Shirburn is a village and

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 ...

about south of Thame in

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 ...

. It contains the Grade I listed, 14th-century

Shirburn Castle Shirburn Castle is a Grade I listed building, Grade I listed, moated castle located at the village of Shirburn, near Watlington, Oxfordshire, Watlington, Oxfordshire. Originally constructed in the fourteenth century, it was renovated and remode ...

, along with its surrounding, Grade II listed park, and a parish church, the oldest part of which is from the Norman period. The parish has a high altitude by county standards. Its eastern part is in the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Shirburn, the largest civil parish in the district, is forested to the south. A motorway cuts across one edge.

Manor and castle

Shirburn is a spring line settlement at the foot of the Chiltern escarpment. The

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 records that the manor of Shirburn was divided equally between Robert D'Oyly and his brother in arms Roger d'Ivry. The building of

was licensed in 1377. It was owned by the Chamberlain family for many generations. Shirburn Castle became a centre of Recusancy throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. The castle was renovated and remodelled in the Georgian era by the Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield who made it his family seat, and altered further in the early 19th century; the property is still owned by the Macclesfield family company, although the present (2020) 9th Earl no longer resides there, having been forced by the family company to leave in 2005.Neutral Citation Number: [2003] EWHC 1846 (Ch)
accessed 18 December 2012.

Parish church

Shirburn had a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

by the 12th century. Between 1146 and 1163 the church seems to have been granted to Dorchester Abbey. The oldest part of today's

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

of All Saints is the

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

, which is apparently Norman, except for the 18th-century upper stage. In the 13th century, north and south aisles and arcades were added to the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

. Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, Whig politician and

Lord Chancellor The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom. The lord chancellor is the minister of justice for England and Wales and the highest-ra ...

impeached in 1725, who purchased the castle in 1716 and extensively remodelled it, retired to Shirburn and was buried there after his death in London on 28 April 1732, as were succeeding members of his family. In 1876 the architect T. H. Wyatt restored the building at the expense of the Earl of Macclesfield. In 1943 All Saints' parish was combined with that of St. Mary's, Pyrton. The combined parish is now part of the

Benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

of Icknield.The Benefice of Icknield: All Saints Church, Shirburn
/ref> All Saints' Church became redundant in 1995 and now belongs to the Churches Conservation Trust.

Demography

The 2011 Census incorporated its figures for Adwell and Stoke Talmage to the north into an output area, used to equate to an arbitrarily enlarged civil parish definition of Shirburn, due to the former's small population.Parish: Key Statistics: Population.
( 2011 census The maps annexed to both definitions and data sets are identical. Retrieved 2016-05-04.

Education

The parish school set up by 1808 was said in 1871 to be occupying a converted cottage. In 1946 it became a junior school passing older pupils on to Chinnor. It was closed altogether in 1950.

Transport

In 1869–1872, the Watlington and Princes Risborough Railway was built through the parish with a terminus south of Shirburn in the parish of . The

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

took over the line in 1883. British Railways withdrew its passenger services in 1957 and closed the line to freight traffic in 1961.

References

Sources

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External links

360° Panorama of Church interiors
{{authority control Villages in Oxfordshire Civil parishes in Oxfordshire