Parishes: Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers

SHIPTON OLIFFE AND SHIPTON SOLERS

Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers were two separate parishes that were united in 1871 to form the civil parish of Shipton lying 10 km. ESE. of Cheltenham. (fn. 1) Shipton, where five estates were described in 1086, (fn. 2) was accounted a single vill in the early 14th century (fn. 3) but the division of landownership was reflected in the various names used in the Middle Ages. Part was called Shipton Champfleur from the 1230s, (fn. 4) but was also known as Shipton Tyrel in the later 13th century (fn. 5) and as Shipton Solers (or Shipton Sollars) by 1331. (fn. 6) Shipton Pelye and Shipton Oliffe were recorded from 1303 and 1306 respectively (fn. 7) and like Shipton Solers remained distinct tithings in the early 15th century, (fn. 8) although Shipton Pelye was connected tenurially to Shipton Solers by the early 14th century. (fn. 9) The names Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers came to be used for distinct parishes and also for separate settlements with their farmland as well as for separate manors. The histories of the two parishes are given together here because they were not always distinguished in records and because the boundaries between them have not been precisely identified. Their lands were much intermixed (fn. 10) and their boundaries presumably ceased to correspond to those of individual estates long before inclosure in 1793. (fn. 11) In the following account the name Shipton is used for the combined areas of Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers.

The parish of Shipton created in 1871 was roughly rectangular in shape and was bounded on the west by the river Coln or, at Frogmill, the line of an abandoned western channel of the river. The eastern boundary was marked by a road once part of a salt way, and sections of the longer northern and southern boundaries also followed roads, including the main GloucesterOxford road in the south-east. (fn. 12) The river Coln had divided Shipton Solers from Withington, to the west. (fn. 13) Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers were reckoned in 1831 to contain 1,050 a. and 1,160 a. respectively. (fn. 14) In the north-east Shipton included part of Hampen, where two estates were described in 1086. (fn. 15) In 1327 and 1381 Hampen was assessed for tax with Shipton (fn. 16) and later Lower Hampen belonged to Shipton Oliffe (fn. 17) and most of Upper Hampen to a detached piece of Compton Abdale comprising 110 a. (fn. 18) From 1883, when the detached part of Compton was added to it, Shipton had 2,816 a. (fn. 19) including 26 a. at Hampen described as extraparochial in 1862. (fn. 20) In 1956 84 a. at the western end of Shipton was transferred to the new civil parish of Andoversford to leave Shipton with 2,732 a. (1,105 ha.) (fn. 21) and in 1987 a smaller area of land (c. 12 ha.) on the north side of a disused railway line at Hampen was transferred to Sevenhampton. (fn. 22) The following account includes the land transferred to Shipton from Compton Abdale in 1883. Railway and industrial development in the north-west of Shipton next to the hamlet of Andoversford is treated with the rest of that hamlet in the history of Dowdeswell given above.

The highest point of Shipton, at 268 m., is the summit of Pen hill in the east. Much of the rest of Shipton is on hills rising to over 200 m. and in the south-east the wolds reach 250 m. on the ridge called Puesdown, a name recorded from 1236. (fn. 23) A tributary of the river Coln rising south of Pen hill has cut a valley across the centre of Shipton from east to west; the upper part of the valley was known as Pen slade (Pennysladd) in the 1520s. (fn. 24) In the west the land falls to 165 m. and the side of the Coln valley is particularly steep in the south-west corner. Apart from the bottom of the Coln valley, which is on the Upper Lias and Midford Sand, the land is formed by successive strata of the Inferior Oolite, fuller's earth, and the Great Oolite. (fn. 25) Before inclosure in 1793 much of the high ground was farmed in open fields and a large area in the east, stretching from Pen hill to Puesdown, was common pasture. In the mid 18th century woodland was mostly confined to the steep side of the Coln valley in the south-west, where Cleevely wood by the river and Sowden wood higher up to the south-east were the largest woods, (fn. 26) and after inclosure some of it, including Sowden wood, was cleared. (fn. 27) The countryside was particularly suitable for hunting, the Hampen area being described in 1797 as one of the best sporting districts of the Gloucestershire Cotswolds, (fn. 28) and in the late 19th century a large copse was planted south-west of Hampen as a covert. (fn. 29) In 1905 Shipton had only 64 a. of woodland (fn. 30) but in the early 20th century several new woods were formed in the Coln valley and elsewhere in the south, and belts of trees were planted by the roads in the south-east corner. (fn. 31) In the later 20th century new plantations were established in the central valley and on the eastern hills (fn. 32) and in 1986 the area of woodland returned for Shipton was 240 a. (97 ha.). (fn. 33)

In 1086 33 tenants were enumerated on estates in Shipton and Hampen. (fn. 34) Eleven residents of Shipton and Hampen were assessed for tax in 1327 (fn. 35) and at least 40 were assessed for the poll tax in 1381. (fn. 36) In 1551 the number of communicants was estimated at 20 for Shipton Oliffe and 30 for Shipton Solers (fn. 37) but in 1563 the parishes were said to have 8 and 4 households respectively. (fn. 38) The population had risen by 1650, for in that year there were 18 and 9 families respectively; (fn. 39) the numbers of communicants in 1603 were given as 60 and 24. (fn. 40) In the early 18th century two thirds of the population of the two parishes, estimated at a total of 200, were said to live in Shipton Solers, (fn. 41) but Shipton Oliffe had the greater population c. 1775 when 113 people of an estimated 243 lived in Shipton Solers. (fn. 42) The combined population, which fell from 239 in 1801 to 207 in 1811, rose after 1811 and, despite a fall in Shipton Solers in the 1840s and 1850s, reached a peak of 376 in 1881. In the following century Shipton's population fluctuated around 300, and only in 1961, when it stood at 254, did it fall well below that level. There were 317 residents in 1991. (fn. 43)

Of the roads in Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers in 1236, that known as the great street of Fulford (fn. 44) ran eastwards from the river Coln at Fulford, on the boundary between Withington and Shipton Solers, and climbed steeply to the Puesdown ridge above Compton Abdale. The crossing at Fulford had a bridge by the late 16th century but by that time traffic between Gloucester and Burford (Oxon.) also used a crossing upstream at Frogmill (fn. 45) from where it reached the ridge above Compton by a route making a sharp turn to the south-east at the end of Shipton Lane. The road along the ridge was known as Gloucester way in 1584 and as the London road in 1680 (fn. 46) and with the route up from Frogmill it was part of the GloucesterOxford turnpike between 1751 and 1870. (fn. 47) The bridge at Frogmill was repaired at the county's expense in the early 19th century. (fn. 48) The route from Fulford up to the ridge, in 1764 part of a way from Cirencester, (fn. 49) was abandoned not long after 1777. (fn. 50)

In the mid 18th century Shipton Lane was part of a route running north-eastwards from Frogmill to Shipton Solers. (fn. 51) From there the route continued along the north side of the central valley by way of a crossroads known as Stump's cross and turned north-eastwards for Hampen. Shipton Oliffe village was on a branch road lower down to the south, in the valley. From a crossroads in the western part of the village one road (Kilham Lane) ran southeastwards up to the Gloucester–Oxford road and another ran north-westwards by way of Stump's cross and forked in the north-west of Shipton for Andoversford, in Dowdeswell, and Syreford, in Whittington. (fn. 52) The Syreford route was a way to Whittington mill in the 1520s. (fn. 53) At inclosure in 1793 a new road was built from Syreford to the Gloucester—Oxford road; it took a southeasterly course through the eastern part of Shipton Oliffe village and followed an old lane east of the village before turning southeastwards to rise to meet the main road at a point west of the former Puesdown common. The old road from the village to Andoversford and Syreford was declared a footpath and that on the side of the valley above the village a bridleway, thus leaving the road in the valley through the village and a road running northwards from the village's eastern end up to the old road from Stump's cross as the principal way to Hampen. (fn. 54) That route between the village and Hampen was the way to Salperton in 1830 (fn. 55) and a footpath in 1998. South of the Gloucester–Oxford road the road to Compton Abdale was recorded in 1236. (fn. 56)

A road running north-east of Shipton Oliffe village was in the 1520s a way to Northleach (fn. 57) and was turnpiked in 1756 as part of a road linking Cheltenham with Oxford by way of Syreford. From crossroads formed by the Gloucester–Stow road on the north side of Shipton, its course followed a road to Hampen for a short distance before it branched southeastwards to cross the central valley and run up to a junction on Puesdown with the Gloucester– Oxford road at the south-east corner of Shipton near Puesdown Ash. The road carried coach traffic in 1764, (fn. 58) some of it probably from Gloucester by way of Andoversford, (fn. 59) but it was abandoned as traffic from Cheltenham diverted to a road up through Dowdeswell to the Gloucester–Oxford road west of Frogmill. (fn. 60) Its route in the south-east of Shipton was described as the old London road at inclosure in 1793, when it was among land awarded to William Peachey and, as mentioned above, a new road between Syreford and the Gloucester–Oxford road was built. (fn. 61) The old London road was visible in 1998 only for a short section defined by walls below Puesdown. A new route from Cheltenham, opened in 1825, ran on the west side of Shipton to a junction with the Gloucester–Oxford road at the end of Shipton Lane east of Frogmill. (fn. 62) The section of that new road immediately south of Andoversford was diverted to the east during the construction of the Midland and South Western Junction railway in the late 19th century. (fn. 63) The roads from Gloucester and Cheltenham to Oxford remained the busiest in the area in the late 20th century; in the west the Gloucester road had been diverted north of Frogmill and in the south the Oxford road had been widened in improvements carried out in the 1960s. (fn. 64)

The Gloucester–Stow road running east of Andoversford across the north of Shipton was turnpiked between 1755 and 1871. (fn. 65) A tollgate was erected on it at the junction of the Hampen road (fn. 66) at the place called Square Ditch. (fn. 67) The road on the east side of Shipton, once part of the salt way that ran from Droitwich (Worcs.) to the river Thames at Lechlade, was a route to Cirencester and Winchcombe in the mid 18th century. (fn. 68) A road running north-eastwards to it across the south-east corner of Shipton was designated as the route from Compton Abdale to Broadway hill in 1793 (fn. 69) but did not exist in the mid 1820s. (fn. 70)

The Banbury and Cheltenham railway opened across the north of Shipton in 1881. (fn. 71) The Midland and South Western Junction railway, opened in 1891 to link Cheltenham with Andover (Hants), branched from the Banbury Cheltenham line at Andoversford and ran alongside the river Coln, mostly on the Shipton side. That line closed in 1961 (fn. 72) and the BanburyCheltenham line closed the following year. (fn. 73)

The settlement that became known as Shipton Oliffe village grew up in the central valley with a church in the valley bottom on the north bank of the stream and a manor house on the south bank close to the site of a complex of Roman buildings. (fn. 74) Roads in the village ford the stream in several places, presumably including that called 'calvesford' in 1394. (fn. 75) There was a rectory house south-west of the church until the 19th century and also some early building further west in Kilham Lane, where several 17thcentury cottages form part of a small group of buildings south of the stream.

There were also early farmhouses and cottages higher up the valley close to springs rising some way north-east of Shipton Oliffe church. The buildings there, some of which belonged to Shipton Solers parish, (fn. 76) once extended further up the valley's southern side but most of the older surviving buildings are on the northern side, where in the mid 18th century there was a circular pound. (fn. 77) College Farm contains at its west end an early 17th-century, two-roomed house of one and a half storeys. Originally entered from the west, it was enlarged soon after its sale by Corpus Christi college, Oxford, in 1944 (fn. 78) and it has a south front created by additions of the 1960s and 1990s. (fn. 79) North Farm House, (fn. 80) higher up to the north, was once part of a holding called Upper or Lawrence farm (fn. 81) that belonged to Robert Lawrence in the mid 16th century. (fn. 82) At that time, the house was substantial and there were at least two detached, parallel ranges. The southern range was in continuous use as a farmhouse and became a private residence on its sale in 1972. (fn. 83) Its oldest fabric is contained in the thick-walled two central bays, which have smoke-blackened roof timbers and may represent the hall; a floor supported on deep intersecting beams was inserted probably in the mid 16th century together with a chimney stack built of very large blocks of squared, dressed stone. (fn. 84) The range was extended east and west in the 17th century, and the east end was raised by a storey in the 18th century or the early 19th and, probably at the same time, the west end extended by one bay. A parallel range was built along the north side, probably in the 18th century. The northern detached range, perhaps a chamber block, housed a dairy and a loft or upper room in the early 20th century; (fn. 85) it was restored in 1975 (fn. 86) and was an office in 1998. Built of dressed rubble with some re-used, dressed blocks, it was originally a three-bayed, two-storeyed building of the early or mid 16th century and had two chambers on the upper floor. There is a blocked doorway at the west end of the ground floor and another, visible inside, at first-floor level on the south side towards the west end. The windows on both floors have paired arched lights and at the west end there are four-centred headed fireplaces on both floors; the stack has been removed from the north wall. South Farm (formerly Lower Farm), in the valley bottom and south of the stream, (fn. 87) is a mid 18th-century farmhouse (fn. 88) and has a back wing added in the 1920s. Its outbuildings, to the south-east, are extensive and some were converted for domestic occupation in the late 20th century. The eastern end of the village also includes two pairs of 19th-century cottages.

In the 19th century building also took place near Shipton Oliffe church. North of the village street four pairs of cottages were built on land belonging to the Fletcher family, (fn. 89) the first two pairs dating perhaps from before 1860. (fn. 90) To the east a row of cottages opposite the church originated as two dwellings to which Silas Smith, owner of an adjoining timber yard, added five more in 1860. (fn. 91) Further east, and set back a little from the street, a gabled house of stone with brick dressings was built for Smith on his retirement in 1867. (fn. 92) A more ornamental cottage to the south-east was built by George Fletcher about the same time. (fn. 93) In the following years a schoolroom and a brick nonconformist chapel were put up further west on the street (fn. 94) and in 1888 a farmhouse was erected on the rector's glebe next to the schoolroom. (fn. 95)

In the 1920s and 1930s several new cottages were built in the village, (fn. 96) notably a row of three erected in 1934 at the south end in Kilham Lane to a traditional design by Norman Jewson for R. H. A. Gresson. (fn. 97) In the later 20th century some older dwellings were demolished but others were restored and extended, often with the addition of gabled dormers in traditional Cotswold style, (fn. 98) and the village was enlarged by new private housing. Some new houses were at the western end, including at the entrance to Kilham Lane, but most were at the eastern end, where houses and bungalows were built on the Syreford road and the former Hampen road. In 1998, when new building continued, some of the more recent houses filled the land in the triangle at the road junction in the eastern part.

Downstream of the village the stream flows north-westwards past the small settlement of Shipton Solers. That settlement centres on a former manor house west of the stream with a tiny church higher up to the west in Shipton Lane. The Old Rectory, some distance to the south-east, stands on the site of the Shipton Solers glebe house. Part of its grounds, north of the stream and fronting the road at the western end of Shipton Oliffe village, was given up for a new burial ground, first used in 1901, (fn. 99) and in the later 20th century several detached houses were built on the south side of the road, thereby linking Shipton Solers to the main village. West of Shipton Solers two pairs of estate cottages on opposite sides of the crossroads at the end of Shipton Lane were built in 1902 for D. G. Bingham. (fn. 100)

On the west side of Shipton earthworks indicate the site of an abandoned settlement near the river Coln on the far side of the low rise west of Shipton Solers church. The settlement comprised houses on both sides of a hollow way leading to Andoversford or perhaps Owdeswell, in Withington, to the north-west, (fn. 101) and it may have been the place known as Frogmarsh, which was inhabited until at least the later 13th century. (fn. 102) Parts of the earthworks were destroyed by the construction of a section of the CheltenhamOxford road opened in 1825. Those that survive are in a field known in the mid 18th century as Frogmore. (fn. 103)

Frogmill, on the Coln at the west boundary of Shipton, may have been the site of a mill by the later 11th century. (fn. 104) By the late 16th century the road past the mill was an important thoroughfare (fn. 105) and in the early 1680s an inn next to the mill included judges travelling to Gloucester among its patrons. (fn. 106) The inn competed with one at Andoversford for the Gloucester—London coach traffic in the 1760s, when it also accommodated travellers to and from Cheltenham, (fn. 107) and it remained a coaching inn well into the 19th century. There was a police station near by in 1841. (fn. 108) The inn, which stands on the north-west side of the former line of the road from Gloucester, was greatly extended in the 19th and 20th centuries, and in 1998 it incorporated the surviving parts of a three-storeyed, L-shaped building of the mid 17th century and a lower late 17th-century range with two gables. Outbuildings south of the old road remained part of the inn in 1998 and a building north-east of the inn, occupied as two cottages in the mid 19th century, was also standing. (fn. 109)

In the north-east of Shipton settlement existed at Hampen in the later 11th century (fn. 110) and the hamlet comprised two large houses and a few scattered cottages in 1998. Hampen Manor at Lower Hampen is the principal house on a farm which the Handy family has worked since the early 19th century. After buying the farm in 1867 (fn. 111) Thomas Handy built a row of three cottages north of the house and in the early 1870s the house was enlarged. (fn. 112) Land around the house had been planted as a park by the early 1880s (fn. 113) and an avenue of chestnuts was created along the drive from the south-west in the early 20th century. In the later 20th century the cottages were converted as two dwellings and in the later 1970s a bungalow was built nearer the house. (fn. 114) Hampen House, higher up to the northeast at Upper Hampen, was also a farmhouse until it became a country residence in the 1930s. (fn. 115) Another farmhouse built next to it in the 1850s (fn. 116) was later enlarged. In the mid 19th century several cottages were built a short distance to the south-east at Pateley, so called in 1861, (fn. 117) and in the later 20th century two of the three cottages there were demolished. (fn. 118) In the late 1870s and early 1880s Hampen included huts for navvies constructing the Banbury and Cheltenham railway. (fn. 119)

Following inclosure in 1793 several barns were built in the fields in the east of Shipton. (fn. 120) Pairs of mid 19th-century cottages at Hill barn and Tottmoor had been converted as single dwellings by 1998. (fn. 121) On the hillside south of the village, ranges of farm buildings built around a yard in 1867 and 1868 for George Fletcher (fn. 122) were remodelled in 1934 for R. H. A. Gresson as stables. (fn. 123) In 1998 part was occupied as a house and there was a wooden bungalow near by and a later 20th-century house to the south-east. In 1860 the only dwelling at Square Ditch was a tollhouse north of the Stow road. (fn. 124) It had been demolished by the early 1880s but a cottage was built on the Hampen road there by the early 1870s. (fn. 125)

There was a beerhouse in Shipton Oliffe village in the later 19th century (fn. 126) but the only public house in Shipton in 1998 was the much older Frogmill inn, mentioned above. A friendly society meeting at the inn in 1848 held an annual service in Shipton Oliffe church and, having lapsed, was revived for a few years after 1880. (fn. 127) A reading room opened in Shipton Oliffe in the late 19th century (fn. 128) was replaced in 1909 by a new building at the eastern end of the village; (fn. 129) the new room was the village hall in 1998. The village schoolroom, occupied by a day school until 1946, was a church hall for several years in the later 20th century. (fn. 130) In the late 19th century and the early 20th Shipton had a brass band and several sports clubs; in the mid 20th century E. F. Fieldhouse gave the parish land beyond Frogmill and just within Withington for a playing field. (fn. 131)

Arthur Charlett (1655–1722), a scholar and Oxford don, was born at Shipton where his father was rector of Shipton Solers. (fn. 132)

Manors and Other Estates.

In 1066 Osgot held an estate of 2¾ hides in Shipton and in 1086 William Leuric held it with Geoffrey as his tenant. (fn. 133) The estate was probably the later manor of SHIPTON OLIFFE, which was represented c. 1220 by ¼ knight's fee in Shipton held from the honor of Richard's Castle by Stephen of Elmbridge (Ambrige). (fn. 134) Later the estate which became the manor was assessed for ⅓ knight's fee and in 1285 Adam of Elmbridge was mesne lord under Robert de Mortimer. (fn. 135) In 1512 the manor was said to be held of Adam Elmbridge. (fn. 136)

In 1236 Ralph of Shipton acknowledged that the ⅓ knight's fee, excepting the service of Henry le Bigod and his wife Margery, was held from him by John son of Simon Templar, sometimes called John of Shipton, in the right of his wife Olive (fn. 137) of Hereford. (fn. 138) Robert Oliffe held the manor in 1285 (fn. 139) and, although its descent at several periods is not known, the Oliffes retained ownership until the end of the 17th century. Robert Oliffe, perhaps the owner in 1285, was patron of Shipton church in 1289 (fn. 140) and held the ⅓ knight's fee in 1303. (fn. 141) In 1307 the patron of Shipton Oliffe church was Robert of Shipton, (fn. 142) perhaps the same man, and in 1313 it was Joan, described as lady of Shipton. (fn. 143) In 1346 William Norman was assessed for the ⅓ knight's fee (fn. 144) and Ralph of Dowdeswell exercised the patronage. (fn. 145) Robert Oliffe was lord of Shipton Oliffe in 1371 (fn. 146) and probably at least one other man of that name held the estate in the early 15th century. (fn. 147) From Robert, the son and heir of Thomas Oliffe, the manor passed after 1462 to William Oliffe. William died seised of it in 1488 and his son Richard was declared to be his heir in 1512. (fn. 148) Richard died a few years later (fn. 149) and the manor apparently passed in turn to his widow Joyce, who married Nicholas Widdows, (fn. 150) and his son Ralph Oliffe, who had come of age by 1534 (fn. 151) and was the patron of Shipton Oliffe church in 1539. (fn. 152) From the same or another Ralph Oliffe (d. 1585) the manor passed to his son Robert (d. 1596 or 1597), who was succeeded by his son Ralph (fn. 153) (fl. 1608). (fn. 154) From Giles Oliffe (d. 1699) the manor passed to his son Ralph, who by 1701 had sold it to William Peachey, (fn. 155) the owner of Shipton Solers manor. (fn. 156) At his death in 1717 William left Shipton Oliffe manor, together with land in Shipton he had acquired from Thomas Knowles, to his daughters Susanna and Margaret. (fn. 157) Margaret (d. 1783) left her moiety to Susanna (d. 1786), who left the whole estate to her nephew William Posthumous Chapeau, a minor. (fn. 158) William, who following inclosure in 1793 had 351 a. in Shipton, (fn. 159) died in 1833 leaving his estate to his wife Louisa (d. 1848), and his son Henry Evelyn Chicheley Chapeau (fn. 160) sold Manor farm in Shipton to George Fletcher c. 1861. From George (d. 1881) the farm passed to his son William Hinton Fletcher (fn. 161) and c. 1900 it was acquired by Ernest Edward Turner. (fn. 162) Most of Turner's estate, which comprised the manor house and c. 350 a., was bought in 1933 by R. H. A. Gresson (fn. 163) and was owned in the 1950s by K. G. W. Shennan. (fn. 164) He sold his estate to Mrs. G. G. Brutton, the owner of an adjoining estate in Compton Abdale. She sold the manor house in the mid 1960s and retained some of the land, which in 1998 formed part of the estate of Maj.-Gen. D. J. Tabor. (fn. 165)

Shipton Oliffe Manor, (fn. 166) south of the stream in grounds near Shipton Oliffe church, is recorded from 1585. It was long the residence of the Oliffe family, (fn. 167) Giles Oliffe being assessed on four hearths for tax in 1672, (fn. 168) and it was occupied by a tenant farmer in the mid 18th century. (fn. 169) The oldest parts of the house, including at the north end a gabled cross wing with two storeys and attics, date from the 17th century and formed a farmhouse with a west entrance in the mid 19th century. In 1867 and 1868 the principal outbuildings, to the south-west and including a barn, were demolished to be replaced by new farm buildings outside the village and the house was remodelled and enlarged for George Fletcher to plans by F. S. Waller; a new two-storeyed, south-west block was added, containing an entrance porch and ground-floor drawing and dining rooms, both lit by bay windows, and a porch was built at the north end of the west front. (fn. 170) In the early 20th century the house was enlarged on the east and the northern porch extension was rebuilt and heightened. (fn. 171) Beginning in 1934 extensive alterations were carried out for R. H. A. Gresson by Norman Jewson, (fn. 172) who introduced older fittings from elsewhere and remodelled the south-west block to contain a staircase hall and drawing room and, in a single-storeyed extension to the south, a dining room or ballroom. In the early 20th century E. E. Turner laid out a water garden in the grounds west of the house and created a lake on the course of the stream to the north-east, (fn. 173) at the place known as Pool House close in 1793. (fn. 174) The owner in 1998 had restored the lake. (fn. 175)

An estate in Shipton, held in 1066 by Edwy, was held of Durand of Gloucester, the sheriff, by Ralph and was assessed for tax on 3½ hides in 1086. (fn. 176) It evidently passed, with other of Durand's possessions, to Miles of Gloucester (d. 1143), earl of Hereford, and in the later 12th century to Miles's daughter Margaret de Bohun. (fn. 177) Margaret's descendants, the de Bohun earls of Hereford, (fn. 178) were lords of an estate called SHIPTON PELYE (fn. 179) and, by 1303, of at least part of the manor of SHIPTON SOLERS. (fn. 180) In 1384 the lordship of Shipton Pelye was awarded to Mary, the younger daughter and coheir of Humphrey de Bohun (d. 1373) and wife of Henry of Lancaster, earl of Derby (later Henry IV). (fn. 181) In the early 16th century Shipton Solers manor was held from Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham, a descendant of Mary's elder sister Eleanor. On Edward's attainder in 1521 the overlordship reverted to the Crown (fn. 182) but it may have been restored to the Staffords, for in 1717 the then earl of Stafford claimed jurisdiction over Shipton Pelye and Shipton Solers. (fn. 183)

The estate called Shipton Pelye was represented in 1285 by ½ knight's fee held by Robert Pelye (Pulye) under the earl of Hereford. (fn. 184) It may have been held later by Henry Pelye (fn. 185) but by 1303 it had merged in an estate held by William de Solers. (fn. 186) William's estate, the manor of Shipton Solers, descended to Richard Monmouth, (fn. 187) who held the ½ knight's fee in 1374 and 1384. (fn. 188)

The origins of Shipton Solers manor were also in an estate of five hides owned in 1086 by Hugh L'Asne. (fn. 189) That estate passed with other of Hugh's lands to Richard de Chandos, whose tenants in 1166 included Nicholas de Champfleur by the service of 1⅓ knight's fee. (fn. 190) Nicholas was presumably related to Roger de Champfleur who granted land in Shipton to the Knights Templar in the 12th century. (fn. 191) In 1212 Robert de Chandos was overlord of an estate in Shipton and in 1236 Richard Tyrel held an estate in Shipton Champfleur from Roger de Chandos for one knight's fee. (fn. 192) The overlordship descended to Robert de Chandos, under whom Roger Tyrel was the mesne lord of ½ knight's fee in Shipton in 1285. (fn. 193) That mesne lordship, in Shipton Solers, is not recorded after 1360 when it was inherited from John Tyrel by his brother Hugh. (fn. 194)

Shipton Solers manor presumably also incorporated 3 yardlands in Shipton which Bil held as a manor in 1066. That estate was part of the extensive possessions of Ansfrid de Cormeilles in 1086. (fn. 195) Ansfrid's descendants included Walter de Cormeilles, whose granddaughter Isabel married Simon de Solers (d. 1259). (fn. 196) In 1285 William de Solers, said to have been the grandson of Simon de Solers, (fn. 197) occupied the ½ knight's fee in Shipton held under Roger Tyrel. (fn. 198) As lord of Shipton Solers (Shipton Champfleur) the same or another William de Solers exercised the advowson there in 1298 and later, (fn. 199) and in 1303 he was assessed for one knight's fee, which evidently included the ½ knight's fee at Shipton Pelye, held under the earl of Hereford. (fn. 200) A Robert de Solers was one of the lords of Shipton in 1316, (fn. 201) the patron of Shipton Solers church the following year, (fn. 202) and among those in Shipton assessed in 1327 for tax. (fn. 203) John de Solers was lord of Shipton Solers in 1338 (fn. 204) and he, or another of the same name, held the knight's fee in 1346 (fn. 205) and was alive in 1350. (fn. 206) Richard Monmouth, whose estate in 1374 included Shipton Pelye, (fn. 207) was lord of Shipton Solers until at least 1395 (fn. 208) and Margaret Solers was lady there in 1401. (fn. 209) John Solers was lord in 1411 (fn. 210) and he or a namesake had the estate in 1437 and 1441. (fn. 211)

Joan, the widow of John Solers, exercised the advowson of Shipton Solers several times in the 1450s. (fn. 212) Catherine, the daughter of John Solers, inherited Shipton Solers manor, and her husband William Twyniho, described in 1470 as of Shipton Solers, held it by courtesy after her death in 1494. William (d. 1497) was succeeded by his son Walter, (fn. 213) who in 1508 settled the manor on his son Edward (d. 1526). Edward's son and heir Anthony Twyniho (fn. 214) died a minor in 1529 and left as his heirs his sisters Anne and Catherine. (fn. 215) Anne married Henry Heydon (fn. 216) (d. 1559) of Watford (Herts.) (fn. 217) and at her death later in 1559 a moiety of the manor passed to their son Francis. (fn. 218) Catherine and her husband John Dauntesey held the other moiety in 1545 (fn. 219) and he retained it after her death by 1550. Their daughter Bridget (fn. 220) and her husband Hugh Hyde held it in 1564 (fn. 221) and Francis Heydon acquired it later, thereby reuniting the two parts of the manor. Francis Heydon died in 1606 and his son and heir Edward (fn. 222) was incorrectly described in 1608 as lord of Shipton Oliffe and Solers. (fn. 223) After Edward Heydon's death in 1617 Shipton Solers manor belonged in remaindership to his wife Mary (d. 1625). Edward's heir was his son Francis, (fn. 224) whose own heir, his brother Robert (fn. 225) (d. 1647), left the manor to his widow Susanna for life. (fn. 226) Susanna, who married in turn as her second and third husbands George Leigh (d. 1656) and William Stratford (d. 1685), died in 1680 (fn. 227) but had surrendered her interest in the manor to her eldest son Robert Heydon (fn. 228) and on his death in 1668 the manor with its members in nearby parishes had passed to his daughter Susanna, a minor. (fn. 229)

In 1681 Susanna married William Peachey (d. 1717) of Petworth (Suss.), whom she may have survived. Their son William Peachey (fn. 230) (d. c. 1760) of Kirdford (Suss.) gave all his estates to Elizabeth Paine in 1756, (fn. 231) but his widow Elizabeth held them in 1767 and left them to their son William Peachey (fl. 1805). (fn. 232) Following inclosure in 1793 William owned 1,323 a. in Shipton. (fn. 233) His son William Gracchus Peachey inherited the manor before 1817, when, on account of his lunacy, his brother, the Revd. John Peachey, was legal custodian of his estate. (fn. 234) John, to whom the manor passed in 1845 or 1846, (fn. 235) died in 1860 and was succeeded in turn by his sons William (d. c. 1886) and John, the latter of whom retained 1,500 a. in Shipton and adjoining parishes until 1900. (fn. 236) At a sale that year D. G. Bingham of Utrecht (Netherlands), a native of Cirencester, purchased c. 340 a. in Shipton together with the former manor house and in 1903 he sold the house and land to Frederick Phillips of Newport (Mon.). Phillips sold the house and land to T. B. Stevens in 1909 (fn. 237) and William John Fieldhouse, a Midlands industrialist, bought them for his son Ernest Francis Fieldhouse (fn. 238) in 1910. (fn. 239) E. F. Fieldhouse later bought more land in Shipton (fn. 240) and at his death in 1962 owned c. 400 a. In the late 20th century the land changed hands several times and by 1998 ownership of the house had been divorced from that of much of the land, which belonged to Mr. Rupert Lowe. (fn. 241)

At the sale of 1900 Richard Stratton of Duffryn near Newport (Mon.) bought two farms comprising c. 950 a. in Shipton. (fn. 242) In 1937, following Stratton's death, Cyril Heber-Percy of Cowley Manor bought the farms (fn. 243) and in the 1950s he sold them to Robert HamiltonStubber. He in turn sold them to F. G. Huck, from whom they were bought by J. A. B. BaillieHamilton in 1957 and 1961. Mr. BaillieHamilton also acquired part of Shipton Oliffe Manor farm and in 1998 his estate comprised 445 ha. (1,100 a.). (fn. 244)

Shipton Sollars Manor, the former manor house east of Shipton Solers church, perhaps stands on the site of the house occupied by William de Solers in the late 13th century. (fn. 245) In the late 16th century Francis Heydon occasionally stayed in the manor house, then known as 'the great house', (fn. 246) and in 1672 one of his descendants was assessed for tax on 12 hearths in Shipton. (fn. 247) In the mid 18th century the house had a three-bayed west entrance front of two storeys with gabled attics and it looked down a straight avenue to the Gloucester–Oxford road. (fn. 248) The house was later an occasional residence of the Peachey family (fn. 249) but in the early 19th century it was apparently in a ruinous state apart from the main front (fn. 250) and in 1804 much of it was demolished. (fn. 251) A twin-gabled north section of the house was retained in the later 19th century as the north front of a farmhouse with an entrance on the west and there were rooms north-west and south of that early core. D. G. Bingham added new rooms on the north-east side and provided some replacement 17thcentury style windows in the early 1900s (fn. 252) and E. F. Fieldhouse enlarged the house in the later 1930s. (fn. 253) Earlier, apparently in 1924, (fn. 254) a singlestoreyed, flat-roofed extension had been added on the south-east. In 1998, when the house was a private residence, the surviving outbuildings included a barn and stables in a range built c. 1700. (fn. 255) North of the road a former barn had been converted as a house and an open-fronted store dated 1796 adapted as garages by 1998.

In 1086 Thomas, archbishop of York, held a hide at Shipton with Gundulf as his tenant. (fn. 256) The desent of that land is not known but the archbishop evidently retained overlordship of land in Shipton for in the early 16th century the lords of both Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers manors owed suit to his Compton Abdale court. (fn. 257)

Among lands attached to Guiting manor in 1185 were a yardland and three acres in Shipton given to the Knights Templar by Roger de Champfleur. (fn. 258) From 1224 the Templars held three yardlands in Shipton by quitclaim from Richard Tyrel and his wife Denise (fn. 259) and later their estate descended with Guiting manor, (fn. 260) passing with it in 1517 to Corpus Christi college, Oxford. The college's estate, in Shipton Solers, (fn. 261) included 3½ yardlands in the late 16th century. (fn. 262) Following inclosure in 1793 the college owned 30 a. in Shipton (fn. 263) and in 1944 it sold that estate to the tenant farmer. (fn. 264)

About 1178 Margaret de Bohun confirmed to Bruern abbey (Oxon.) a grant by Walter son of Robert of a yardland in Shipton. (fn. 265) The abbey, to which Walter de Solers quitclaimed ½ hide in Shipton in 1206, (fn. 266) received other grants of land there (fn. 267) and in 1366 it was granted free warren in Shipton Solers. (fn. 268) Its estate at the Dissolution comprised 4 yardlands in Shipton Solers. (fn. 269) In the late 13th century or the early 14th Walter of Cheltenham, rector of Whittington, granted Cirencester abbey a messuage and an adjoining hide in Shipton Solers (Shipton Tyrel). That estate was said to be at Frogmarsh, (fn. 270) where at the Dissolution the abbey held a pasture and closes as part of its Salperton estate. (fn. 271) In 1543 the Crown sold lands in Shipton that Bruern and Cirencester abbeys had owned to Richard Andrews and he sold them to Henry Heydon. (fn. 272) They evidently descended with the Heydon family's share of Shipton Solers manor. (fn. 273)

The manor of HAMPEN or NETHER HAMPEN at Lower Hampen derived from an estate of five hides at Hampen held in 1066 by Edwy. The estate was probably granted to Wihanoc, lord of Monmouth, whose nephew and successor William son of Baderon held it in 1086 with Geoffrey as his tenant. William's son Baderon of Monmouth, (fn. 274) who in 1144 confirmed tithes at Hampen to Wihanoc's foundation, Monmouth priory, (fn. 275) gave one knight's fee to the Knights Hospitaller before 1166. (fn. 276) That grant evidently included the estate or manor at Hampen which the Hospitallers later administered from their preceptory at Quenington until the Dissolution. (fn. 277) The relationship, if any, of the Hospitallers' estate or that of St. Oswald's priory, Gloucester, at Hampen (fn. 278) to the manor of Hampen which Richard Thork and his wife Susanna quitclaimed to Roger Damory in 1317, (fn. 279) and to an estate that the Cassey family of Cassey Compton held at Hampen in the 1430s, (fn. 280) is not known. In 1543 the Crown granted the Hospitallers' manor to Edward Fiennes, Lord Clinton and Saye, and he sold it to Maurice Dennis and Thomas Lane. (fn. 281) From Thomas (d. 1544) Nether Hampen manor passed to his son Thomas, a minor. (fn. 282) He sold it to Sir Henry Lee and others and in 1559 they sold it to Richard Chadwell. Richard's son and heir Richard, (fn. 283) upon whose marriage the manor was settled in 1589, died in 1591 and was survived by his wife Anne. His son and heir Simon (fn. 284) was granted seisin in 1595 (fn. 285) and conveyed the manor in 1606 to William Dutton. (fn. 286) William (d. 1618) was succeeded by his son John, (fn. 287) who in 1650 sold Nether Hampen manor or farm to Edward Rich. (fn. 288) Edward, who also acquired an estate in Upper Dowdeswell, was succeeded at his death in 1681 by by his grandson Lionel Rich, (fn. 289) who in 1714 settled Lower Hampen on the marriage of his son Baily (d. 1723) and Elizabeth Gilbert. On Elizabeth's death in the mid 1760s the farm passed to Thomas Rich, (fn. 290) and then descended with Upper Dowdeswell again until 1867 (fn. 291) when Henry Pole sold the farm (319 a.) to Thomas Handy, (fn. 292) whose family had tenanted the farm since at least 1805. (fn. 293) Thomas (d. 1871) (fn. 294) was succeeded by his son Thomas (d. 1898), who left the farm to his wife Caroline. (fn. 295) After her death in 1931 the farm belonged to her son Thomas Handy (fn. 296) (d. 1949). (fn. 297) His son and heir Mr. T. R. Handy bought c. 100 a. adjoining the farm, including land on Pen hill from the Salperton estate, and owned just under 400 a. (c. 161 ha.) in 1998. (fn. 298)

A house and grange belonging to an estate at Hampen held from the Knights Hospitallers by Thomas of Rodborough (d. 1334) (fn. 299) were presumably at Lower Hampen. Hampen Manor there originated as an early 17th-century house of one and a half storeys. In the early 19th century a three-bayed, two-storeyed farmhouse was built to the south and, slightly later, a fourth bay was added to link the new house to the old house, which became its service end and byre. A gabled south-west block added for Thomas Handy in 1872 and 1873 (fn. 300) is in a 17th-century style and contains an entrance hall and staircase joining the newer and older parts of the house and has a west-facing drawing room and butler's pantry. In 1998 the house was two separate family dwellings, each occupied by a son of Mr. T. R. Handy. The outbuildings include a large early 18th-century barn east of the oldest part of the house.

In 1066 Pin held a hide at HAMPEN as a manor and in 1086 Ansger held it of Thomas, archbishop of York. (fn. 301) The hide may have been that at Hampen given in 1241 by Richard Lunant and his wife Constance to St. Oswald's priory, Gloucester, in return for a corrody. (fn. 302) In 1291 the priory had 1¾ ploughland in Hampen and Compton Abdale. (fn. 303) The estate centred on the detached part of Compton at Upper Hampen and in 1532 the prior owed suit to the archbishop of York's court at Compton. (fn. 304) At the Dissolution the estate, which included land in Sevenhampton, (fn. 305) paid rents to Winchcombe abbey, Thomas Tame, and the heirs of Richard Wenman. (fn. 306) In 1542 the Crown granted the estate to William Sharington (fn. 307) and in 1562 it granted land that the priory had owned at Shipton to Cecily Pickerell. (fn. 308) The descent of Cecily's land has not been traced. Sharington sold the priory's Hampen estate in 1542 to Simon Yate (fn. 309) (d. 1547) of Highworth (Wilts.), whose son and heir Thomas (fn. 310) sold it to John Goddard in 1553. Edward Goddard, who in 1567 acquired the tithes at Hampen belonging to the impropriate rectory of Sevenhampton, sold the land and tithes to John Carter of Pirton, in Churchdown, in 1589. (fn. 311) Carter later acquired Cold Aston manor, (fn. 312) with which Upper Hampen passed until 1798 (fn. 313) when the Revd. M. H. Noble and his wife Maria sold the land or farm to John Browne. (fn. 314) Ownership of the farm, then covering 404 a. in Compton Abdale, Sevenhampton, and Shipton, (fn. 315) descended with Browne's Salperton estate (fn. 316) and in 1891, when Mary Browne (d. 1906), the widow of T. B. Browne, had a life interest in 373 a. at Hampen, the estate also owned c. 50 a. near by on Pen hill. (fn. 317) F. J. C. H. Harter sold the farmhouse and the bulk of the Hampen land in 1932 (fn. 318) but retained land on Pen hill, which was sold in the later 20th century to Mr. T. R. Handy. (fn. 319)

Following its sale in 1932 the farmhouse became a country residence known as Hampen House. (fn. 320) It incorporates a three-bayed farmhouse, probably of the 17th century, which in the 18th century was enlarged by an L-shaped addition to the west and was given a new south front. In the later 1850s the house was occupied by T. B. Browne, owner of the estate, (fn. 321) and it was lit by gas produced there. (fn. 322) Rear-Adm. J. S. C. Salmond, a relative of the Harters and the house's owner from 1932, (fn. 323) altered the northwest wing and A. D. Marris, the owner from the later 1940s, introduced new fittings, including the panelling of the east room. (fn. 324) To the east a formal garden has been laid out on the former farmyard and among surviving outbuildings are a barn and a range of cowsheds.

