Shipton-under-Wychwood

Transcription

1 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 1 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton-under-Wychwood Social History SOCIAL HISTORY Social Character and the Life of the Community The Middle Ages Most of Shipton s medieval lords were high-ranking nobility holding numerous manors, although they probably visited the parish occasionally. In 1272 it was alleged that Countess Matilda de Clare, when she came to Shipton, sent her servants into Wychwood forest to poach the king s deer, 1 while Isabel de Clare headed Shipton s taxpayers in 1316, paying three times as much as the next wealthiest landholder. 2 Fifteenth-century earls of Warwick, though non-resident, may have invested in Shipton church, perhaps donating the font which bears their badge. 3 At Langley, the eponymous Langley family combined their lordship of the manor with the hereditary forestership of Wychwood forest, which must have created recurrent tensions both with local tenants and with wealthier neighbours. During the 13th and early 14th centuries (when kings may have sometimes visited to hunt) the family was mainly resident: 4 John de Langley headed Langley s taxpayers in 1316 (paying 30s.), 5 and in 1327 both his widow Joan (6s. 8d.) and son Thomas (5s. 6d.) were taxed there. 6 Several of the Langleys successors served as sheriffs of Oxfordshire, but after 1361 none lived at Langley, 7 and in 1367 (when the manor house was burgled) it was occupied by a lessee, Thomas of Williamscot. 8 During the late 15th century both Shipton s and Langley s manor houses were let to demesne farmers, the manors themselves being managed by nonresident stewards who presented their annual accounts at Warwick castle. 9 1 Oxon. Forests, TNA, E 179/161/8 (payment 22s.).. 3 Below, relig. hist. (Middle Ages; church archit.). 4 Above, manors (Langley manor ho.); for their role as foresters, below, Wychwood.. 5 TNA, E 179/161/8. 6 Ibid. E 179/161/9. For Joan as John s widow, Cal. Fine , C. Peters, Lord Lieutenants and High Sheriffs of Oxon. (1995), 46 7, Cal. Pat , 435 6; cf. VCH Oxon. X, TNA, DL 29/641/

2 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 2 Tenants of Shipton manor included an unusually high number of low-status bordars in 1086, although of those several may have lived at Ramsden or Leafield, where they were perhaps engaged primarily in pastoral activities. 10 In later centuries most land was held by freeholders, including 11 or so sokemen, 11 and Langley manor had only free tenants in Of those John de Brimpton was the most prominent, holding three yardlands and a mill including his holdings under Shipton manor; 12 possibly he was the same John de Brimpton (d. 1336) who held Brimpton manor in Berkshire, 13 and who was later sheriff of Oxfordshire and patron of Shipton church. 14 According to a later medieval source it was another Shipton free tenant, Eustace Rokayle, who fathered the poet William Langland. 15 Eustace or his namesake witnessed a Shipton deed in 1376, 16 and Richard Rokayle held a meadow given to Bruern abbey in The most numerous tenants on Shipton manor in 1279 were villeins, from whom the reeve was periodically chosen. Most held a yardland (probably generating some surplus produce), and owed labour services on the demesne. 18 Wealth was unevenly distributed, with a few prosperous individuals noted in the early 14th century alongside many poorer peasants. Excluding Isabel de Clare, just four people in Shipton (13 per cent) paid tax of 3s. or more in 1316, with 17 (57 per cent) paying 1s. 2s. 11d., and 9 (30 per cent) paying less than a shilling. Langley had only eight taxpayers excluding the lord, of whom Robert Dowe paid 8s. and the rest 1s. 8d. or less. 19 Poverty almost certainly encouraged poaching and the taking of timber and fuel in Wychwood forest, 20 those apprehended risking imprisonment at Langley while awaiting justice. 21 Following the Black Death, Shipton and Langley saw the usual late medieval pattern of amalgamation of holdings, leasing of demesnes, and loosening of manorial control. Newcomers included the Whitings (later prolific in the village), but several long-established families remained, amongst them the Shepherds, Tailors, Bonds, and Brooks. 22 The wealthiest inhabitants were probably the demesne farmers, including (in the 1490s) Thomas 10 B. Schumer, Wychwood: The Evolution of a Wooded Landscape (1999), Above, econ. hist. (Middle Ages). 12 Rot. Hund. II, 734 5, 739; above, manors (other estates) 13 VCH Berks. IV, Peters, Lord Lieutenants, 45; below, relig. hist. (advowson). 15 Trinity College Dublin Library, MS 212 (D.4.1); ODNB, s.v. Langland. For Eustace in Asthall, VCH Oxon. XV, Brasenose College Archive, Shipton-under-Wychwood deed, 28 Oct Cat. Ancient Deeds, II, B ; above, manors (other estates). 18 Rot. Hund. II, 734 6; above, econ. hist. (Middle Ages). 19 TNA, E 179/161/8; cf. ibid. E 179/161/9. 20 Oxon. Forests, 11, 30, 61 2, 70, 127 8, Ibid. 67; Close , 28; Cal. Close , 223; TNA, SC 8/112/ Poll Taxes , ed. Fenwick, II,

