Shirburn

Shirburn is a village and civil parish about 6mi south of Thame in Oxfordshire. The parish has a high altitude by county standards and the eastern part of the parish is in the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Shirburn is to the south forested, is at one edge bisected by a motorway and is the largest civil parish in the District.ManorShirburn is a spring line settlement at the foot of the Chiltern escarpment. The Domesday Book of 1086 records that the manor of Shirburn was divided equally between Robert D'Oyly and his brother in arms Roger d'Ivry.The building of Shirburn Castle was licensed in 1377. It was owned by the Chamberlaine family for many generations. Shirburn Castle became a centre of Recusancy throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.Parish churchShirburn had a parish church by the 12th century. Between 1146 and 1163 the church seems to have been given to Dorchester Abbey. The oldest part of the present Church of England parish church of All Saints is the bell tower, which seems to be Norman except for the upper stage, which is 18th-century. In the 13th century the north and south aisles and arcades were added to the nave.