Shipton Court was built for the Lacy family in 1603. It is a grade II* listed Jacobean mansion house. It was bought and remodelled in 1663 by the Reade family, who retained it until 1868. Frederick Pepper, who bought the house in 1900, added both a new residential wing and a service wing to the property. He also commissioned his brother-in-law, Bertram Bulmer, to renovate the property, which resulted in what Nicholas Pevsner described as ‘a drastic gutting of the interior’. Essentially, much of the Jacobean interior was removed and the main house today has a distinctly Victorian or Edwardian feel to it.
‘Wychwood’ is the name given to the three villages spread along the Evenlode valley. The smallest is Ascott, famous as the home of the ‘Ascott Martyrs’ and the largest is Milton. The middle of three Wychwoods, both geographically and in size, is Shipton under Wychwood. Its name refers to the fact that it used to be ‘under’ the boughs of the ancient Royal Forest of Wychwood. Some remnants of the forest remain, around Ascott and nearby Leafield, but for the most part this is open Oxfordshire farmland.
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