3 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 3 Sessions at Shipton and John Billing at Langley, 23 while John Perkin (fl. c.1400) may have been typical of the larger freeholders and sokemen. 24 Villeins labour services were still nominally valued in manorial surveys, but in reality were probably long commuted, and they too were starting to acquire larger holdings. 25 The Crown Inn (owned by the churchwardens in support of lamps or a chantry) was apparently functioning by 1495 and certainly by 1540, when it was alleged that a certain John Smith had been born there 45 years previously; 26 otherwise, little is known of Shipton s late medieval social life. The (Shaven) Crown Inn: front view (below) and its imported 15th-century hall roof (right). Source: sale particulars (1930) in Wychwoods LHS Archive Langley manor house s rebuilding as a royal hunting lodge c.1500 brought frequent visits by both Henry VII and Henry VIII, 27 and from the 1550s Shipton and Langley s new lord Sir Edward Unton was also often resident, entertaining Elizabeth I at Langley on at least three occasions in the 1570s. 28 Several of his household were mentioned in the parish register, among them a French surgeon who died in Sir Edward s wife Anne, countess of 23 TNA, DL 29/641/ Perhaps the same Thos. Sessions (d. c.1500) of Milton: above, Milton, social hist. (Middle Ages). 24 TNA, CP 25/1/191/25, no. 17; Brasenose College Archive, Shipton-under-Wychwood deeds, 10 Nov. 1398, 19 Oct TNA, DL 29/641/ ; above, econ. hist. (Middle Ages). 26 Brasenose College Archive, Ascott-under-Wychwood deeds, no. 13; above, par. intro. (built character); below, relig. hist. (Middle Ages; Reformation). 27 Cal. Close , 49; L&P Hen. VIII, IV(2), pp. 1079, 1897; IV(3), pp. 2406, 2622, 2633; V, pp , 540, 550. See F.N. Macnamara, King John s Palace at Little Langley, Oxfordshire, Berks., Bucks., & Oxon. Archaeol. Jnl 5 (1899), Cal. Pat , 236; H.M. Colvin (ed.), Hist. of King s Works, IV, 160 1; Macnamara, King John s Palace, OHC, par. reg. transcript, burials, 1567, 1572, 1574, 1578.

4 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 4 Warwick, became periodically insane from 1566, and thenceforth may have been lodged at Shipton manor house, 30 which had fallen vacant following the expiry of Simon Parratt s lease. 31 A lady attending on my Lady Warwick at Shipton was buried in 1568, 32 and in 1582 Anne s son Sir Henry Unton was given custody of the countess, having already spent 1,000 marks (nearly 667) on the building of a house [possibly Shipton Court] for her necessary uses only. 33 Sir Henry himself lived at Bruern but took an active interest in Shipton, heading trustees of the Crown Inn charity in both 1578 and 1586, 34 and befriending the vicar William Master (d. 1591), who left him Protestant books. 35 The Lacys, as the Untons successors at Shipton, were resident for over 60 years from c.1600, and several family members were buried in the church. 36 Sir Rowland Lacy, who rebuilt Shipton Court, was sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1607, 37 and Sir John (d. 1652) fought for the Royalists at the siege of Worcester in (as did, perhaps, another Shipton man, Thomas Wisdom). 39 Various Lacy lords were also trustees of parish charities. 40 Langley s new lord Francis (later Sir Francis) Fortescue was resident in 1596, 41 and royal visits by James I took place in 1603 and Following the manor s sale in 1615, however, Langley s lords lived mainly at Cornbury Park, and Langley manor house was reduced to a tenanted farmhouse. 43 Shipton s lords were also absent from the 1660s, selling Shipton Court to the Reades, whose Berkshire home had been destroyed by Parliamentarians in the Civil War. Sir Compton Reade (d. 1679) was sheriff of Berkshire in 1663, 44 and Sir Edward (d. 1691) sheriff of Oxfordshire in Sir Thomas (d. 1752), an MP and courtier who stayed mainly in London, left the running of his estate to his brother George, also an MP and an army Lieutenant-General. George lived at Shipton Court and, with his brother, established a family mortuary chapel in Shipton church Hist. Parl. s.v. Sir Edw. Unton; J. Howard-Drake, The Untons, Wychwoods Hist. 6 (1991), 8; above, manors. 31 Above, econ. hist. ( ). 32 OHC, par. reg. transcript. 33 TNA, SP 12/155, f. 149; Howard-Drake, Untons, 8 12; above, manors (Shipton Ct). 34 OHC, PAR 236/13/D1/1; Shipton PC I/i/2; above, Bruern, social hist. 35 TNA, PROB 11/78/197; Howard-Drake, Untons, OHC, par. reg. transcript, burials 1624, 1628/9, 1638, 1643, 1652/3, 1655/6. 37 Peters, Lord Lieutenants, Cal. Cttee for Money, II, Cal. Cttee for Compounding, II, e.g. OHC, Shipton PC I/i/3; I/iii/1. 41 Ibid. par. reg. transcript, baptism 1596, Fortesin (recte Fortescue). 42 Ibid. burial 1603, a French boy the court lying at Great Langley ; Macnamara, King John s Palace, Above, manors (Langley); below, Cornbury. 44 Above, manors (Shipton); VCH Berks. IV, Peters, Lord Lieutenants, C. Reade, A Record of the Redes of Barton Court, Berks. (1899), 53 4; Hist. Parl., s.v. Sir Thos. Reade, Geo. Reade. For the Reade chapel, below, relig. hist. (church archit.).

5 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 5 Reade family memorials in Shipton parish church. Despite the presence of such families, the daily life of the parish was increasingly dominated by an oligarchy of leading gentlemen and yeomen, including members of the Ashfield, Wisdom, Whiting, and (in the 18th century) Brookes and Coleman families. With the vicar, they exercised authority through the vestry, parochial offices, and charity trusteeships. 47 Some prospered from business in nearby towns: in 1573 Thomas Wisdom of Shipton was the wealthiest tanner in Burford, 48 while the Shipton wool merchant Anthony Ashfield had dealings in Witney. 49 Arthur Ashfield (d. 1590) paid the highest tax in 1581 (on goods worth 11), and was buried in the chancel of Shipton church, 50 while his contemporary Richard Wisdom (formerly of London) occupied the prebendal house. 51 His kinsman Simon Wisdom (d. 1623) was another substantial freeholder, and established a parish charity. 52 Members of the Whiting family figured prominently among the 13 Shipton and Langley householders (27 47 e.g. J. Howard-Drake (ed.), The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Shipton-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire: Churchwardens Accounts (Wychwoods Local Hist. Soc., 2009); J. Howard- Drake, The Poor of Shipton-under-Wychwood Parish , Wychwoods Hist. 5 (1989), 6, 32; J. Howard-Drake and S. Jourdan, The Crown Inn Charity, Shipton-under-Wychwood, Wychwoods Hist. 25 (2010), 70, Oxf. Ch. Ct Deposns , pp J. Bolton and M. Maslen (eds), Calendar of the Court Books of the Borough of Witney, (ORS 54, 1985), xxxix, 81; P.J. Bowden, The Wool Trade in Tudor and Stuart England (1962), OHC, MS Wills Oxon. 1/1/24; TNA, E 179/162/ OHC, par. reg. transcript, baptisms, 1580, TNA, PROB 11/142/599; below (charities).

