Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for SHIRBURN

SHIRBURN, a parish, with a village, in Thame district, Oxford; under the Chilterns, 7 miles SSW of Thame r. station. Post town, Watlington, under Tetsworth. Acres, 2,411. Real property, £2,633. Pop., 292. Houses, 59. The manor, with S. Castle, belongs to the Earl of Macclesfield. The castle succeeded a fortalice which surrendered in 1141 to the Empress Maud, and was the meeting-place in 1321 of the insurgent barons under the Earl of Lancaster; was itself built in 1332 by Sir Warine de Lisle; passed to successively the Beauchamps, the Talbots, the Quatremains, the Forsters, the Chamberlains, and the Gages; was purchased, early in last century, by the first Earl of Macclesfield; forms a hollow quadrangle, with round towers at the corners; is surrounded by a wide moat, and approached by draw-bridges with portcullis defence; shows mainly later English architecture in the exterior, but has been modernized in the interior; and contains an armoury, two valuable libraries, and a few very fine portraits. S. Lodge is the seat of J J. Henley, Esq. S. Hill projects from the Chilterns, and is traversed by Icknield-street. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £112. Patron, the Earl of Macclesfield. The church is ancient.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a parish, with a village"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Shirburn CP/AP       Thame RegD/PLU       Oxfordshire AncC
Place: Shirburn

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