Early Records
Extracts from the village scrapbook
"The first reference to
Shilton occurs (in the form *Sculfton) in a charter dated 25
January 1205. That this Shilton is declared by Ekwall (Concise
Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names, 4th edn., Oxford
1960) to be in Berkshire is explained by an eccentricity of
uncertain origin which allocated the church, churchyard and a
portion of the adjoining vicarage to the county of Oxford, the
rest of the village to Berkshire. This may derive from the
charter of 1205; in that transaction King John made over the
church and manor of Shilton together with Great and Little
Farringdon, Great and Little Coxwell, and Inglesham to the
Cistercian house of Beaulieu, Hants., which had been founded six
months earlier. At any rate, Shilton was not restored to Oxford
until the middle of the nineteenth century.
There is no doubt that an
Oxfordshire Shilton named in an earlier charter (1044) does not
refer to the present village; the boundaries cited in the charter
locate it in the valley of the Windrush,
south of Witney between Cogges and Ducklington; there is no
evidence that a village ever existed there although the name
Shilton Ham survives."
More on this from 'The Oxfordshire
Landscape' Frank Emery, Hodder & Stoughton 1974
"Yet some of the river land was used
as watermeadows, part of which belonged to Shilton a village six
miles away from Witney in dry limestone country- another case of
long-distance appropriation of meadow"
But where is Shilton
Ham I can find no reference to it on either current or historic
maps???
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Our Ancient Barn
"The royal grant of 1205 is
probably responsible for the only considerable and identifiable
archaeological remains in Shilton. In their exhaustive monograph on
the barns of the abbey of Beaulieu (The Barns of the Abbey of
Beaulieu at its Granges of Gt. Coxwell & Beaulieu - St.
Leonards (University of California Press, 1965), Horn and Born
declare that of the estimated two to three thousand Cistercian barns
once existing in England, only two certainly remain - those at
Coxwell, Berkshire, which is intact, and Beaulieu-St. Leonards,
Hampshire, which is ruinous, both are former granges of Beaulieu. On
the evidence of an ink sketch-plan in a scrap book in the Avery
Library, Columbia University, Crew York, Horn and Born allow the
possibility that a third example of a Cistercian barn may have
existed substantially intact at Shilton as late as the middle of the
nineteenth century.
That Horn and Born did not attempt to verify
their conjecture is presumably explained by a note at the foot of
the sketch, in the hand of F.S.Waller (1832-1905) whose work it was,
declaring "All now destroyed". In fact the barn existed and was
still used for a barn until very recently (1970)."
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‘Maternity Home’ at Stonelands and a Pub Too
The following is an extract from a short essay on the history of
Stoneland or Sworn Lains prepared by the Asthall History Group,
thanks to Lisa Woollacott, for the copy.
"The House appears to have had an Inn licence
from at least 1753 when it was called ‘The Lamb’ and the licence was
held until 1779 by John Packer, occasionally by Ann Packer. It then
seems to have changed its name to ‘The George’ (1782) and the ‘The
Fox’ (1783-84) when Stephen Pratley was publican. There are no
entries under Asthall from then on but in 1791 Isaac Hanson appears
as the publican of Sheakespear’s Head, Stone Lands and he continued
as publican of the Shakespear until 1795, in 1796 Isaac Thomas is
given as the publican but this may be a clerical error. The inn may
have been rather a rough house – the Packers were committed to
Oxford Castle for murder in 1755, but acquitted when the informed
confessed that he was the guilty part, and Jackson’s Oxford Journal
also records that a burglar had taken refuge there in 1771, and was
apprehended by the Sheriff."
Full Essay
"An Early Maternity
Home at Stonelands"
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