Taston is a hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 in Spelsbury

Spelsbury

Spelsbury is a village and civil parish about north of Charlbury and about southeast of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. Spelsbury stands on a narrow hill between the Coldron and Taston brooks overlooking the River Evenlode and the ancient Wychwood Forest to the north.-History:The toponym is...

 civil parish, about 1.6 miles (2.6 km) north of Charlbury

Charlbury

Charlbury is a small town and civil parish in the Evenlode valley, about north of Witney in West Oxfordshire. It is on the edge of the Wychwood forest and the Cotswolds.-Place name:The origin of the town's toponym is obscure...

 and 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.

Its toponym

Toponymy

Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...

 is derived from Thorstan meaning "Thorstone", a small standing stone

Standing stone

Standing stones, orthostats, liths, or more commonly megaliths are solitary stones set vertically in the ground and come in many different varieties....

 claimed to be a thunderbolt of the god Thunor

Thor

In Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing, and fertility...

.

At the centre of Taston are the base and shaft of a Medieval

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 preaching cross

Preaching cross

A preaching cross is a cross, sometimes surmounting a pulpit, erected out of doors to designate a preaching place.In Britain and Ireland, many free-standing upright crosses – or high crosses – were erected. Some of these crosses bear figurative or decorative carvings, or inscriptions in runes...

. There is also a Victorian

Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

 Gothic Revival

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

memorial fountain.