Shirburn, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Shirburn, a parish, with a village, in Oxfordshire, under the Chilterns, 8 miles SSW of Thame, and 1 mile NE from Watlington station on the G.W.R. Post town, Tetsworth; money order and telegraph office, Watlington. Acreage, ' 2421; population, 300. There is a parish council of five members and a chairman. The manor, with Shirburn Castle, belongs to the Earl of Macclesfield. The castle succeeded a fortalice which surrendered in 1141 to the Empress Maud, and was the meeting-place in 1321 of the insurgent barons under the Earl of Lancaster; was itself built in 1332 by Sir Warine de Lisle; passed to successively the Beauchamps, the Talbots, the Quatremains, the Forsters, the Chamberlains, and the Gages; was purchased early in the 18th century by the first Earl of Macclesfield; forms a hollow quadrangle, with round towers at the corners; is surrounded by a wide moat, and approached by drawbridges with portcullis defence; shows mainly Later English architecture in the exterior, but has been modernized in the interior; and contains an armoury, two valuable libraries, and a few very fine portraits. The park, which is famous for its fine avenues of trees, has an area of 225 acres. Shirburn Lodge is a chief residence. Shirburn Hill projects from the Chilterns, and is traversed by Icknield Street. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £185. Patron, the Earl of Macclesfield. The church, which was restored by the Earl of Macclesfield in 1876 at a cost of £3000, is an ancient building of stone, partly Norman and partly of later dates, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, transepts, vestry, S porch, and an embattled western tower. It has a stained east window, the gift of the Countess of Macclesfield, brasses of 1493 and 1498, and some ancient and interesting tombs and monuments.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Oxfordshire Family History Society and Oxfordshire History Centre, have images of the Parish Registers for Oxfordshire online.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Shirburn from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Shirburn (All Saints))

Land and Property

A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Oxfordshire is available online

Maps

Online maps of Shirburn are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Oxfordshire newspapers online:

• Oxford Journal
• Banbury Advertiser
• Banbury Guardian
• Oxford University and City Herald
• Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette
• Faringdon Advertiser and Vale of the White Horse Gazette
• Oxford Times
• Banbury Beacon
• Ossett Observer

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitations of Oxfordshire, 1566, 1574 &1634 are available on the Heraldry page.