Shifford

Shifford
240px St Mary's chapel
Shifford  Shifford shown within Oxfordshire
OS grid reference	SP374019
Civil parish	Aston, Cote, Shifford and Chimney
District	West Oxfordshire
Shire county	Oxfordshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Bampton
Postcode district	OX18
Dialling code	01993
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Oxfordshire
Ambulance	South Central
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Witney
Website	Aston, Cote, Chimney and Shifford
List of places UK England Oxfordshire

Shifford is a hamlet in the civil parish of Aston, Cote, Shifford and Chimney in Oxfordshire, England. It is on the north bank of the River Thames about 6 miles (10 km) south of Witney.

Archaeology

There was a modest Iron Age 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 AD. 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 from the 1st to the 4th centuries AD, 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-stones 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 ("sheep ford"). It was mentioned in a charter of 1005, when the estate was granted to Eynsham Abbey.

A 17th century tradition that Alfred the Great held a council at Shifford arose from a reference to Sifford in the 12th or 13th century poem The Proverbs of Alfred, 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 in the parish of Bampton. It became a separate civil parish in 1866. In 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

File:Shifford StMary ChurchyardCross.JPG

Base and broken shaft of a 15th-century preaching cross (right) in St Mary's churchyard

Shifford was never an ecclesiastical parish 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 one designed by the architect Joseph Clarke. It is a Grade II listed building.

Shifford Lock

Main article: 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, but not directly from Shifford.

References

File:Shifford StMary ChestTomb.JPG

Late 18th or early 19th century Georgian chest tomb

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons