Shipton, Milton and Ascott-under-Wychwood

What to see

Shipton has the most. The Shaven Crown on the High Street, which now trades as the Crown, is a medieval hall house of the late fourteenth or fifteenth century, listed Grade II*, built round a courtyard with a through passage under a tall Tudor arch. The story goes that the monks of Bruern Abbey built it and Elizabeth I gave it to the village as an inn; the listing records only the building. Across the road on the green is a drinking fountain of 1878 with brass plaques remembering the Shipton emigrants to New Zealand lost when the ship Cospatrick burned in 1874. St Mary's on Church Street, listed Grade I, is early thirteenth century, with a chancel G. E. Street rebuilt in 1859. Shipton Court, of about 1603, is private; its old pleasure garden is open to visitors.

The Wychwood Wild Garden is 12.5 acres of lime avenue, ponds, canals and woodland laid out in about 1860 for Shipton Court, planted with 2,000 trees over three decades by the woodsman who owned it from 1977, and bought in July 2010 by a charity the villagers formed, on his condition that it was never developed. A hundred limes, some over 250 years old, lead to the Round Pond, and the water runs over three waterfalls down to the Evenlode. It is open at all times, dogs go on leads, and there are no visitor facilities whatsoever. There is no parking at the main gates opposite Shipton Court: park in Dog Kennel Lane, walk a short way down the rough lane and use the rear gate. The garden's own site warns of thieves and asks visitors to leave nothing on show in the car.

Ascott, 2 miles east, has Holy Trinity, a church of the late twelfth century restored by Street in 1857, listed Grade II*, and on its green seats round a chestnut tree planted in 1973 for the centenary of the Ascott Martyrs. In May 1873, during a strike on Crown Farm for 2 shillings a week more, the farmer hired two men from Ramsden to hoe his beans, and a protest against them led to sixteen local women being sent to Oxford Gaol with hard labour, two of them with babies. Two clergymen sitting as magistrates gave them seven or ten days. The sentences set off a riot in Chipping Norton, the case was raised in the House of Commons, and the order lifting the hard labour reached the prison too late for most of them. The outrage was such that on their release each received £5 raised by public subscription, handed over at a rally in Ascott of some 2,000 to 3,000 people addressed by the union leader Joseph Arch. A hand-stitched textile made in 2018 tells their story in Holy Trinity. Milton, a mile west of Shipton, has Street's church of 1853 to 1854 and a Primitive Methodist chapel of 1834.

A day here

Start at the Wild Garden while it is quiet. Cross to the green for the fountain and the Shaven Crown, walk up Church Street to St Mary's, then west along the valley to Milton for lunch at the Hare, about a mile. In the afternoon drive or walk east to Ascott for the green, the church and the Martyrs' seats, and finish at the Swan. Without a car, the train to Shipton or Ascott makes this a walk between two stations, if the timetable obliges.

Walks

The Oxfordshire Way, the 66-mile long-distance path from Bourton-on-the-Water towards Henley-on-Thames, runs down the Evenlode valley from Bledington towards Charlbury; Shipton and Ascott stations let you walk a stretch one way and ride back, if the timetable obliges. We have not yet drawn a walk of our own here. The nearest we have checked are Kingham station and Bledington, 5 miles up the valley, and Burford and the Windrush valley to the south. The Wychwood Forest Trust revived the Wychwood Forest Fair in 2000, a country fair of rural crafts, community and conservation; the main surviving block of the old forest is private woodland round Cornbury Park near Charlbury.

The Cotswolds Info newsletter

Events, new places and the best of the season, about once a month. Unsubscribe at any time.

Leave this field blank

Your name

Your email address

Yes, send me the Cotswolds Info newsletter

Sign me up

Food and drink

The Hare at Milton, at 3 High Street, was the Quart Pot until it closed in 2010, and reopened as the Hare in 2016; its kitchen makes much of fish from Devon and Cornwall. It opens from 11am to 11pm every day and serves food from Monday to Saturday from noon to 2.30pm and 6pm to 9pm, and on Sunday from noon to 8pm, with a bar menu through the day. It also has rooms, with a two-night minimum at weekends, and at all times in its cottage. The Swan at Ascott is a sixteenth-century pub with eleven en-suite rooms; continental breakfast and parking are included, with self-pay EV charging, check-in is from 3pm and check-out by 11am, and every bedroom takes dogs at £20 a dog. The Shaven Crown at Shipton now trades as the Crown: when we checked, its bar opened from 4pm Wednesday to Sunday, with lunch Thursday to Saturday from noon to 2.30pm, dinner Wednesday to Saturday from 6pm to 8pm and Sunday lunch from noon to 3pm, and it has rooms. Its old web address leads to an unrelated site, so use the Crown's own site or ring 01993 830500. Shipton also has the Lamb, which serves lunch and dinner every day, and the Wychwood Inn by the New Beaconsfield Hall, a pub with rooms.

When to come

May, when the limes are in fresh leaf and the ducks are on the ponds, is the Wild Garden's month, and autumn its second. The garden has no facilities, so go in daylight. There is no Wychwood Forest Fair in 2026; the Wychwood Forest Trust will announce the date of the next one. Expect wet ground by the Evenlode after rain.