… from the Wychwoods Albums Archive
The Red Horse Inn, Shipton, about1900. The name of Annie Longshaw can be seen above the door. In 1936 she was acclaimed as England’s oldest licensee at the age of 98.
Murray’s Handbook of Oxfordshire, 1903, writes ‘In the courtyard of the Red Horse … was formerly a medicinal fountain of much repute.’ Mrs Phyllis Smith remembers her mother telling her of fetching water from the Vamp (or Fant) Well to dress the wound on her grandmother’s leg in the 1890s.
This quiet scene belies the presence behind the houses of Shipton gas works which operated from 1868 until 1951. Tom Barrett of Milton worked there for the United and District Gas Co. from 1936-39 and 1946-50 as district fitter, stand-by stoker, meter collector and general maintenance worker. In his time the gasometer did not rise above the roof level until early afternoon. Children with chest complaints were taken to stand in the retort house or by the fumes from the tar-well. The site is now Bowerham Wardened Flats for the Elderly.
The fountain on the right was erected in 1877 to the memory of seventeen members of the Hedges and Townsend families who emigrated to New Zealand in 1874. They sailed on the S.S. Cospatrick but never reached their destination as the wooden ship with an inflammable cargo caught fire and sank. Over 200 people emigrated from Milton in the 1870s.
What is now the green was allotments when this photograph was taken. The land was bought by Colonel O. Stedall and given to the village in 1968.
Known locally as Hawcutt’s Mill, this is probably the site of one of Shipton’s six mills listed in the Domesday Book. The stream that supplied the power is the parish boundary up to the site of the mill and its pond. There the boundary detours round the whole property, keeping it in Shipton parish, before it continues down the stream to the river Evenlode. The mill and adjoining cottage on the right were burnt down in the 1930s and subsequently demolished. Prew’s garage now occupies the site.
Wychwoods Album Menu
This is one of series of snapshots taken from the Society’s publications “The Wychwoods Albums”. These publications from the mid to late 1980s feature a variety of images of the Wychwoods, all of which deserve a place in our expanding online archive.
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The Shaven Crown | Shipton Village Panorama | Shipton Post Office 1908/10 | Shipton Views Early 1900s | Aspects of Milton 1900s-1930s| Milton & Shipton Churches | Early 20th Century School Life | Shipton Court in 1895-1910 | Road and Rail | Matthews Mill, Shipton | Alfred Groves – a Historic Family Business | Vintage Transport and Deliveries | Agriculture and Manufacturing | Some Local Wychwoods Characters| Wychwoods Group Activities| Wychwoods Album Home
