I AM very pleased to see Port Meadow discussed in your columns.

In reply to your correspondent Derrick Holt (ViewPoints, December 7) I can state that Bronze Age people buried their dead here and during the Iron Age, people lived on the meadow during the summer and grazed their livestock on the rich pasture.

In return for helping to defend the kingdom against the marauding Danes, the Freemen of Oxford were given the 400 acres of pasture next to the Thames by King Alfred who founded the city in the 10th Century.

The Freemen formed in Saxon times when tribal infighting was on the wane and craft skills and trading were seen as more worthwhile.

Please remember that there were Freemen in most English medieval towns and cities.

The importance of Oxford stems from its site on the edge of both Mercia and Wessex.

The Freemen’s collective right to graze their animals free of charge was recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 and has been exercised ever since.

The Meadow has never been ploughed.

Port Meadow is Oxford’s oldest monument.

HOWARD CRAPPER Freeman of the City of Oxford