ur twin villages of Filkins and Broughton Poggs straddle what has always been an important north-south route from the high Cotswolds to the Thames, and beyond to the south coast. No doubt the easy availability of good water from the many local springs lead to early settlement here. "Filkins" is probably the "Ing" or meadow of Filica the Saxon, perhaps from the Hwicce tribe from which is derived Wychwood. The Filkins "s" is possibly an allusion to the traditional division of the village into Upper and Nether Filkin. "Broughton Poggs" is the enclosure-by-the-brook belonging to the Norman Pogeys family of Stoke Poges fame. There might well have been even earlier settlement here since the Roman Ackerman Street runs through Bradwell Grove only two miles to the north. Over the centuries, often in the course of quarrying work, all sorts of Romano-British and Saxon remains have been unearthed - including a Saxon burial ground uncovered in Rouse's Lane.
Curiously, although the two villages are separated from each other only by the narrow Broadwell Brook, they long remained separate parishes. Broughton Poggs was always a small but autonomous parish centred on its ancient parish Church "nestling amidst the leafy glades of Broughton Hall" as one chronicler put it. Filkins was, until the mid 19th century, part of Broadwell, a much larger parish which included Holwell - only a mile or so from Burford - and Kelmscott on the bank of the Thames, as well as Filkins and Broadwell.