Another Compton Abdale estate centred on Upper Hampen was owned in 1522 by Thomas Tame, (fn. 325) one of the suitors to the archbishop of York's Compton court. (fn. 326) The estate, which Thomas Lane acquired from Tame in 1542, (fn. 327) was presumably added to the manor at Lower Hampen sold to Lane and Maurice Dennis in 1543. (fn. 328)

In the late 12th century tithes from a yardland in Shipton were apparently reserved to Llanthony priory. (fn. 329) In 1291 Gloucester abbey and Monmouth priory had portions in Shipton Oliffe church valued at 15s. and £1 respectively (fn. 330) and Studley priory (Warws.) a portion worth 15s. in Shipton Solers church. (fn. 331) The abbey's portion arose from a grant of demesne tithes before 1100 and was later claimed as a gift from Adelize of Swindon, daughter of Asketil. (fn. 332) In 1537 the abbey granted a lease of corn and hay tithes in Shipton Solers for 6s. 8d. rent (fn. 333) and in 1541 those tithes were among the abbey's possessions included in the endowment of the bishopric of Gloucester, (fn. 334) from which they continued to be farmed for the same rent for some years. (fn. 335) The bishop's tithes, which became known as the penny fee or priory tithes, (fn. 336) were worth £3 c. 1710 (fn. 337) and were commuted at inclosure in 1793 for 19 a. (fn. 338) Some corn and hay tithes in Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers, said to have belonged to Gloucester abbey, were granted to Sir Edward Warner in 1561 (fn. 339) and were said c. 1775 to belong to Thomas Browne. (fn. 340)

Monmouth priory's portion in Shipton Oliffe church derived from a grant of tithes at Hampen. (fn. 341) In 1680 Lower Hampen and some land at Upper Hampen were said to pay no tithes and elsewhere in Shipton Oliffe a yardland, a part of Upper farm reputed to have belonged to a religious house, paid the Crown 6s. 8d. a year for tithes. (fn. 342) Nether Hampen manor later paid corn tithes to the rector of Shipton Oliffe (fn. 343) and its owner, Sir Charles Pole, was awarded 32 a. for the hay and small tithes at inclosure in 1793. William Newcome, bishop of Waterford and landowner at Upper Hampen, was awarded 12½ a. for tithes in Shipton Oliffe. (fn. 344) Studley priory's portion in Shipton Solers church has not been traced after 1291.

Economic History.

In 1086 the five estates in Shipton were assessed at a total of 13 hides and the two estates in Hampen at 6 hides. Of the Shipton estates, three, all of which had declined in value since 1066, each had two ploughteams on their demesnes and, between them, a total of 13 servi. On two of those estates seven villani and one bordar held a total of four teams and on the third a priest and a villanus were without a plough. Shipton's other two estates, on which no servants or tenants were enumerated, each had a team on their demesnes. Of the Hampen estates, both of which had fallen in value since 1066, the larger had two ploughteams with four servi on its demesne and three teams held by 6 villani. The smaller estate, on which no tenants were mentioned, had a single team in demesne. (fn. 345) In 1220 ten ploughteams were recorded in Shipton. (fn. 346)

Little evidence of the tenants on the manors in Shipton has been found. On the small monastic estates the Knights Templar received 6s. in rents for their land in Shipton in 1185. (fn. 347) By 1328 their rents from Shipton had increased to 15s. 4d. (fn. 348) and in 1535 Corpus Christi college, Oxford, as owner of the Templars' land, received the same income in rents. (fn. 349) Bruern abbey farmed its estate in Shipton Solers just before the Dissolution (fn. 350) and Cirencester abbey administered its land there with Salperton manor and received a rent for it. (fn. 351) In the same period three quarters of the income of the Knights Hospitallers' estate at Hampen came, under a lease of 1533, from the farm of the demesne and the rest came from assized rents of free tenants and a customary tenant there; (fn. 352) in 1541, just before the Crown granted a new lease of the demesne, (fn. 353) the three principal freeholds, including a total of 8½ yardlands, belonged to one man and a freehold meadow to the only other tenant. (fn. 354) St. Oswald's priory, Gloucester, received assized rents from its estate in Compton and Hampen in 1291 (fn. 355) and took rents from its Hampen land on the eve of the Dissolution; (fn. 356) in 1536 the Crown granted that land to a farmer. (fn. 357)

In the mid 16th century Robert Lawrence held perhaps as much as 12½ yardlands in Shipton. At his death in 1584 or 1585 he left land, possibly occupied partly by his own tenants, and farming stock to his eldest son William Lawrence of Gloucester. William leased much of the land to Richard Oliffe (fn. 358) and by 1606 he had conveyed the farm, parts of which were held under Shipton Solers and Nether Hampen manors and Corpus Christi college, to Francis Heydon, the lord of Shipton Solers. (fn. 359) In the late 16th century and the early 17th Edward Heydon, Francis's son, held 14 yardlands in Shipton Solers. (fn. 360) A yardland contained c. 48 a. (fn. 361) In 1674 a court of survey held for Shipton Solers manor and its members in neighbouring parishes recorded four free tenants and ten copyholds and leaseholds in Shipton. The copyholds and leaseholds, some of which had land in Shipton Oliffe as well as Shipton Solers, were each held for one or more lives and one comprised 4 yardlands, another 3 yardlands, and three 2 yardlands each. The others comprised a mill with some land, 24 a., 6a., 4 a., and 1 a. The rent for the smallest holding was in capons and for the rest in cash, and a weekly measure of barley flour was also owed for the mill. (fn. 362)

In 1236, when an east field and a west field were recorded, (fn. 363) Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers presumably shared open fields, as they did in the 16th century when open fields worked on a two-course rotation extended eastwards towards Puesdown, southwards beyond the Gloucester–Oxford road, north-westwards towards Whittington, and north-eastwards towards Hampen. (fn. 364) Hampen had two open fields in the early 13th century (fn. 365) and also in the mid 18th century, when they covered areas west, by the Gloucester–Stow road, and south-east of the hamlet and were known respectively as Hampen field and Hampen Upper field. (fn. 366) The 10 a. of meadow land recorded on Durand of Gloucester's estate in 1086 (fn. 367) was possibly in the west of Shipton by the river Coln, where hay was mown in a close at Frogmill in the 1540s. (fn. 368) The river bank in Owdeswell meadow, north of Frogmill towards Andoversford, was shared by farms in Shipton, Hampen, and Owdeswell in the mid 18th century (fn. 369) and may have been a common meadow until inclosure in 1793 when, in an exchange of land, William Peachey, principal landowner in Shipton Solers surrendered five small pieces of land in the meadow on the opposite bank, in Withington. (fn. 370)

The name of Shipton, used in the Domesday survey, establishes that the place was a centre of sheep farming in, if not long before, the later 11th century. (fn. 371) The continuing importance of sheep in the local economy is indicated by the presence in 1381 of several shepherds in Shipton and Hampen (fn. 372) and St. Oswald's priory's principal building on its Hampen estate in the late Middle Ages was a sheephouse. (fn. 373) In 1340 most arable land in Shipton Oliffe was untilled because of the poverty of parishioners (fn. 374) but in the late Middle Ages arable farming evidently was, together with sheep rearing, the main business of local agriculture. In 1535 corn and wool tithes supplied two thirds of the income of the rector of Shipton Solers and an even greater proportion of that of the rector of Shipton Oliffe. (fn. 375) In the later 16th century, when the main farmers had flocks numbering hundreds of sheep, large flocks from elsewhere were also grazed in Shipton in the summer; (fn. 376) in 1680 the rector of Shipton Oliffe was entitled to ½d. for each sheep owned by a non-parishioner summered in his parish. (fn. 377) In the summer of 1606 Edward Heydon, who then had at least two shepherds in his employ, allowed 500 sheep belonging to a farmer at Elmbridge Court, near Gloucester, to pasture on his land at Shipton Solers and kept his own sheep at Hampen. (fn. 378) Lower Hampen and Upper Hampen farms both employed shepherds in the late 17th century and the early 18th. (fn. 379)

The principal commons, which were shared by Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers, were mostly on the east side of Shipton. There an extensive tract of common land extending northwards from the Oxford road at Puesdown ran down into the upper part of the central valley and up onto Pen hill, east of Hampen. (fn. 380) Pigs were evidently driven there in the Middle Ages for in the 1520s part of the adjoining land was called Pygstie (later Pigs Tree) furlong. (fn. 381) In the mid 16th century Pen hill was apparently reserved for horses and cattle every other year between March and October and was grazed with sheep at other times, and the Twenty Acres at Hampen, a ground belonging to Thomas Yate's estate, was used as a horse and cattle common after the harvest. (fn. 382) Puesdown common was reserved for cattle every year and the commoners drove their cattle across adjoining land called the Breach, which was a cattle common every other year, to a watering place (fn. 383) down in the valley below Pen hill; there was a cattle pen at the spring in the mid 18th century. (fn. 384) Sheep and probably other animals were grazed on open-field land. The number of sheep and cattle allowed on the commons was limited before 1584 to 50 and 5 respectively for each yardland (fn. 385) but in 1632 the rector of Shipton Solers was said to have common rights for 60 sheep for his yardland. (fn. 386) In the later 16th century the rector of Shipton Oliffe was forbidden to pasture cattle on the land of the lord of Shipton Solers (fn. 387) but in the 17th century his successors had a right to pasture 3 cows in a field belonging to the Oliffe family. (fn. 388)

