shotover

The toponym may be derived from the Old English {{lang|ang|scēot ofer}}, meaning "steep slope". Shotover was part of the Wychwood royal forestSherwood & Pevsner, 1974, pp. 763–765 from around the period of the Domesday Book until 1660. It was also known as the Forest of Shotover.{{cite encyclopedia |title=Parishes: Shotover |editor-last=Lobel |editor-first=Mary D |editor-link=Mary Lobel |series=Victoria County History |encyclopedia=A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 5, Bullingdon Hundred |year=1957 |publisher= |location=London |isbn= |pages=275–281 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol5/pp275-281}}

A hill figure is recorded as having once been carved on the hill. Antiquarian John Aubrey writes:

:"On Shotover Hill [near Oxford] was heretofore (not long before the Civil Wars, in the memory of man) the effigies of a Giant cut in the earth, as the White Horse by Ashbury Park"{{cite journal |first=O. G. S. |last=Crawford |title=The Giant of Cerne and other Hill-figures |journal=Antiquity |volume=3 |issue=11 |date=September 1929 |pages=277–282|doi=10.1017/S0003598X0000346X |s2cid=163392096 }} Refers to John Aubrey's Monumenta Britannica, unpublished manuscript in the Bodleian, part 2, folio 242b

Shotover was formerly an extra-parochial tract,{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/place/21071|title=History of Shotover in South Oxfordshire|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=25 May 2024}} in 1858 Shotover became a separate civil parish,{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10349813|title=Relationships and changes Shotover CP/ExP through time|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=25 May 2024}} on 25 March 1883 the parish was abolished and merged with Forest Hill.{{cite web|url=https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/districts/headington.html|title=Headington Registration District|publisher=UKBMD|accessdate=25 May 2024}} In 1851 it had a population of 163.{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10349813/cube/TOT_POP|title=Population statistics Shotover CP/ExP through time|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=25 May 2024}}

The road between London and Oxford used to pass over the top of Shotover Hill. The road was made into a turnpike under the 1719 Stokenchurch Turnpike Act.

{{main|Shotover Park}}

Shotover Park and garden were begun in about 1714 for James Tyrrell of Oakley. Tyrell died in 1718 and the house was completed by his son, General James Tyrell. There is no known record of the name of the architect. In 1855 the architect Joshua Sims added two wings in the same style of the original part of the house.

The garden was begun in 1718 and completed in 1730. It is a rare survivor of formal gardens of this period, laid out along an east–west axis {{convert|1200|yd|m}} long. The centrepiece of the garden east of the house is a straight canal, ending with a Gothic Revival folly. The architect of the folly is unknown, but if it was built before 1742 it may be one of the earliest examples of the Gothic Revival. The garden west of the house has a similarly long vista, ending with an octagonal temple designed in the 1730s by William Kent.

During the Second World War there was a prisoner-of-war camp in the grounds.{{citation needed|date=June 2009}}

Major Alexander Alfred Miller and his youngest brother, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Miller (Crown Equerry 1961–87), both lived in Shotover Park.

Shotover Park and the wider estate is privately owned by the Shotover Trust. It lies on the north and east slopes of Shotover hill and should not be confused with Shotover Country Park (see below).

Shotover Country Park is a public park and nature reserve on the southwest slopes of Shotover Hill managed by Oxford City Council.{{cite web |url=https://www.oxford.gov.uk/directory_record/907/shotover_country_park |title=Countryside and nature reserves – Shotover Country Park |publisher=Oxford City Council |access-date=7 September 2020}}

"Shotover Hill" is a track on the album Supergrass by the Oxford indie band of the same name.

{{reflist}}

• {{cite encyclopedia |title=Parishes: Shotover |editor-last=Lobel |editor-first=Mary D |editor-link=Mary Lobel |series=Victoria County History |encyclopedia=A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 5, Bullingdon Hundred |year=1957 |publisher= |location=London |isbn= |pages=275–281 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol5/pp275-281}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Roberts |first1=Edward |year=1963 |title=The Boundary and Woodlands of Shotover Forest circa 1298 |journal=Oxoniensia |volume=XXVIII |pages=68–73 |publisher=Oxford Architectural and Historical Society |url=http://oxoniensia.org/volumes/1963/roberts.pdf}}
• {{cite book |last1=Sherwood |first1=Jennifer |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |authorlink2=Nikolaus Pevsner |series=The Buildings of England |title=Oxfordshire |year=1974 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=Harmondsworth |isbn=0-14-071045-0 |pages=763–765}}

• [http://home.clara.net/shotover/shotover.htm Shotover Hill and Country Park]
• [http://www.shotover-wildlife.org.uk/ Shotover Wildlife]

{{South Oxfordshire}}

Category:Country parks in Oxfordshire

Category:Forests and woodlands of Oxfordshire

Category:Hills of Oxfordshire

Category:Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Oxfordshire

Category:Former civil parishes in Oxfordshire

Category:South Oxfordshire District