The history of the parish of Shipton-under-Wychwood means that its records have a more unusual history than those of many other Oxfordshire parishes. This is because until 1853 it also covered the village of Milton-under-Wychwood. After Milton became a separate parish in that year (its records may be found at PAR173), it seems that several papers relating to Milton, which had been created by Shipton, were transferred there. It therefore happened that several items were deposited at Oxfordshire Archives by Milton Parish Council, which, although they do indeed
concern Milton, were nonetheless created by and for Shipton. These papers were deposited in 1950, given the Accession Numbers 165 and 168, and catalogued as Mil. It has now been decided to place the papers in their proper home among the Shipton Papers.
Meanwhile, the greater part of the parish records, which had stayed at Shipton, were deposited with the Bodleian Library in 1976 before being transferred to Oxfordshire Archives in 1984. Further deposits were made in 1988, 1989, 1992 1993 and 1997, and given the respective Accession Numbers 2678, 2950, 3378, 3491, 3641 and 4233. In addition, some papers were deposited directly with Oxfordshire Archives in 1976 as Accession Number 1268, and catalogued as Misc. Ship. This collection has now been recatalogued to form parts of the Shipton, Milton and Ramsden parish collections.
At the end of this catalogue, two Appendices provide respectively a list of the contents of each Accession, and a concordance of old and new references. It is hoped that this will explain the
history of each document in the collection. The contents list at the front of the catalogue will assist searchers in finding their way through the catalogue.
Recatalogued by Robin Darwall-Smith in May 1997.