The main common at Hampen in the early 18th century, other than that on Pen hill, was on Horsington hill, north-west of the hamlet beyond the Stow road. Although parishioners, apart from William Peachey as owner of Shipton Oliffe manor farm, were entitled to run unlimited numbers of great cattle on Pen and Horsington hills, parts of both hills were reserved every other year for use as sheep runs by William Peachey and the tenant of Lower Hampen farm. (fn. 389) In the mid 18th century the western side of Horsington hill was known as Farm Slaight and the lower part of Pen hill towards Hampen was called Common Leys. The only other common was at Turk's Down between Shipton and Hampen but there may once have been another on the hillside immediately east of Lower Hampen. There in the mid 18th century two adjacent closes belonging respectively to Lower and Upper Hampen farms were both called Common Close and a smaller close adjoining one of them was or had been a pound. (fn. 390) In the late 17th century the Carter family's estate at Upper Hampen included a large pasture extending into Sevenhampton. (fn. 391)

Consolidation of holdings within the open fields began before the 1520s, when some of the strips, usually of 1 a. or ½ a., were next to much larger blocks of land. (fn. 392) In 1584 the Shipton Solers glebe included pieces in the fields ranging in size from 1 a. to 10 a. (fn. 393) Most of the land in the Shiptons remained uninclosed (fn. 394) and as a result of the exchange and consolidation of strips the pattern of holdings became very irregular with some furlongs containing few or no narrow strips in the mid 18th century. Scattered among the open-field land were a few small areas of pasture, and the bottom of the central valley in the east and the ends of some strips close to the river Coln in the west were left unploughed and cultivated as meadow. In the south-east three substantial and uninclosed arable holdings, called New Broke Piece, Great Breach, and Little Breach, adjoined Puesdown common. The Hampen fields had ceased to be entirely distinct, for the principal Shipton farm shared them with Lower and Upper Hampen farms. (fn. 395)

Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers were inclosed in 1793 under a single Act and award which also commuted the tithes of both parishes and dealt with some pieces of land in adjoining parts of Whittington and Dowdeswell. The area of common pasture inclosed in the Shiptons was 451 a. Under the award the rector of the two parishes received 445 a. and the bishop of Gloucester 19 a. The principal lay beneficiaries were William Peachey (1,024 a.), Sir Charles Pole (305 a.), and W. P. Chapeau (150 a.). Two other landowners received 47 a. and 29 a. respectively and the four other beneficiaries under 7 a. each. (fn. 396)

In the early 1830s just under two thirds of the populations of Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers were supported by work on the land, (fn. 397) most of which was farmed by a few longestablished farming families. (fn. 398) Of the five farmers with over 300 a. each in 1851 George Fletcher and Avery Handy farmed the largest areas, 630 a. and 545 a. respectively, and Thomas Handy occupied Lower Hampen farm (319 a.). (fn. 399) T. B. Browne had Upper Hampen farm in hand in 1851 and until 1862. (fn. 400) At the end of the century Upper (later North) and Lower (or South) farms (c. 980 a.) in Shipton were tenanted by Edward Handy, and George Fletcher's two sons between them farmed well over 1,000 a. in and around Shipton. (fn. 401) Some smaller farms survived; in 1896 there were 16 agricultural occupiers, all but two of them tenant farmers, (fn. 402) and in 1926 four farms, including the only two not worked by tenants, had over 300 a., another two over 150 a., and seven under 50 a. Some 53 agricultural labourers were in regular work in 1926. (fn. 403) In the early 20th century Richard Stratton had taken South farm (c. 450 a.) in hand (fn. 404) but from the mid 1920s members of the May family rented both North and South farms. (fn. 405) In 1956 seven farms providing regular employment for 32 labourers were returned for Shipton. The largest farm had over 700 a., another over 300 a., a third over 150 a., and most of the others under 5 a. (fn. 406) In 1986 two farms had over 741 a. (300 ha.), one over 494 a. (200 ha.), and three over 247 a. (100 ha.), and there were three much smaller holdings worked part-time, two of them with under 49 a. (20 ha.). Two farms were run by managers and 15 hired labourers were regularly employed on the land. (fn. 407) In the 1960s North and South farms had been merged by Mr. J. A. B. Baillie-Hamilton and in 1998 they formed part of a larger farm embracing his whole estate. The Handys continued to run Lower Hampen as a family farm in 1998. (fn. 408)

In 1801 corn and peas were grown on 787 a., about a third of the area of the two parishes. (fn. 409) The area planted with corn was slightly greater in 1866 when 2,067 a. was returned as arable and only 188 a. as permanent grassland. Of the arable about a sixth was devoted to root crops and a third was under clover or grass. (fn. 410) The animals returned for the two parishes in 1866 included 1,117 sheep, 171 beef and dairy cattle, and 57 pigs. (fn. 411) In the 1850s T. B. Browne's autumn sheep sales at Upper Hampen were an important event in the Cotswold calendar (fn. 412) and in 1891 Thomas Handy of Lower Hampen was described both as farmer and wool merchant. (fn. 413) The Fletcher brothers were noted sheep farmers and a sale of stock on their retirement in 1900 included 632 Cotswold and cross-bred sheep and just over 100 head of cattle. (fn. 414) The area of Shipton used for grazing increased in the later 19th century and 1,029 a. was described as permanent grassland in 1905. (fn. 415) That trend continued in the early 20th century and 766 ewes and 484, mostly beef, cattle were returned in 1926 as well as 103 pigs and 1,576 chickens and other poultry. (fn. 416) In 1956, when 517 a. was described as permanent grassland, over 900 a. was used for grazing and over 800 a. for growing cereals and 71 a. was fallow. The livestock returned that year included 198 ewes, 806 beef and dairy cattle, 162 pigs, and 1,262 poultry. (fn. 417) In 1986, when at least 418 a. (169 ha.) was grassland, 109 a. (48 ha.) rough grazing, and 12 a. (5 ha.) fallow, one of the larger farms was devoted primarily to raising sheep and cattle and the others to growing cereals; 913 ewes and 301, mostly beef, cattle were among the animals returned for Shipton that year. (fn. 418) Mr. BaillieHamilton had a herd of 30 beef cattle on his farm and the Handys kept a flock of sheep at Lower Hampen in 1998. (fn. 419)

In 1086 only one mill, belonging to Hugh L'Asne's estate, was recorded in Shipton and Hampen. (fn. 420) It may have stood on the river Coln at Frogmill, in Shipton Solers, where a corn mill operating by the early 1540s (fn. 421) was known as Frogmarsh mill in 1600 (fn. 422) and as Frog mill in 1669. By the last date the mill was owned and worked by the Powell family, members of which also ran the adjacent Frogmill inn recorded a few years later. (fn. 423) The mill was sold in 1760 following Giles Powell's bankruptcy (fn. 424) and it apparently continued in use in 1777. (fn. 425)

There was a sand pit at Hampen in the early 13th century (fn. 426) and pits yielding Cotswold slates were among stone workings in Shipton Solers, some of them on Hannington hill near Andoversford, in the late 16th century. (fn. 427) At inclosure in 1793 18 small plots of land in Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers were designated public quarries (fn. 428) but they apparently went out of use long before 1900. (fn. 429) Few tradesmen and craftsmen are recorded in the Shiptons before the 19th century. A tailor and a carpenter were among parishioners named in 1608 (fn. 430) and a blacksmith lived in Shipton Oliffe in 1648. (fn. 431) George Fletcher, a maltster living in Shipton Oliffe village in 1791, was the father of George Fletcher, (fn. 432) the farmer mentioned above. In the mid 19th century most of the usual village crafts were practised in Shipton; residents in 1851 included a stonemason with six employees, a shoemaker with two employees, two bakers, and a butcher, as well as several wheelwrights. (fn. 433) Silas Smith, described in 1846 as a sawyer, (fn. 434) built up a business as a builder, wheelwright, and blacksmith from a timber yard in Shipton Oliffe village and premises in Charlton Kings (fn. 435) to employ 25 men in 1861. (fn. 436) The yard in Shipton remained open for several years after his death in 1867. (fn. 437) Shopkeepers were recorded in Shipton from 1822, (fn. 438) three being mentioned in Shipton Oliffe in 1870, (fn. 439) and there was a post office in 1906. (fn. 440) Although a bakery remained in business in the late 1950s many trades, including those of blacksmith, shoemaker, and wheelwright, had died out in Shipton by that time. (fn. 441) The village had a post office but not a shop in 1998.

The Frogmill inn provided employment in the later 18th century and the early 19th for a number of people including ostlers, grooms, and chaise drivers. Among other residents of Shipton were tollgate keepers in 1828 and 1833 (fn. 442) and a letter carrier in 1851. (fn. 443) By 1871 the shopkeeper Charles Makepeace owned one or more horse-drawn vans, (fn. 444) which provided a carrying service between Shipton Oliffe and Cheltenham. Walter Perrett, Makepeace's successor before the First World War, started a motor coach business (fn. 445) which continued to run passenger services to Cheltenham and Northleach in 1998. In the late 19th century and the early 20th several Shipton men worked on the railway. (fn. 446) In the late 20th century a garage and shop was built on the Oxford road south of Andoversford.

Local Government.

In the Middle Ages Shipton contained the separate tithings of Shipton Oliffe, Shipton Pelye, and Shipton Solers. Cirencester abbey, lord of the hundred, held a separate view of frankpledge in Shipton Pelye and in 1303 William de Solers agreed to pay the abbey 5s. a year instead of the hospitality that its officers had been accustomed to receive in the tithing. The twice-yearly court in Shipton Pelye, which enforced the assize of bread and ale and heard pleas of bloodshed, (fn. 447) was recorded in the early 15th century when the hundred court exercised leet jurisdiction over Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers. (fn. 448) The Knights Templar claimed earlier that their tenants were bound to attend the view of frankpledge held at Temple Guiting. (fn. 449) A court roll for Shipton Solers manor records courts of survey convened in 1674 and 1685 and shows that the manor court's business included the repair of bridges and the cleaning of ditches as well as agricultural matters. (fn. 450) Although the lord of the manor held an occasional court baron c. 1805 no other records of the court have been found. (fn. 451)

Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers each had two churchwardens until the later 17th century, (fn. 452) from which time each parish had only one warden. (fn. 453) Accounts of the Shipton Solers wardens survive for the period 1707–1835. (fn. 454) Each parish had its own constable in 1715. (fn. 455) In 1776 slightly more was spent on relief in Shipton Oliffe than in Shipton Solers and the combined amount exceeded that spent in Northleach. Less was spent on relief in both parishes in the mid 1780s but the amounts had risen by 1803, almost fourfold in Shipton Oliffe where the greater number of people, 34 out of 48 on permanent or occasional relief in the two parishes, was helped. (fn. 456) In the next ten years expenditure in Shipton Solers fell, but in 1813 and 1815 more people were helped there than in Shipton Oliffe (fn. 457) and from the late 1820s expenditure in Shipton Solers sometimes exceeded that in Shipton Oliffe. (fn. 458) Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers both became part of the new Northleach poor-law union in 1836. (fn. 459) The civil parish of Shipton created in 1871 (fn. 460) was included in Northleach rural district in 1895 (fn. 461) and Cotswold district in 1974.

