shotover Hill, which may well have previously had Goddess in the landscape connections. There is a road at the top of Headington Quarry called 'Toot Hill Butts', which looks towards Shotover Hill. Turns out Toot Hill is a derivation of Teat Hill, which in turn relates to a breast-like hill, or Goddess figure in the landscape. The butts I suspect refer to a place for practicing archery, which of course was compulsory in medieval times, and various 'butts' (targets) would have been situated near towns and villages.

Shotover's east side, I think, has a high escarpment which necessitated the Romans building a road round it. There may even have been a Roman shrine in the vicinity.

Further to bosomy references in Oxford's streetnames, there is also a 'Titup Hall Drive' in Wood Farm, but I belive this was originally and old coaching route, and 'Titup' was a phrase uttered by coachmen to urge the horses on. I think. However, given Wood Farm's cheek-by-jowl placement to Shotover Hill, perhaps it does have a more soft and pliable connotation.

'Lesbians - When Only The Breast Will Do' :o)

treaclechops x