The Sandpit in Shotover Country Park (geograph 5102831)

Shotover is a hill and forest in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

, England. The hill is east of Oxford. Its highest point is above sea level.

Early history

The toponym may be derived from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

, 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. A hill figure is recorded as having once been carved on the hill. Antiquarian John Aubrey writes: :"On Shotover Hill

ear Oxford An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists ...

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"

Shotover Road

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 Stokenchurch is a village and civil parish in south-west Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, about south of Chinnor in Oxfordshire and west of High Wycombe. Stokenchurch is a commuter village, served by junction 5 ...

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 long. The centrepiece of the garden east of the house is a straight canal, ending with a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

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. Major Alexander Alfred Miller and his youngest brother, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Miller (

Crown Equerry The Crown Equerry is the operational head of the Royal Mews of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. He is responsible for the provision of vehicular transport for the Sovereign, both cars and horse-drawn carriages. Train tr ...

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

Shotover Country Park is a public park and nature reserve on the southwest slopes of Shotover Hill managed by Oxford City Council.

References in popular culture

"Shotover Hill" is a track on the album ''

Supergrass Supergrass are an English rock band formed in 1993 in Oxford. For the majority of the band's tenure, the line-up consisted of brothers Gaz (lead vocals, guitar) and Rob Coombes (keyboards), Mick Quinn (bass, backing vocals) and Danny Goffey ( ...

'' by the Oxford indie band of the same name.

References

Sources and further reading

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External links

Shotover Hill and Country Park

Shotover Wildlife
{{coord, 51, 44, 58, N, 1, 10, 54, W, type:forest_region:GB, display=title Country parks in Oxfordshire Forests and woodlands of Oxfordshire Hills of Oxfordshire Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Oxfordshire