Churches.

Shipton Oliffe probably had a church in 1086 when a priest was among William Leuric's tenants at Shipton. (fn. 462) In 1236 Ralph of Shipton reserved the advowson of the church, and John of Shipton and his wife Olive, who held the estate later known as Shipton Oliffe manor from Ralph, (fn. 463) contributed to the endowment of the living; (fn. 464) the living was styled a rectory in 1306. (fn. 465) There was a chapel at Shipton Solers in 1236 (fn. 466) and the living there was a rectory in 1304. (fn. 467) The two benefices were held together from the later 17th century (fn. 468) and were united in 1776. (fn. 469) In 1962 Hazleton and Salperton were added to the united benefice (fn. 470) and at a reorganization in 1975 the ecclesiastical parish of the Shiptons was merged with that of Salperton in a new united benefice including Dowdeswell. (fn. 471) In 1998 the two Shipton churches were among eight churches served by a priest-in-charge living in Shipton. (fn. 472)

The first known presentation to Shipton Oliffe church was by Robert Oliffe in 1289. (fn. 473) The patronage evidently descended with Shipton Oliffe manor and was exercised in 1346 by Ralph of Dowdeswell. (fn. 474) In 1532 and 1542 the advowson belonged to patrons for the turn (fn. 475) and, although a Mr. Horowde was said to be patron in 1551, (fn. 476) the next presentation, in 1554, was by Ralph Oliffe, the lord of the manor. Richard Oliffe filled a vacancy in 1577 but his presentee was evidently replaced the following year by Ralph's nominee, who retained the living despite presentations by the Crown in 1581 and 1582. (fn. 477) Patrons for the turn filled the next two vacancies, in 1619 and 1666. (fn. 478) After the union of benefices in 1776 the lords of Shipton Oliffe had the right to present at every other vacancy, (fn. 479) a right that passed on the division of W. P. Chapeau's estate in 1848 to his son H. E. C. Chapeau and, under an earlier sale of one turn, was exercised in 1862 by Elizabeth Carr of Peterborough (Northants.). H. E. C. Chapeau (d. 1877) retained the alternate right in the patronage and in 1918 his trustees sold it to W. J. Fieldhouse, (fn. 480) whose son E. F. Fieldhouse, (fn. 481) a landowner in Shipton Solers, became sole patron of the united benefice. (fn. 482)

In 1236 Roger, son of Warin of Shipton, quitclaimed a house and 6 a. in Shipton to Jordan, the parson of Shipton Oliffe, (fn. 483) and less than a month later John of Shipton and his wife Olive gave 15 a. in each of the two open fields and other land to augment the parson's living. (fn. 484) The rector's glebe included 20 a. of arable in 1535 (fn. 485) and a yardland, as well as common rights for sheep and cattle, in 1584; (fn. 486) in 1612 the yardland was represented by 22½ a. in each of the open fields. (fn. 487) Corn and wool tithes provided the bulk of the rector's income in 1535 (fn. 488) and they and his other tithes were farmed in 1576. (fn. 489) In the 17th century, when the rector received moduses for some tithes, not all parts of the parish paid him tithes (fn. 490) and in the early 18th century Lower Hampen paid him only corn tithes. (fn. 491) The rectory was worth £5 13s. 4d. in 1291, (fn. 492) £7 5s. 9d. in 1535, (fn. 493) £45 in 1650, (fn. 494) and £65 in 1750. (fn. 495) In 1776, on the eve of the union with Shipton Solers, it was valued at £83. (fn. 496)

The rectory house, which under a nonresident incumbent was in disrepair in 1569, had a thatched roof and was repaired in 1572. (fn. 497) In 1584 the rector occupied part of the house and two tenants the remainder. (fn. 498) From the later 17th century the incumbents presumably used the much larger house belonging to Shipton Solers rectory (fn. 499) but the Shipton Oliffe house, which in 1680 comprised two bays, (fn. 500) remained part of the glebe of the united benefice in 1828. (fn. 501)

In 1289, Henry of Shipton having been presented to Shipton Oliffe rectory, William of Owdeswell, a priest, was given custody of the church and responsibility to provide for Henry's schooling and maintenance; (fn. 502) Henry was instituted to the living in 1291. (fn. 503) In 1306, following Henry's resignation, the living was granted in commendam to John of Rodborough (fn. 504) and the following year the same or another Henry of Shipton was instituted. (fn. 505) In 1540 William Swan, formerly a Dominican at Gloucester, became rector. (fn. 506) Richard Davis, Swan's successor in 1542, (fn. 507) was unable to recite the Ten Commandments and did not know the provenance of the Lord's Prayer in 1551. Under Mary, he was deprived of the living and, in 1554, it was given to John Hancocks (fn. 508) (d. 1562), who was also known as John Augustine and had been prior of Winchcombe abbey. (fn. 509) John Rhodes, rector from 1562, was ordered to be resident in 1569. Richard Jones, rector from 1575, (fn. 510) was presented the following year for neglecting his spiritual duties, for wearing a surplice on Rogation days, and for fomenting discord. (fn. 511) He had been deprived by 1577. George Mace, instituted in 1578, retained the living despite uncertainty over the patronage. (fn. 512) Neither a graduate nor a preacher in 1584, (fn. 513) he was deemed of slender scholarship and was presented for simony in 1593. (fn. 514) Samuel Temple, his successor in 1619, (fn. 515) was described as a preaching minister in 1650; (fn. 516) he retained the living until his death in 1665. (fn. 517) His successors were also rectors of Shipton Solers. (fn. 518)

The church or chapel of Shipton Solers was in the gift of William de Solers in 1298. (fn. 519) The patronage descended with Shipton Solers manor (fn. 520) and in 1527 it was exercised by a patron for the turn. (fn. 521) Vacancies in 1531 and 1545 were filled jointly by Anne and Henry Heydon and Catherine and John Dauntesey. (fn. 522) Francis Heydon was sole patron in 1570 and, at the next vacancies, Robert Heydon presented, under grant from Mary Heydon, in 1619 and Robert Cooke of Painswick in 1642. (fn. 523) From 1776 the lords of the manor had an alternate right of presentation to the united benefice (fn. 524) and in 1817 the right was exercised by the Crown on account of the lunacy of W. G. Peachey. (fn. 525) On the break up of the manor in the early 20th century the interest in the advowson was evidently included in the part acquired by E. F. Fieldhouse, (fn. 526) who was sole patron of the united benefice in 1927. (fn. 527) His interest, which at the union of benefices in 1962 became a right to present at the first and third of every four turns, (fn. 528) passed in turn to his wife Evelyn May Fieldhouse (d. 1986), who became a joint patron of the benefice created in 1975, and his daughter Lucy Evans. (fn. 529)

In 1535, when Shipton Solers rectory was worth £7 2s. 2d., its glebe included 40 a. of arable. (fn. 530) In 1584 it had 35½ a. in the open fields (fn. 531) but perhaps another 9 a. in one field had been lost by then, as it had by 1632. (fn. 532) Corn and wool tithes provided over two thirds of the rector's income in 1535 (fn. 533) but the rector did not have the corn and hay tithes—the penny fee tithes—from the demesne farm of Shipton Solers manor. In 1570 a new rector let his glebe and tithes for £9 a year and the provision of lodgings and a horse, but the arrangement was abandoned ten years later because it gave the rector too small an income, and in the mid 1580s another farmer of the rectory was party to disputes concerning tithes. The demesne farm tithes were in dispute in following years but its wool tithes were paid in cash in the early 17th century. (fn. 534) The rectory was valued at £35 in both 1650 and 1750 (fn. 535) and at £67 in 1776 when it was united with Shipton Oliffe. (fn. 536) At inclosure in 1793 the incumbent of the united benefice was awarded 60 a. for glebe and 385 a. and £2 3s. 10d. in rents for tithes (fn. 537) and in 1856 the living, which had 453 a., (fn. 538) was worth £412. (fn. 539) Most of the land was sold in 1919. (fn. 540)

The Shipton Solers glebe house, occupied by the rector in 1584, (fn. 541) was rebuilt by the rector Thomas Wilde in the 1620s and had six bays in 1632. (fn. 542) After 1776 it was the principal residence of the united benefice (fn. 543) and it was usually occupied by a curate by 1797, when a faculty was obtained for raising the roof to improve the accommodation. Following that work much of the building collapsed and was rebuilt by the rector John Chapeau on a larger scale. (fn. 544) The house, which had one and a half storeys on a high basement and a main north-east front of five bays, (fn. 545) was rebuilt by the rector John Anby Carr in 1863 to designs by Fulljames & Waller with a square main block having four bays and a porch on the north-east front. (fn. 546) It was sold in 1964 and a new rectory house built to the northeast was in 1998 the residence of the priest in charge of Shipton and neighbouring parishes. (fn. 547)

On becoming rector of Shipton Solers in 1301 Robert de Solers had licence to study; (fn. 548) he had resigned the living by 1304. (fn. 549) In the late 14th century and the early 15th the rectory was frequently exchanged for another benefice and between 1411 and 1414 seven men held the rectory in succession. (fn. 550) Thomas Sende, rector for a short period in the mid 1420s, (fn. 551) held the living with the vicarage of Burford (Oxon.) from 1437. (fn. 552) In 1498 the rector and a chaplain officiated in the church (fn. 553) and in 1544, the year of the death of an incumbent, (fn. 554) a stipendiary curate was paid by John Hurlston. (fn. 555) John Lambert, rector from 1545, (fn. 556) was found satisfactory in learning in 1551. (fn. 557) Thomas Rock, his successor in 1570, (fn. 558) was not learned in Latin but was considered a sufficient scholar. (fn. 559) Thomas Wilde, who succeeded Rock in 1619, exchanged livings with William Ackson, vicar of Painswick, in 1642 (fn. 560) possibly in resolution of a dispute with him. (fn. 561) Following Ackson's death later that year (fn. 562) Wilde regained the rectory (fn. 563) but it seems that the living was sequestered after a while; during that period Wilde was twice imprisoned and was ejected from Painswick in favour of a Puritan minister. In 1647, following Wilde's death, (fn. 564) a new rector was instituted to Shipton Solers (fn. 565) and in 1650 another minister served the church. (fn. 566) Arthur Charlett, the rector in 1653, (fn. 567) subscribed to the Act of Uniformity in 1662. (fn. 568)

