There was a modest Iron Age and Roman-era pastoral settlement east of what is now Old Shifford Farm.[1] It was abandoned around the end of the 1st century AD, but a new settlement was established slightly north of the old one toward the end of the 3rd century.[1] The Oxford Archaeological Unit excavated the sites in 1988–89,[1] after which it was excavated as a gravel pit parallel with Brighthampton Cut. Late Iron Age and Roman artefacts found at the site include ceramic loom weights and parts of pots and plates;[2]Roman coins from the 1st to the 4th centuries, but particularly the late 3rd to late 4th centuries;[3] copper items including brooches, a pin and a bracelet,[4] iron items, particularly nails;[5] lead items including weights, pot rivets and lead shot;[6] and stone items including several quern-stones and a whetstone.[7] Bone fragments found at the site came mostly from cattle (16.4%), sheep and goats (10.7%) and horses (10.7%).[8] Farming at the site seems to have been mostly pastoral; there was little evidence of arable cultivation.[1]
History
The settlement arose by a ford across the Thames, from which it derived its toponym ("sheep ford").[9] It was mentioned in a charter of 1005, when the estate was granted to Eynsham Abbey. A 17th century tradition that Alfred the Great held a council at Shifford arose from a reference to Sifford in the 12th or 13th century poem The Proverbs of Alfred, now thought not to refer to this place.[9] In the 17th century Shifford had between 15 and 23 houses. By 1881 the population had risen to 70 but by 1951, the last year for which separate figures are available, it had fallen to 27.[9][10] It is now a largely deserted village.[11] Until the 19th century Shifford was a township and chapelry in the parish of Bampton.[12][13] It became a separate civil parish in 1866. On 1 April 1954 the parish was united with Aston Bampton to form the parish of Aston Bampton and Shifford,[14] later renamed Aston, Cote, Shifford and Chimney.
Chapel
Base and broken shaft of a 15th-century preaching cross (right) in St Mary's churchyard
A lock on the River Thames was built in 1898 half a mile upstream from Shifford. It is accessible on foot from Chimney, but not directly from Shifford.
References
Late 18th or early 19th century Georgian chest tomb
"Bampton". British History Online. Victoria County History. 1996. pp. 6–8. A History of the County of Oxford, Volume 13: Bampton Hundred (Part One)
"Shifford: Introduction". British History Online. Victoria County History. 1996. pp. 99–102. A History of the County of Oxford, Volume 13: Bampton Hundred (Part One)