6 poor. 62 Local cases in the Church courts were mostly concerned with public morality 63 or VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 6 per cent of the total) who occupied houses with five or more hearths in 1662, 53 and were amongst a fifth of inhabitants who left possessions worth 100 or more in the period Other prosperous inhabitants included tradesmen, particularly the Cooke family of butchers. 55 Lesser parishioners included the usual mix of husbandmen and craftsmen, alongside labourers, servants, and apprentices. 56 House sizes varied considerably, with 15 householders (32 per cent) paying on 3 4 hearths in 1662, and a further 20 (41 per cent) on 1 2 only, 57 while in 1665 four were excused payment on grounds of poverty. 58 Probate inventories present a similarly varied picture, with 15 per cent in the period valued at , but most (65 per cent) at under 50, including 12 per cent worth 10 or less. 59 Late 16th-century victims of plague were mostly from the poorer classes, 60 while walking people mentioned in the parish register hint at a more transient population. 61 Almost half of householders in 1734 did not pay small tithes, mostly because they were too payment of tithes and other dues, 64 while in 1615 a parishioner accused the vicar (probably falsely) of obscene preaching. 65 The Quarter Sessions convicted a Shipton man of wife beating in 1631, 66 and in the 18th century there were convictions for theft of wood, game, and crops. 67 A midsummer church ale raised money for church repairs in 1608, 68 and by the 1720s an annual wake was held on the last Sunday in August, 69 while the Crown Inn (whose tenant was prosecuted in 1663 for claiming the premises as her own) 70 was joined before the 1670s by the Red Horse. 71 Meetings and auctions were held at both premises by the 18th 53 TNA, E 179/255/4; E 179/164/ Calculated from 112 inventories in OHC transcribed by the VCH Oxon. wills group. 55 Above, econ. hist. ( ; crafts). 56 Ibid. par. reg. transcript; wills in OHC and TNA transcribed by the VCH Oxon. wills group. 57 TNA, E 179/255/4; E 179/164/ Hearth Tax Oxon. 182, Calculated from 112 inventories in OHC transcribed by the VCH Oxon. wills group. 60 OHC, par. reg. transcript, burials, 1575, 1593; MS Wills Oxon ; Howard-Drake, Churchwardens Accounts, OHC, par. reg. transcript, passim. 62 Ibid. PAR 236/15/F1/1; A. Jones et al., Eggs for the Vicar: A Study of the Small Tithes in Shiptonunder-Wychwood , Wychwoods Hist. 11 (1996), Archdcns' Ct. I (ORS 23), 72, 91, 110; OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. c 2, ff. 213v., 215, Oxf. Ch. Ct. Deposns , pp. 31-3; , pp. 6, 35; , pp. 5 6, 11 13; , pp Ibid , pp. 64 5; below, relig. hist. (Reformation). 66 OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. c 2, ff. 213v., Ibid. Cal. QS, IX, 83, 94, 118, 125, 150, Howard-Drake, Churchwardens Accounts, pp. 5, Par. Colln III, OHC, Shipton PC I/ii/1; I/iii/1 3; see A. Jones, Possession is Nine Points of the Law, Wychwoods Hist. 9 (1994), Above, econ. hist. (crafts).

7 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 7 century. 72 More élite entertainment included a bowling green in the grounds of Shipton Court in 1617, 73 and a dancing master advertised to teach cotillions in 1770; 74 hunting, too, was popular with the lords of both manors, who employed gamekeepers. 75 In 1798 several principal inhabitants joined the vicar in forming an association to protect Shipton and Ascott against French invasion. 76 The 19th Century In the early 19th century Shipton remained a predominantly agricultural community with resident squires, vicars, and gentleman farmers, limited owner-occupation (just 31 per cent of property in 1800), 77 and (until the 1860s) negligible religious Nonconformity. Nevertheless landownership outside the Reade family s Shipton Court estate remained fragmented, and the township saw substantial population growth, continuing (even before the opening of the railway) to provide a range of shops and services for the surrounding area. Meanwhile its labouring inhabitants participated in a widening variety of social activities and organizations. 78 The Reades continued to live at Shipton Court, where Lady Harriott (d. 1811) maintained a sizeable menagerie of birds and animals, leaving her aviary to the duke of Marlborough. 79 Her successor Sir J.C. Reade (d. 1868) was rumoured to have killed his butler there in The vicar Robert Phillimore ( ) convicted several parishioners in his capacity as magistrate, some for deer-stealing in Wychwood forest, 81 and caused disquiet in 1816 when he attempted to nominate the people s churchwarden as well as his own; 82 in preceding years the churchwardens had been suspected of embezzling church funds. 83 In 1815 he was instrumental in initiating legal proceedings against the trustees of 72 e.g. Oxf. Jnl Syn. 26 Nov. 1770, 30 May 1777, 11 Nov. 1778; OHC, PAR 236/1/R3/1, p Bodl. MS Top. Oxon. d 169, f Oxf. Jnl Syn. 20 Jan Ibid. 17 Dec. 1785; J. Howard-Drake, The Reade Family of Shipton-under-Wychwood, Wychwoods Hist. 19 (2004), OHC, PAR 236/1/R3/1, p Ibid. QSD/L/241; K. Tiller (ed.), Milton and Shipton in the 19th Century, Wychwoods Hist. 3 (1987), Above, econ. hist. (since 1800; crafts); below (this section); below, relig. hist. 79 OHC, Symonds papers, IV, pp ; S. Jourdan, The Most Mature Reflections, Wychwoods Hist. 19 (2004), 42 9; VCH Oxon. XII, Oxf. Times, 21 July 1888; M. Groves, The History of Shipton-under-Wychwood (1934), 48 9; A. Cronk, 'What really happened at Shipton Court', Wychwoods Hist. 10 (1994), 49 53; cf. Oxf. Jnl, 8 July e.g. OHC, Cal. QS, IX, 162, 166, 257, 260; see M. Freeman, Plebs or predators? Deer stealing in Whichwood Forest, Oxfordshire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Social Hist. 21(1) (1996), OHC, PAR 236/4/A/1; ARCH/2/B1/55, f Ibid. PAR 236/2/A1/2; ARCH/6/D/7, f. 337.