Joseph Walker, rector of Shipton Solers from 1663, was also rector of Shipton Oliffe from 1666. After his death in 1706 the two benefices continued to be held together (fn. 569) and in the mid 18th century, when incumbents or stipendiary clergy from nearby parishes were employed as curates, a morning sermon was delivered in one of the churches and afternoon prayers were said in the other in alternation. (fn. 570) The union of the benefices in 1776 followed the death of William Chapeau, rector from 1756, (fn. 571) and the next two rectors, Chapeau's brother John (d. 1816) (fn. 572) and Lawrence William Eliot (d. 1862), (fn. 573) both nonresident pluralists, continued to leave Shipton to curates. (fn. 574) The curates, usually resident from the late 18th century, (fn. 575) included T. B. Newell (1816–37), who also served Salperton from 1820, and W. P. Mellersh (1837–62), who was incumbent of Compton Abdale and also, from 1840, of Salperton. (fn. 576) Although Shipton Solers church was designated the mother church of the united parishes in 1776, (fn. 577) Shipton Oliffe church, because of its central position in the village, had larger attendances (fn. 578) and regular services ceased at Shipton Solers c. 1830. (fn. 579) In 1851 alternate morning and afternoon services at Shipton Oliffe drew average congregations of 70 and 130 respectively (fn. 580) and occasional morning services in the summer at Shipton Solers an average congregation of 20. (fn. 581) Services ceased completely at Shipton Solers soon afterwards (fn. 582) and were resumed there in 1884 and, after the church had been abandoned once more, in 1930. (fn. 583) In 1998 a service was held at one or other of the two churches several Sundays each month.

The endowment of a lamp in Shipton Oliffe church was put to another use in the mid 1540s. The same or another light there had received an income from a hive of bees. (fn. 584)

Shipton Oliffe church, which had a dedication to ST. OSWALD in 1307, (fn. 585) comprises chancel and nave with south chapel, south porch, and west bellcot. The piers of the chancel arch and the nave north doorway with a plain tympanum date from the 12th century. In the 13th century the chancel was remodelled with plain and trefoil-headed lancets and the chapel and bellcot were added in work of high quality with dogtooth decoration and rich external mouldings. The stone bellcot, an unusual feature of that date, has two chambers and pinnacled buttresses and is an integral part of the design of the church's west front with its central pilaster buttress. (fn. 586) The twin lancets of the chancel east window have an elaborate internal arcade. The chapel south wall includes a piscina. In the 14th century the chancel south-east window was crudely remodelled internally with stepped sedilia and a canopied piscina made within an enlarged embrasure; re-used corbel heads have been placed one on each side of the window. The chapel east window dates from the 14th century. Rectangular mullioned windows in the nave, one within the blocked north doorway, were probably among alterations made in the late 17th century or the 18th century. The two small rectangular windows in the west front, which were described in 1857 as 'most vile' and 'modern', (fn. 587) were replaced as part of an extensive restoration in 1903 and 1904 to designs by H. A. Prothero and G. H. Phillott. (fn. 588) During the restoration a west gallery, erected by the later 18th century, (fn. 589) was removed, new seats were installed, and an arcade of two bays was built between the nave and the chapel. The rebuilding of the porch presumably took place at the same time. (fn. 590)

Inside the church the walls in places bear traces of medieval decoration and of later texts. The plain medieval font has an octagonal bowl. Seventeenth-century panelling at the east end of the chancel is said to have been made from pews formerly at Shipton Solers church. (fn. 591) Panelling throughout the rest of St. Oswald's church is from the pews discarded in 1903. The pulpit, a gift from the rector, E. C. Hanson, in 1937, replaced one which until 1903 had an upper tier. (fn. 592) The chapel contains a wall monument to Mary Peachey (d. 1772) of Shipton Solers and the chancel, where memorials to members of the Oliffe family from the late 17th century had been obliterated by 1870, (fn. 593) has memorial glass to Thomas Handy (d. 1871) of Hampen. The bellcot presumably always housed two bells. In 1904 two new bells, cast by Mears & Stainbank, were acquired at the expense of Mrs. Bingham, presumably the wife of D. G. Bingham, and the old bells, of which one had been cast or recast in the early 17th century, were placed on a window sill inside the church. (fn. 594) In 1925 E. F. Fieldhouse gave an almsdish of 1753 to the church. (fn. 595) The surviving registers for Shipton Oliffe parish begin in 1656 but there are no entries for the period 1711–1743. (fn. 596)

Shipton Solers church, which in 1236 was a chapel dedicated to ST. MARY, (fn. 597) comprises chancel and nave with west bellcot. It stands on sloping ground with the nave floor at a higher level than the chancel floor. The fabric of limestone rubble dates from no later than the 13th century; the chancel south wall has a lancet and a simple piscina. During the 15th century the church was largely remodelled and given Perpendicular windows and a wagon roof, which is panelled at the east end of the nave to form a ceiling. A small wooden bellcot at the west end of the nave was recorded from the early 18th century (fn. 598) and was replaced in stone c. 1818. (fn. 599)

On becoming rector in 1883 Charles Pugh found the church in use as a cattle shed, its windows blocked, and trees growing through its roof. (fn. 600) With the help of his wife Catherine, Pugh repaired the building and reopened it in 1884. (fn. 601) Occasional evening services were held in the summer (fn. 602) but the church once again fell into disrepair (fn. 603) and services were discontinued for many years until 1930 when E. F. Fieldhouse restored and refurnished it in memory of his parents. That work, begun in 1929, was to designs by W. E. Ellery Anderson and included the reconstruction of the roof, the unblocking of the nave north doorway, and the removal from the walls of wash (fn. 604) painted on them in or after 1884. (fn. 605) The chancel south doorway had been blocked evidently in the later 19th century. (fn. 606)

The 15th-century font has a plain octagonal bowl on an octagonal stem. (fn. 607) There are traces of 16th- and 17th-century decoration, including texts, on the nave walls. The pulpit with its sounding board dates from the 17th century; an hour glass fixed near by was recorded in the church in 1870 (fn. 608) and reinstated there in 1930. The altar incorporates a stone slab found under the floor during the 1929–30 restoration and the carved and painted reredos is among the fittings introduced at that time. Nearly all the stained glass in the chancel was made at the restoration by Geoffrey Webb and in one window it displays rebuses for the names Shipton and Fieldhouse. (fn. 609) Older memorials include a brass to the rector Joseph Walker (d. 1706) in the chancel and several stone wall monuments of the late 17th century and the early 18th in the nave. The church has a single bell installed not long before 1885. (fn. 610) A new chalice and paten were acquired in 1758 by the gift of Mary Peachey (fn. 611) and among plate given by E. F. Fieldhouse in 1930 was a chalice apparently dated 1637. (fn. 612) The Shipton Solers registers begin in 1653 but contain no entries for the years 1711–43. In the late 18th century baptisms and burials were recorded at the back of a Shipton Oliffe register (fn. 613) and from 1813 separate registers were not kept for Shipton Solers. (fn. 614)

Nonconformity.

The sole nonconformist recorded in Shipton in 1676 lived in Shipton Oliffe, (fn. 615) where a Baptist refused along with other members of his family to attend the parish church in the mid 1680s. (fn. 616) Baptists registered a house in Shipton Oliffe for worship in 1773 (fn. 617) and James Smith, a Baptist minister from Cheltenham, registered a house in Shipton Solers in 1835. (fn. 618) In 1837 a house in Shipton Oliffe was registered as a nonconformist meeting place (fn. 619) and in 1851 a house in the parish was used by a Particular Baptist meeting attended by up to 30 people. (fn. 620)

In 1865 Wesleyan Methodists of the Cheltenham circuit began holding services in Shipton Oliffe but from 1867 they centred their mission to the area on Andoversford. (fn. 621) A few years later Primitive Methodists established a meeting in Shipton Oliffe and in 1877 they had a brick chapel in the village. (fn. 622) The chapel, which was rebuilt in 1889, (fn. 623) closed after 1990 (fn. 624) and the building was sold in 1997.

Education.

In 1818 the Shiptons had a single Sunday school teaching 25 children (fn. 625) and in 1847 eight children attended a dame school on weekdays. (fn. 626) A schoolmaster living in Shipton Oliffe in 1851 (fn. 627) taught there for a number of years. (fn. 628) In 1863 subscriptions supported a village school providing free education to boys and girls. (fn. 629) The school was held in a cottage until 1869 when it moved to a new schoolroom on the north side of the village street. Known as Shipton Parish school, it was run by the rector and others as a church school and voluntary contributions remained its principal source of income in the late 19th century. The average attendance, including infants, was 43 in 1883 (fn. 630) and 45 in 1904. (fn. 631) Under the will of Mary Handy (d. 1889) £540 was provided as an endowment for the school in or soon after 1915. (fn. 632) After the older children were transferred to Andoversford school in 1930 (fn. 633) the average attendance fell to 21 in 1938. (fn. 634) The younger children were also taught at Andoversford from 1946 and the abandoned schoolroom was acquired with funds supplied by E. F. Fieldhouse for use as a church hall in 1955. The hall was disused in 1973 and was later sold. Mary Handy's charity was used to support the parish Sunday school and other educational ventures in the early 1970s. (fn. 635)

Charities for the Poor.

Giles Dean by will proved 1635 left £5 for a dole among the poor of Shipton Oliffe a week before Christmas. (fn. 636) In 1680, when it was asserted that it was customary for the rector of Shipton Oliffe to hand out two wheat loaves, two cheeses, and a barrel of beer at his house on Christmas day, the principal of the charity was presumably in the hands of members of the Oliffe family, as it was a few years later. In 1704 Ralph Oliffe's widow Elizabeth promised to pay back the £5 to the rector and churchwarden. (fn. 637) Although the charity was recorded in the late 18th century (fn. 638) it had evidently lapsed by the early 19th. (fn. 639) Sarah Anne Fletcher (d. 1863) by will left £333 stock for a coal charity for the poor of Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solers. Under a Scheme of 1972 the charity's income was distributed among the poor of Shipton parish in cash or kind. (fn. 640)