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Meeting Dates for 2025 – These could be subject to change

Welcome to Shipton-on-Cherwell & Thrupp Parish Council Website.

Shipton-on-Cherwell and Thrupp are adjoining hamlets on the Oxford Canal and River Cherwell, a mile-and-a-half north of Kidlington and eight miles from Oxford. We are a small but very lively community and the wider world comes to see us, as one of the most interesting and beautiful places on the canal.

There are 41 households in Thrupp, 35 in houses and six on narrowboats, while Shipton has 70 households, four on boats and the others on land. The parish also includes the two smaller settlements of Upper Campsfield, 12 houses on the fringe of London Oxford airport, and Shipton Slade, a handsome farmhouse and seven cottages islanded within the large and flourishing Perdiswell Farm.

Thrupp is a compact place formed of a terrace of picturesque cottages by the waterway, the former British Waterways canal yard and homes converted from farm buildings, a chapel and a pub. Two pubs continue to thrive along with Annie’s Tearoom in the canal yard. The old Manor Farm and Coach House and one canal side cottage are used for holiday lets.

Shipton is a hamlet divided by a huge quarry whose workers’ houses were built on Jerome Way to the south and Bunker’s Hill to the north. It has the parish church of Holy Cross, picturesquely sited by the canal, a well-equipped Millennium village hall and a 17th century manor house, once the home of Sir Richard Branson whose recording studio there made such hits as Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells.

The 24 original houses in Bunkers Hill, lying to the north of Shipton-on-Cherwell were built in 1927/8 for the workers at the cement works – . They face the former quarry on the A4095 and with the exception of the manager’s houses which are detached, they are semi-detached or terraced houses.  Some archive photos of the original houses can be viewed here.  Between 2019 and 2021, ten new houses have been built to the rear of the original houses (1-10 Field View Lane) and all are now occupied, creating a larger community.

Local people are a good mixture of homeworkers, commuters and the retired with plenty of children about. A small number of businesses along the Banbury Road and Straight Mile include a high quality metal works, car dealership and vehicle storage, auction rooms, home removals/storage and sports provision. North Kidlington Co-Op is a ten minute walk and we are well-served by buses.

The parish is rich in plants and wildlife with five orchid species, 30 types of butterfly, plentiful deer and many birds including red kites, herons and kingfishers. Thrupp was the scene of a major ‘twitchers’ alert when a rare Scops Owl set up home here. Its forlorn mating hoot was initially mistaken for a fault in the power supply – one of the more unusual callouts experienced by the local electricity company. Part of the quarry is a geological site of special scientific interest, with a rich Jurassic fossil record, especially of crocodiles. Unusually, the parish retains its ancient Poors’ Allotment, four acres of scrubby wood used historically for kindling and now run by local people on The Weaveley Furze Trust for coppicing beanpoles and pea sticks and as a wildlife haven.

We are lucky to live here but nowhere is without problems and challenges. For us, these include a lack of affordable homes, proposed expansion of both the quarry and the airport and traffic/parking in Thrupp. We approach them as a united community, with all views aired and acknowledged by the parish council and within thriving associations such as the Thrupp Canal and Cruising Club, which runs the moorings and boaters’ facilities, the Thrupp Allotment Group and the Friends of Holy Cross. Not to mention the prospect of an annual village pantomime which we hope to get off the ground this Christmas.

Parish Overview by Martin Wainwright