8 bells. 85 Reported crimes were generally minor, 86 although in 1830, when a large quantity of VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 8 the Crown Inn charity, whom he accused of impropriety, 84 and in 1843 his relations with the bellringers also became strained, prompting them to steal the clappers from the church plate was stolen from Shipton Court, Sir J.C. Reade offered a 100 reward for information leading to a conviction. 87 The constables only occasionally used the parish stocks or detained miscreants overnight at Shipton s inns, before transferring them to Oxford castle. 88 Traditional funerals at Shipton, which involved a ceremony known as chiming in the corpse, gained a reputation for debauchery, where the more depraved characters would remain in the churchyard drinking, quarrelling, and fighting till compelled to return to their habitations from want of money or credit. 89 More positively, in 1811 some 46 people from Shipton and surrounding villages established a friendly society at the Red Horse. Membership peaked at 58 in 1843, when it met at the Crown Inn and kept an annual feast on Whit Wednesday. 90 In 1851 (when Shipton had a labour surplus) 91 almost half of its male adults were agricultural labourers, with only an eighth working in crafts and trades. Increasing numbers of inhabitants were born outside the township and some farmers and domestic servants came from further afield, amongst them Sir J.C. Reade s Yorkshire-born butler Joseph Wakefield, who later inherited the Shipton Court estate. 92 The 1850s proved a decade of change, seeing not only the arrival of the railway, but also the ending of Shipton and Langley s common rights at inclosure in 1852 and Wychwood s disafforestation in Resulting difficulties, combined (from the 1870s) with agricultural depression, fuelled the growth of trade unionism: several Shipton men joined the Milton branch of the National Agricultural Labourers Union in 1872, and the union was instrumental in promoting emigration to New Zealand. The loss of 17 emigrants from two Shipton families in the sinking of the ship Cospatrick, in 1874, shocked the village, 94 and was commemorated by a memorial drinking fountain erected in 1878 and restored in Ibid. Shipton PC I/iii/16; Educ. of Poor Digest, II, pp ; Howard-Drake and Jourdan, Crown Inn Charity, J. Howard-Drake, The Society s Archive, Wychwoods Hist. 1 (1985), 31; J. Howard-Drake, 'The Silence of Three Shipton Bells Explained', Wychwoods Hist. 25 (2010), e.g. OHC, QS1833/4/L4/3; QS1836/3/L3/3; see Tiller, Milton and Shipton in 19th Cent., Historic England Archive, card 4977_ M. Ware (ed.), The Shipton-under-Wychwood Constables' Book (Wychwoods Local Hist. Soc., 2005), OHC, Symonds papers, IV, p. 347; see Groves, Hist. of Shipton, OHC, PAR 236/13/A7/1; Oxon. FS, p Oxon. Atlas, p TNA, HO 107/1732; Tiller, Milton and Shipton in 19th Cent., Above, econ. hist. (since 1800); Tiller, Milton and Shipton in 19th Cent., P. Horn (ed.), Agric. Trade Unionism in Oxon (ORS 48, 1974), 25 34; Tiller, Milton and Shipton in 19th Cent., Bldgs List, IoE ; M. Ware, The Cospatrick Tragedy, Wychwoods Hist. 14 (1999), 40 2.

9 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 9 From 1868 Shipton Court was occupied by tenants, including Alexander William Hall (c ) and Cecil D Aguilar Samuda (c ), who later moved to Bruern Abbey. 96 Both maintained large households with live-in servants, 97 and played an active role in village life, including visiting the National school. 98 Hall s election as Conservative MP for Oxford in 1874 prompted the founding that year of a Shipton Conservative association (later a branch of the Primrose League), which raised funds for the building of a village hall named in honour of Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield. Costing 300 and designed by the Peterborough architect J.C. Traylen, the Beaconsfield Hall opened in 1885 on a site east of the Red Horse. 99 The following year it housed a winter soup kitchen for the poor, 100 and by 1888 hosted annual events including a May Day feast for 100 aged poor of Shipton, Milton, and Ascott, and a ploughboys supper laid on by Shipton s farmers for their workers. 101 Owned initially by a limited company, the hall was sold to the parish council in Sir John Chandos Reade (left). Source: M. Groves, A History of Shiptonunder-Wychwood (1934). Cecil D Aguilar Samuda (middle). Source: E. Gaskell, Oxfordshire Leaders, Social and Political (c.1900). The Cospatrick memorial drinking fountain (right). 96 PO Dir. Oxon. ( edns); Kelly s Dir. Oxon. ( edns); above, Bruern, social hist. 97 TNA, RG 10/1455; RG 11/ J. Rawlins, Court and School, Wychwoods Hist. 19 (2004), Oxf. Jnl, 21 March 1874; 4 Apr. 1874; 29 Aug. 1885; J. Howard-Drake, 'The Old Beaconsfield Hall', Wychwoods Hist. 28 (2013), Oxf. Jnl, 6 Jan Chipping Norton Deanery Mag., June 1888; Dec Kelly s Dir. Oxon. (1887); Howard-Drake, Old Beaconsfield Hall, Replaced in 1998, below (since 1900).

