ACTIVITIES

Publication of The Churchwardens' Accounts for The Church of St Mary The Virgin, Shipton under Wychwood 1554-1696

At the end of the seventeenth century, the churchwardens of Shipton under Wychwood in Oxfordshire took a case in the Bishop’s Court in Oxford against Henry Godfrey of Burford, a lawyer who had land in Milton under Wychwood and who had refused to pay his share of the cost of repairs to the church. The churchwardens won their case but Godfrey appealed and the case went to the court of appeal, the Court of Arches, in London. As part of the evidence, the current Shipton churchwardens’ account book was sent to London and was never returned. It found its way to Lambeth Palace Library and was among the 10,000 documents damaged during the Second World War. It came to notice in 1997 among the last documents to be repaired and has now been transcribed by Joan Howard-Drake and edited by Jack Howard-Drake, longstanding members of the Society. Jack has included a very interesting introduction and analysis to the accounts providing a direct insight into life in the Wychwoods four hundred years ago. The complete text is available on this website in the form of a pdf file - click here.

Photographic Archives

The Society holds a large collection of old photographs of people and places in the three Wychwood villages of Shipton, Ascott and Milton as well as copies of the parish registers from the sixteen century, nineteenth century censuses, poor law records and many old documents and books, all of which are available for local and family historians, both from within the village and worldwide. A programme of digitalising some of these photographs has been started. Click here to read about this or click on images to see the first images put on this site sorted by separate location links.

To see a photograph of available past and present committee members taken during the 25th Anniversary meeting, please click here.

To read Dr Margaret Ware's article on the Society's first 21 years, click here