Taston
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox UK place Template:Distinguish Taston is a hamlet in Spelsbury civil parish, about Template:Convert north of Charlbury and Template:Convert southeast of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.
Taston is about Template:Convert north of the Akeman Street Roman road.
Name
The survey of English Place-Names records Taston as Thorstan in 1278–9, Thorstane in 1316, Torstone in 1492 and Taston in 1608–9.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The name element Thor is a reference to the Norse God Thor. The name element stan is from Old English stān (stone ). The toponym might be Thor stone or Thor's stone.Template:Citation needed
Thor Stone
The Thor Stone is a monolithic standing stone that stands about seven-foot tall in the centre of Taston.<ref>Template:Harvnb: "...a hefty seven foot stone that leans dramatically into a garden wall in the centre of the village. One story goes that it was a thunderbolt thrown by Thor himself..."</ref> It is a menhir, meaning that it was manhandled there by humans. A local myth maintains that the stone portrays the image of a thunderbolt, and that it was created by a thunderbolt from Thor himself.<ref name= Mega_Portal>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is a scheduled monument.<ref name= List_1008407>Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>
Listed buildings
At the centre of Taston are the base and broken shaft of a Medieval preaching cross.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is a Grade II* listed building.<ref name= List_1251432>Template:NHLE</ref>
Middle Farmhouse is a house built of coursed rubble in the 17th and early 18th centuries.<ref name= List_1262715>Template:NHLE</ref> Part of the roof is of Stonesfield slate. The farmstead has a four-bay barn that was built of stone early in the 18th century and altered in 1884.<ref name= List_1251433>Template:NHLE</ref>
The Firkins is a small house near Thorsbrook Spring. It is built of rubble and probably dates from early in the 18th century.<ref name= List_1262714>Template:NHLE</ref>
At Thorsbrook Spring, about Template:Convert southeast of the preaching cross, is a Victorian Gothic Revival memorial fountain. It was built in 1862 in memory of Henrietta, Viscountess Dillon,<ref name= List_1262769>Template:NHLE</ref> wife of Henry Dillon, 13th Viscount Dillon.