10 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 10 Village clubs and societies by the 1850s included a brass band, choral society, cricket team, and morris dancers, 103 and by 1860 there was a Shipton Quadrille Band. 104 A 4-a. recreation ground opposite the later Beaconsfield Hall was given to the parish at inclosure in Three new friendly societies were established after 1850, including one of only five in Oxfordshire exclusively for women (founded in 1860). 106 Their annual club days often included public entertainment, such as the comic singing, wire-walking, and negro minstrels recorded in In 1881 some 1,700 people attended the Shipton Oddfellows fête, for which extra trains were provided to and from Shipton station. 108 The same year a drum and fife band was started by the juvenile branch of an Anglican temperance society, 109 and in 1886 the Shipton District Horticultural Society held its inaugural show. 110 A.W. Hall, Cecil Samuda, and the Langley farmer J.S. Calvertt were all prominent members of the Heythrop Hunt, which often met in Shipton. 111 Since 1900 From 1901 Shipton Court once again had resident owners, of whom W.F. Pepper and J.G. Thomson were high sheriffs of Oxfordshire in 1910 and 1924 respectively. 112 Thomson was also joint master of the Heythrop Hunt in the 1920s, and maintained a staff of 38 at Shipton Court, including nine full-time and ten part-time gardeners. 113 A similar staff was kept by Walter D Arcy Hall, MP for Breckon and Radnor, in the 1930s, but Shipton Court was requisitioned for military use in the Second World War and served for a time as an army convalescent hospital. 114 Others maintaining domestic and gardening staff in the early 20th century included occupants of the Old Prebendal House, 115 Shipton Lodge, the vicarage, 116 and Chestnut Close (later Wychwood Manor), a small country house built in 1913 near the 103 Oxon. FS, p. 422; Oxf. Jnl, 5 Apr. 1856; 2 Aug. 1856; K. Chandler, Morris Dancing in the English South Midlands, (1993), Oxf. Jnl, 7 Jan OHC, inclo. award and map. 106 Oxon. FS, pp C. Miller (ed.), Rain and Ruin: The Diary of an Oxfordshire Farmer John Simpson Calvertt (1983), Oxon. FS, pp. 21, Ibid. p. 422; Chipping Norton Deanery Mag., May/June Oxf. Jnl, 8 May 1886; 11 Sept Peters, Lord Lieutenants, 181, 188; Miller, Rain and Ruin, 14, 35, Peters, Lord Lieutenants, 192, T. Yates, The Thomson Family , Wychwoods Hist. 19 (2004), M. Ware, Life at Shipton Court in the Mid-Twentieth Century, Wychwoods Hist. 19 (2004), J. Rawlins, My Father s Days, Wychwoods Hist. 4 (1988), TNA, RG 13/1398.

11 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 11 Ascott boundary for the Oxford academic and future Labour peer Harry Sanderson Furniss. 117 Most other residents in the early 20th century were engaged in farming or in the various crafts and trades still based in Shipton village, with Shipton station and Shipton flour mill (both in Ascott parish) also becoming significant employers. 118 A married couple were employed as wardens of an isolation hospital for smallpox patients, established in 1901 in buildings on Shipton Downs farm by Chipping Norton and Witney Urban and Rural District Councils. After the hospital closed in the buildings were used as a youth hostel; 120 nevertheless Shipton retained a resident doctor (recorded from 1907), 121 who from 1936 practised in a house on Church Walk known later as Doctor s House. 122 Various friendly societies continued to hold annual festivities, with music provided by village bands, 123 and a football club was started c.1901 by builders renovating Shipton Court. 124 In 1911 the Samudas of Bruern Abbey arranged a visit by Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein to Shipton Temperance Society and St Michael s Waifs and Strays Home (opened in 1900). 125 The First World War, during which there were army training camps at both Shipton and Langley, claimed the lives of 27 parishioners, who are remembered both in the church and on a stone cross erected beside the Cospatrick memorial in The inter-war years brought electricity and piped water to Shipton (gas having been provided since the 1860s), 127 while new housing included the village s first council houses. 128 A Young Men s Christian Association Red Triangle Club hut (costing 400) was erected in 1922 on Ascott Road, 129 and Shipton Cricket Club was re-established in the 1930s, initially leasing its ground from the Shipton Court estate before purchasing it c In P. Leslie, Chestnut Close, Wychwoods Hist. 18 (2003), 4 14; above, par. intro. (built character). 118 Kelly s Dir. Oxon. ( edns); above, Ascott, econ. hist. 119 OHC, H Run by the Youth Hostels Association: ibid. RDC 9/3/F6/ Kelly s Dir. Oxon. (1907). 122 T. Yates, 'Great Scotts!', Wychwoods Hist. 25 (2010), 28 39; The Wychwood 24(1) (2003), Oxon. FS, 245 7; S. Jourdan and S. Richards, The Wychwoods Album (Wychwoods Local Hist. Soc., 1986), 6; S. Jourdan and J. Rawlins, The Second Wychwoods Album (Wychwoods Local Hist. Soc., 1990), Jourdan and Richards, Wychwoods Album, W. Pearse, Remembering St Michael's, Wychwoods Hist. 26 (2011), 37 9; below (educ.). 126 Jourdan and Rawlins, Second Wychwoods Album, 3 5; Kelly s Dir. Oxon. (1924). 127 J. Rawlins, 'Fifty Years of Change', Wychwoods Hist. 5 (1989), 62 3, For gasworks, above, econ. hist. (crafts). 128 OHC, RDC 9/4/R3/1; above, par. intro. (medieval and later Shipton). 129 Kelly s Dir. Oxon. (1924); D. Brookes, 'More Memories of Shipton', Wychwoods Hist. 27 (2012), Sale Partics, Shipton Court estate (1931): copy in WA, A3; The Wychwood 23(4) (2002), 25; J. Rawlins, The Dispersal of the Shipton Court Estate, , Wychwoods Hist. 19 (2004), 62.

