Shifford is a hamlet in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Aston, Cote, Shifford and Chimney in the

West Oxfordshire West Oxfordshire is a local government district in northwest Oxfordshire, England, including towns such as Woodstock, Burford, Chipping Norton, Charlbury, Carterton and Witney, where the council is based. Area The area is mainly rural downla ...

district, in the county of

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

, England. It is on the north bank of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

about south of

Witney Witney is a market town on the River Windrush in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is west of Oxford. History The Toponymy, place-name "Witney" is derived from the Old English for "Witta's island". The earliest kno ...

Archaeology

There was a modest

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

and Roman-era pastoral settlement east of what is now Old Shifford Farm. It was abandoned around the end of the 1st century AD, but a new settlement was established slightly north of the old one toward the end of the 3rd century. The Oxford Archaeological Unit excavated the sites in 1988–89, after which it was excavated as a gravel pit parallel with Brighthampton Cut. Late Iron Age and Roman artefacts found at the site include ceramic loom weights and parts of pots and plates;

Roman coins Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum#Numismatics, orichalcum and copper coinage. From its introduction during the Roman Republic, Republic, in the third century BC, through Roman Empire, Imperial ...

from the 1st to the 4th centuries, but particularly the late 3rd to late 4th centuries; copper items including brooches, a pin and a bracelet, iron items, particularly nails; lead items including weights, pot rivets and lead shot; and stone items including several

quern-stone A quern-stone is a stone tool for hand-grinding a wide variety of materials, especially for various types of grains. They are used in pairs. The lower stationary stone of early examples is called a ''saddle quern'', while the upper mobile st ...

s and a whetstone. Bone fragments found at the site came mostly from cattle (16.4%), sheep and goats (10.7%) and horses (10.7%). Farming at the site seems to have been mostly pastoral; there was little evidence of arable cultivation.

History

The settlement arose by a ford across the Thames, from which it derived its

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for ...

("sheep ford"). It was mentioned in a charter of 1005, when the estate was granted to

Eynsham Abbey Eynsham Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Eynsham, Oxfordshire, in England between 1005 and 1538. King Æthelred allowed Æthelmær the Stout to found the abbey in 1005. There is some evidence that the abbey was built on the site of an earlie ...

. A 17th century tradition that

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfr ...

held a council at Shifford arose from a reference to ''Sifford'' in the 12th or 13th century poem ''

The Proverbs of Alfred ''The Proverbs of Alfred'' is a collection of early Middle English sayings ascribed to King Alfred the Great (called "England's darling"), said to have been uttered at an assembly in Seaford, East Sussex. The collection of proverbs was probably ...

'', now thought not to refer to this place. In the 17th century Shifford had between 15 and 23 houses. By 1881 the population had risen to 70 but by 1951, the last year for which separate figures are available, it had fallen to 27. It is now a largely deserted village. Until the 19th century Shifford was a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

and

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

in the parish of Bampton. It became a separate

in 1866. On 1 April 1954 the parish was united with Aston Bampton to form the parish of Aston Bampton and Shifford, later renamed Aston, Cote, Shifford and Chimney.

Chapel

Shifford was never an

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

but in medieval times it was a dependent chapelry of Bampton. The chapel was later described as " Georgian" and became derelict by the 19th century. In 1863 it was replaced with a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

one designed by the architect Joseph Clarke. It is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

Shifford Lock

A lock on the River Thames was built in 1898 half a mile upstream from Shifford. It is accessible on foot from

Chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typical ...

, but not directly from Shifford.

References

Sources

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External links

{{authority control Villages in Oxfordshire West Oxfordshire District Former civil parishes in Oxfordshire