Ipsden is a large parish in the southern corner of Oxfordshire, not far from Henley, and included the villages and hamlets of Stoke Row, Homer, Berins Hill, Hailey (not to be confused with the Hailey near Witney) and Scots Common. Originally Ipsden was a chapelry of North Stoke (whose records are catalogued as PAR253), but it seems that by the 17th century vicars preferred to live at Ipsden, so that although Ipsden remained in theory a mere chapelry, it was in fact the more important place (see J.H. Baker 'The Ipsden Country', pp.61-64), especially after the vicarage at North Stoke was demolished in 1697. The parish also included the chapelry of Newnham Murren (whose records are now at Berkshire Record Office).
In 1849, Stoke Row became an independent parish (its records, which include some important material on Ipsden, are catalogued as PAR256), and took land away from not only Ipsden, but also
Mongewell (whose records are listed as PAR177) and Newnham Murren.
Newnham Murren was split off from the parish in 1907, and annexed to Crowmarsh Gifford. In 1923 North Stoke and Ipsden were united with Mongewell, although this was not effected until 1927. In 1981 these parishes united with Stoke Row, Checkendon and Woodcote to form the united parish of Langtree.
Most of the parish records of Ipsden were originally deposited at the Bodleian Library in two instalments: the majority of the records in 1975, and PAR146/1/R7/1-2 & 4-5 in 1982. The rest were deposited here as Acc 4474 in March 1999, Acc 4649 in October 1999, Acc 6759 in June 2019 and Acc 7146 in July 2024. An Appendix supplies a concordance of old and new reference numbers.
Catalogued by Robin Darwall-Smith in July 1996, with additions by Mark Priddey in March 1999, Hannah Jones in July 2003, Alison Smith in January 2020 and Katherine Kinrade in July 2024.