12 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 12 Basque children fleeing the Spanish Civil War were housed in the former St Michael s Home, although Shipton s vicar refused to join the local committee supporting the refugees. 131 During the Second World War numerous evacuees, servicemen, and agricultural workers were accommodated in the village, putting considerable strain on local services. The long-serving doctor Gordon Scott was instrumental in entertaining and feeding both the temporary and resident population, establishing a cinema near the Lamb Inn and a canteen in the Red Triangle hut. In 1941 an ambulance was purchased by a newly-formed Wychwoods branch of the St John Ambulance Brigade, 132 which from the 1960s until c.2000 had its own ambulance station on Milton Road. 133 Unwelcome wartime residents were the fascist Sir Oswald Mosley and his wife Lady Diana, who were placed under house arrest in the Crown Inn: 120 villagers signed a petition in 1944 calling for their removal. 134 Less controversial was the playwright Christopher Fry, who moved to Shipton c Post-War Shipton saw a boom in its population and housing, and as traditional employment such as farming, crafts, and domestic service declined, residents increasingly worked outside the parish, often in Oxford or Witney. The break-up of the Shipton Court estate in 1947 ended the traditional role of the resident squire and opened up the property market. Increasingly professionals and London commuters were attracted to the village, 136 amongst them the barrister Milton Grundy, for whom the New House was built in Shipton s existing stock of larger houses continued to attract wealthy and high-profile residents, including Lord Latymer of Shipton Lodge 138 and Malcolm Cochrane of Grove Farm, high sheriff of Oxfordshire in Shipton Court was divided up into apartments in 1978, 140 and the Old Prebendal House, sometime home to Michael Isaacs (d. 1980), 3rd Marquess of Reading, 141 was converted into a nursing home in 1989, 142 one of two in the village in By then the village was socially mixed with a wide range of housing types, including some social housing (12 per cent of dwellings in 2001) Pearse, Remembering St Michael s, 49; M. Jump, The Basque Refugee Children in Oxfordshire during the Spanish Civil War: Politically Charged Project or Humanitarian Endeavour?, Oxoniensia 72 (2007), M. Groves (ed.), Records of Milton and Shipton-under-Wychwood during the War, (1948); A. Jones et al., That s How It Was: Women in the Wychwoods during World War Two (Wychwoods Local Hist. Soc., 2000). 133 The Wychwood 23(6) (2003), The Times, 5 Jan ODNB; The Wychwood 26(4) (2005), Rawlins, Fifty Years of Change, Above, par. intro. (built character). 138 Below, relig. hist. (church archit.). 139 Peters, Lord Lieutenants, Above, manors (Shipton: manor ho.). 141 OHC, par. reg. transcript, burial The Wychwood 30(4) (2009), 27; above, manors (rectory). 143 Census 2001.

13 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 13 Doctor s House (left) and inscribed stone recording the gift of the village green (right). From the mid 20th century Shipton retained a wide range of societies and amenities. A branch of the Women s Institute was established in 1952, 144 and by the 1970s the Beaconsfield Hall (extended in 1962) 145 was used by numerous clubs, including the Girl Guides and Brownies. Sports societies included tennis, cricket, football, hockey, badminton, and bowls clubs. 146 In 1968 Oliver Stedall of Shipton Standing gave the village green (formerly allotments) to the parish, 147 and in 1974 a beech tree was planted there to mark the centenary of the Cospatrick disaster. 148 Although the doctor s surgery closed c.1970 a new one for Shipton and surrounding villages was opened in 2006 on Meadow Lane, 149 while in 1998 the New Beaconsfield Hall replaced its predecessor on a new site, formerly part of the recreation ground. 150 A children s playground beside it was opened in In 2015 more than twenty cultural, social, and sports clubs were active in Shipton, including a local history society established in The Wychwood 23(5) (2002), Howard-Drake, Old Beaconsfield Hall, 12; papers re Beaconsfield Hall, in WA, I R. Pierson, Shipton-under-Wychwood: a village with a sense of community, Cotswold Life 97 (1976), 30 3; cf. Oxf. Times, 6 Oct Jourdan and Richards, Wychwoods Album, 9; stone inscription on wall by green. 148 The Wychwood 27(5) (2006), Ibid. 24(1) (2003), 28 30; 27(2) (2006), Howard-Drake, Old Beaconsfield Hall, 15; papers re Beaconsfield Hall, in WA, I The Wychwood 32(3) (2011), 27; 32(4) (2011), (accessed Sept. 2015).

14 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 14 Education In 1589 the vestry decided that an annual payment of 2 from the prebendal estate should be spent on a schoolmaster to train up youths of the parish in virtue and learning. 153 The first postholder may have been Thomas Damport, who had himself been taught to read and write by the vicar William Master (d. 1591), 154 and in 1702 Shipton s church house was known also as the school house. 155 The village had no school by 1738, however, 156 nor (apparently) for the rest of the century. 157 By 1808 there were perhaps three private schools in Shipton, one of them run by a tradesman who taught writing and accounts very well. 158 In 1815 ( in cases of extreme indigence among the parents ) fees were occasionally met by the vicar or by Sir J.C. Reade of Shipton Court. The same year the vicar also started a Sunday school, 159 which received much of the 24 annual dividend produced by the charity of Lady Harriott Reade, and which by 1819 taught up to 200 children. 160 Some 65 children attended Shipton s four day schools in (one of them kept by a tailor), 162 and various other schoolmasters and schoolmistresses were mentioned before the early 1850s. 163 By then Reade, the vicar, and other parishioners were working to establish a National school. 164 Shipton National (later St Mary s Primary) School Shipton National school opened in 1854 in a new Gothic-style building designed by the diocesan architect G.E. Street, at a cost of 553. The site (north of the church) was given by the prebendary and his lessee, while the school s management was vested in the vicar, churchwardens, and three other trustees, who each contributed at least 1 a year to its running. 165 The schoolmaster was housed in a new cottage on Church Street probably also designed by Street, which remained prebendal property until 1945 and was sold by the 153 Howard-Drake, Churchwardens Accounts, For the payment s earlier use, below, relig. hist. (Middle Ages). 154 Oxf. Ch. Ct Deposns , p. 13; OHC, par. reg. transcript, baptism 1605, where Thos. is described as deacon. 155 OHC, O 127/A/1. For the church ho., below (charities: poor relief). 156 Secker s Visit OHC, MSS Oxf. Dioc. d 557, f. 25; d 560, f. 45; d 563, f. 45; b 15, f Ibid. MS Oxf. Dioc. d 571, f Ibid. MS Oxf. Dioc. c 433, f Educ. of Poor Digest, II, p. 729; 8th Rep. Com. Char. 447; below (charities). 161 Educ. Enq. Abstract (Parl. Papers 1835 (62), xlii), p OHC, Shipton PC I/iv/12; par. reg. transcript, baptism, TNA, HO 107/879, 1732; PO Dir. Oxon. (1847). 164 OHC, PAR 236/13/A1/ Bldgs List, IoE ; CERC, NS/7/1/11297; OHC, S 236/1/D1/1; S 236/1/Y1/1 4.

