Shipton-Under-Wychwood (St. Mary)

SHIPTON-UNDER-WYCHWOOD (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Chipping-Norton, hundred of Chadlington, county of Oxford, 4 miles (N. N. E.) from Burford; containing, with the chapelries of Langley, Leafield, Lyneham, and Ramsden, and the township of Milton, 2624 inhabitants, of whom 546 are in Shipton township. From its proximity to Wychwood forest, Langley was anciently the residence of the royal family, while taking the diversion of the chase. The township of Shipton comprises 2342 acres, of which 500 are common or waste land. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £16; net income, £335; patron and impropriator, the Professor of Civil Law in the University of Oxford. The great tithes of Shipton township have been commuted for £370, and the small for £110: the impropriator has a glebe of 76 acres, and the vicar of 5 acres. The church is an ancient structure in the early English style, with some Norman portions, and a lofty tower surmounted by a spire; the south porch is enriched with niches containing mutilated statues, and there is a fine Norman doorway with zigzag mouldings. The pulpit is of stone, exquisitely sculptured; and the font, which is octagonal, is ornamented with the arms of the Warwick family and with tracery: at the west end of the nave is a painting of the Resurrection, and in the north aisle an altar-tomb with the recumbent effigy of a female, rudely sculptured. At Langley is a separate incumbency. There are remains of three religious houses, which have not been noticed by any writer; and another ancient building has long been converted into the Crown inn. Three singular stone vessels were found in digging the quarries at Milton.