Shipton-under-Wychwood

Shipton-under-Wychwood is a village and civil parish in the Evenlode valley about 4 mi north of Burford, Oxfordshire. The village is one of three named after the ancient forest of Wychwood. The others are Milton-under-Wychwood immediately to the west of the village and Ascott-under-Wychwood about 1.5 mi to the east. The 2011 Census recorded Shipton-under-Wychwood's parish population as 1,244.

Langley
About 2 mi southeast of the village is the farmhouse of Langley, a largely mid-19th-century building. It is on the site of a royal hunting lodge that was built for Henry VII. Most of the Tudor monarchs stayed there when hunting in Wychwood Forest. The de Langley family were hereditary keepers of Wychwood Forest, Oxon., which office carried with it the tenancy of the manor of Langley in Shipton-under-Wychwood parish. Their heir was Simon Verney (d. 1368) whose brother was William Verney of Byfield, Northants., father of Alice Verney, 1st. wife of John Danvers (d. 1449) of Calthorpe, MP for Oxfordshire 1420, 1421, 1423 and 1435. The de Langley family held the manor of Shipton, Oxfordshire, and Richard Lee in his Gleanings of Oxfordshire of 1574 states that these arms of "Gules, 2 bars or in chief 2 buck's heads cabossed of the 2nd" were then displayed in a stained glass window in St. Mary's parish church at Shipton with a tomb under it. The buck's heads seem to be a reference to the de Langley office of forester of Wychwood.

Lacey
Shipton Court, the estate of the Lacey family, was built in about 1603.

Parish church
The Church of England parish church of St. Mary has a tower built in about 1200–1250, a 15th-century stone pulpit and font and a Tudor wall monument.

The architect Richard Pace designed Saint Mary's Rectory, which was built in 1818.

Economic and social history
William Langland, the conjectured author of Piers Plowman, is known to have been a tenant in Shipton-under-Wychwood where he died.

The village has three historic public houses: the Shaven Crown Hotel, The Red Horse and the Lamb Inn. The Shaven Crown Hotel overlooking the village green was once a guest house run by the monks of Bruern Abbey. It is claimed to have had a licence since 1384 but the present building is mainly 15th century. The Lamb Inn is 16th century and is controlled by Greene King Brewery.

Amenities
Shipton railway station is on the Cotswold Line.

Shipton-under-Wychwood Cricket Club First XI plays in The Home Counties Premier League, and the Second, Third and Fourth XI play in The Oxford Times Cherwell League. The First XI won the National Village Knockout at Lords in 2002 and 2003, and was runner-up in 1997 and 2010. It was also Oxfordshire Team of the Year in 2011 after its trip to Lords, winning the Cherwell League title, and winning both the premier Oxfordshire Twenty 20 Competitions, all within 12 months. The club launched its first Ladies team in 2014, after several successful seasons running girls' sides.

Shipton-under-Wychwood is on the Oxfordshire Way footpath, which can be used to walk north-westwards up the Evenlode Valley to Bruern Abbey and Bledington, or eastwards down the valley to Charlbury.