15 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 15 school trustees in The first master was William Burch, 167 whose successor John Peirce (master ) admitted better children to school at 6d. a week. 168 Former National school erected (left) in 1854 and extended (right) in 1887 and Other income included voluntary contributions 169 and 5 a year from the prebendal estate, 170 and in 1859 the trustees secured the whole of Lady Reade s charity (then 22 a year). From 1898 the charity income was chiefly given in annual prizes for good attendance, with pupils receiving 1d. for every four weeks attended. 171 The school had accommodation for 98, and taught 81 pupils in 1866, when a Sunday school and winter evening school (attended by 120 and 50 respectively) were also held there. 172 The vicar gave daily religious instruction to scholars in church, 173 and the master s wife taught the infants. 174 Attendance was often poor at harvest and planting times, and in 1885 Peirce had to press a leading farmer to send back to school a boy who was working for him without a leaving certificate Bldgs List, IoE ; CERC, NS/7/1/11297; OHC, DIOC/1/C/5/2005/ CERC, ECE/6/1/83, p. 639; TNA, RG 9/ J. Rawlins, Shipton School Log Book , Wychwoods Hist. 6 (1991), CERC, ECE/6/1/83, p Ibid. ECE/7/1/6089/ Below (charities); Rawlins, Log Book, OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. c 332, f Ibid. MS Oxf. Dioc. c 353, f Kelly s Dir. Oxon. (1887). 175 Tiller, Milton and Shipton in 19th Cent., 56 7.

16 By the 1940s the school premises were deemed unsatisfactory, a situation VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 16 The school was enlarged in 1887 by addition of a cloakroom and infants classroom, 176 which needed further extension in 1898 because of overcrowding. 177 Average attendance the following year was An inspection in 1904 (following Peirce s retirement after 35 years) 179 alleged that the school had been allowed to drift into inefficiency, but better reports followed under Peirce s successor John Strong, 180 who was assisted by two female teachers in New latrines and heating were provided in 1926, 182 and in 1928 a practical subjects hut was erected in the playground at a cost of exacerbated by the arrival of 63 evacuees and their five teachers in Nevertheless they remained in use in the 1960s, by which time the school had lost its senior pupils (aged 11 14) to Burford school and had changed its status from aided to controlled, becoming known as St Mary s Church of England primary school. 185 In 1972 pupils aged 9 11 were transferred to the newly-opened Wychwood primary school (below), 186 which received St Mary s remaining c.40 pupils in 1985 following the school s closure the previous December. The school building was converted into three cottages. 187 Wychwood Primary School In 1972 a new Church of England voluntary controlled primary school was opened on land off Milton Road. Purpose-built to accommodate 200 children from both Milton and Shipton, it initially took only older children from St Mary s school so as to avoid overcrowding: most of its pupils came from Milton primary school, which had closed earlier that year. 188 A school swimming pool was opened in Following the closure of St Mary s school in 1984, the number of pupils reached 220 by 1990, prompting a significant expansion of the school s 176 CERC, NS/7/1/11297; Bodl. MS Top Oxon c 242, f. 652; datestone. 177 CERC, NS/7/1/11297; Rawlins, Log Book, Kelly s Dir. Oxon. (1899). 179 Rawlins, Log Book, OHC, Macc. Ho Ibid. S 236/1/A1/1, p Ibid. S 236/1/Y1/5, Y2/ TNA, ED 70/2016; OHC, Macc. Ho J. Lewis, School days of Yesterday, Cotswold Life 23(5) (1990), 25; J. Rawlins, Jessie Hunt, Evacuee , Wychwoods Hist. 10 (1995), 4 5; Jones et al., That's How it Was, Lewis, School Days, 25; Rawlins, Court and School, Pierson, Shipton, Oxf. Mail, 21 Dec. 1984; The Wychwood, 33(4) (2012), 33; Rawlins, Court and School, Lewis, School Days, 23 5; Pierson, Shipton, 31; above, Milton, social hist. (educ.). 189 Papers re school swimming pool (1970 3), in WA, G16.

17 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 17 buildings and facilities over the following year. 190 In 2015 nearly 300 children were taught there in 11 classes. 191 St Michael s College (later St Michael s Home) In 1869 the Christian missionary Catherine Barter opened a private girls boarding school in two adjoining houses near the Crown Inn. By 1871 it had 11 scholars aged 7 16 (including Barter s adopted African daughter), as well as an assistant teacher, pupil teacher, and two domestic servants. 192 In 1881 the school moved into purpose-built premises on Milton Road. Known as St Michael s College, it had 18 pupils that year under its Irish principal Margaret Moore. 193 It remained open in 1895, but closed soon after. 194 The two houses next to the Crown Inn which accommodated St Michael s College from 1869 until its move in Following a 750 remodelling to designs by E. May of London, St Michael s reopened in 1900 as a girls home run by the Waifs and Strays Society, which transferred disadvantaged girls from a home in Hemel Hempstead (Herts.). 195 Initially the girls (numbering 24 in 1901) 196 were taught at Shipton school, but from 1902 they received tuition in an industrial school at St Michael s, 197 where they worshipped in a chapel served by the vicar as chaplain. 198 Inspectors in 1903 found the girls very much out of hand, but standards gradually improved, and in 1911 the school had four staff and 40 resident girls. The school closed in 1924, but the building continued as a girls (and later boys ) home, its 190 Lewis, School days, 25; The Wychwood 12(3) (1991), (accessed Sept. 2015). 192 J. Howard-Drake, The Barters of Sarsden and Salome of Natal, Wychwoods Hist. 12 (1997), 43 7; TNA, RG 10/ Pearse, Remembering St Michael s, 25 8; TNA, RG 11/ Pearse, Remembering St Michael s, 28; Kelly s Dir. Oxon. ( edns). 195 London Gaz.,18 May 1900, p. 3150; Oxf. Jnl, 23 June TNA, RG 13/ London Gaz.,18 May 1900, p. 3150; Pearse, Remembering St Michael s, OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. c 368, f. 355.

18 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 18 residents attending Shipton school, until the late 1930s. The building was sold by the Waifs and Strays Society in Charities and Poor Relief A poor men s box in the church was mentioned in 1552, 200 and small bequests to the poor were common in 16th- and 17th-century wills. 201 The vicar William Master (d. 1591) provided for 20 poor parishioners to be given dinner at the vicarage on his funeral day, 202 and from at least 1584 lessees of the prebendal house were obliged to entertain to supper four poor parishioners each Sunday and festival day. 203 In the 18th century offertory money was distributed among elderly poor parishioners who regularly attended communion. 204 In addition Shipton acquired at least five endowed charities in the 16th and 17th centuries and several more in the 19th, although some early ones were lost through mismanagement. A bread charity left by Thomas Cross (d. 1685) is otherwise unrecorded, 205 and though 20 sheep left by John Chapman (d. 1557) 206 raised 2 13s. 4d. to be used as the poor stock, the money had been lost by The vicar William Master (d. 1591) left 20 milk cows to be rented out annually and replaced every four to five years, with half the rent going to the parish s poor, and half to two poor scholars at Queen s and Merton Colleges in Oxford. 208 The churchwardens received 53 6s. 8d. with which to purchase the cows, but had apparently not done so by 1617, when Chancery established the colleges right to 16s. 8d. a year each from the charity. 209 Thereafter the money was vested in parish trustees, but though Shipton s poor received 2 10s. 4d. interest in 1660, by 1702 the remaining 29 capital was used solely to pay the two colleges. 210 Annual payments to the colleges continued until 1857, when the vestry discontinued them. 211 The Crown Inn charity is recorded from 1567, when the building and associated land (16 a. of open-field arable, meadow, and garden in 1814) was bought by six trustees, three 199 Pearse, Remembering St Michael s, 35 40; London Gaz., 4 Apr. 1924, p. 2796; above (since 1800). 200 OHC, MS Wills Oxon e.g. ibid. MSS Wills Oxon ; 12/3/ TNA, PROB 11/78/ Cal. Pat , 54; OHC, E 284/1/D/1; Talbot I/i/2; WSA, CC/Prebends/126/ Secker s Visit. 135; OHC, MSS Oxf. Dioc. d 560, f. 45; d 563, f OHC, MS Wills Oxon.14/4/3; par. reg. transcript, burial Below, relig. hist. (Reformation). 207 Oxf. Ch. Ct Deposns , pp. 5 6; J. Howard-Drake, John Chapman s Legacy, Wychwoods Hist. 14 (1999), TNA, PROB 11/78/197; J. Howard-Drake, 'William Master, Vicar of Shipton under Wychwood', Wychwoods Hist. 2 (1986), TNA, C 93/7/ OHC, O 127/A/1, and transcript in North Oxon. Archaeol. Soc. Jnl 10 (1870), Howard-Drake, Churchwardens Accounts, 55, 65, 72; OHC, PAR 236/4/F1/1, ff. 1v., 79.

19 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Shipton (Feb. 2016) University of London Social p. 19 each from Shipton and Milton. 212 Previously the property had belonged to the parish chantry lands. 213 In 1578 the three surviving trustees granted it to 13 new ones (Sir Henry Unton and six each from Shipton and Milton), who used the annual rent ( 4 in 1611) for the upkeep of two bridges in Shipton and Milton, any surplus going to godly uses. 214 By the 18th century the charity funded apprenticeships, provision of clothing, and payment of medical bills for the poor of both places, alongside repairs to the inn; 215 the rent was increased from 14 to 25 in 1786, but during the period Shipton s trustees spent a total of only 21 (2 per cent of expenditure) on the poor, most of the rest (72 per cent) going towards maintenance of the inn and Shipton bridge. 216 At inclosure in 1852 the charity received 14½ a. for its open-field land, 217 which in 1890 were let with the inn for 55 a year, from which almost 27 was spent on the poor of both Shipton and Milton, mostly in bread, coal, clothes, and boots. 218 Both the inn and the land were sold in 1930 and the proceeds invested, yielding 107 dividend in Payments that year by the Shipton trustees included 40 distributed amongst 47 recipients, plus subscriptions to Burford and Chipping Norton hospitals. 219 In 1969 the Milton and Shipton parts of the charity were separated and the latter combined with others to form Shipton United Charities (below). The prosperous freeholder Simon Wisdom (d. 1623) charged his Shipton estate with 2 a year to be distributed in money at Christmas and Easter. 220 His brother Thomas withheld payment, and in 1636 was ordered to pay 50 compensation (some of it to be invested), and to vest the rent-charge in eight trustees, 221 who included Sir John Lacy. 222 The payment was distributed in 1647 amongst the poor of Shipton (10s.), Milton (10s.), Leafield (9s.), Ramsden (6s.), and Lyneham (5s.), 223 and in the early 19th century was given in the church on Good Friday. By then it was supplemented by a 16s. dividend from 20 poor s money held by four trustees, 224 which is recorded from 1774, and which was probably derived from the compensation money paid in During the 1880s and 1890s the combined income (then 2 8s.) was added to the coal fund (below), 225 but by 1910 Good 212 OHC, Shipton PC I/i/1; Shipton PC I/iii/13; PAR 236/10/E1/ Below, relig. hist. (Middle Ages; Reformation). 214 OHC, PAR 236/13/D1/1; Shipton PC I/ii/1. For bridges, above, par. intro. (communics). 215 Howard-Drake and Jourdan, Crown Inn Charity, Ibid. PAR 236/13/D1/6; PAR 236/13/F/1; Howard-Drake and Jourdan, Crown Inn Charity, 58 81; above, Milton, social hist. (charities). 217 OHC, inclo. award; altered tithe award. 218 Ibid. PAR 236/13/D1/ Ibid. PAR 236/CH8/F/1; Sale Partics, Crown Inn (1930): copy in WA, J TNA, PROB 11/142/ Ibid. C 93/16/ OHC, Shipton PC I/i/3; 8th Rep. Com. Char Howard-Drake, Churchwardens Accounts, th Rep. Com. Char. 446; cf. OHC, MS Oxf. Dioc. d 567, f Kelly s Dir. Oxon. (1887); OHC, PC 236/CH7/F/1.