Etymology linked to sheep and wool trade

In the 8th century, the toponym was Scepwaeisctune,^[4] Old English for Sheep-wash-Town. It had a sheep marketplace for many centuries. The name evolved through Scepwestun in the 11th century, Sipestone, Sepwestun and Schipton in the 13th century and Sepestonon-Sture in the 14th century.^[4]

Church (vestry) administration, township and parish formation

It was a township in the parish of Tredington until 1720: when they were separated by a Local Act of the 6th year of George I.^[5] The town proved prosperous and generous to its church community: the Church of England parish church of Saint Edmund has a 15th-century tower.^[6] The Gothic Revival architect G.E. Street designed the rebuilding of the rest of the church in 1855.^[6] The tower had a ring of five bells until 1695 when they were recast and rehung as a ring of six.^[7] Since then all the bells have been recast and rehung from time to time, notably in 1754 and by John Taylor & Co. in 1979.^[7]

A staging post for stagecoaches and regional market

The George Hotel, a Georgian former coaching inn on High Street

Shipston is on the A3400 (formerly part of the A34) between Stratford-upon-Avon and Oxford; it was from the 1600s to 1800s a staging place for stagecoaches. There are former coaching inns, such as the Coach and Horses,^[8] in the High Street, which has many listed buildings.

From 1836, agricultural produce and manufactured goods were brought by a branch line from the horse-drawn Stratford and Moreton Tramway, which had been built ten years before to link Moreton-in-Marsh with Stratford on Avon.^[5] In 1889 the Great Western Railway upgraded the line to allow the operation of steam trains from Moreton to Shipston. Passenger services to the town's railway station were withdrawn in 1929 and goods services ceased in 1960.^[9]

Shipston Bridge, over the River Stour

St Edmunds Church, Shipston

Early Victorian times

The town's first library and reading room were founded in 1837.^[5] Manufacture of shag fabric for deep-pile carpets was for some decades an important business, but by 1848 the town had little manufacture or commerce even though it had more than 1800 residents.^[5] Worcester Cathedral owned the manorial rights for centuries, and even in the 1840s held a court annually, at which a town constable was appointed.^[5] Powers of the short-lived county debt court, established in 1847, extended over Shipston's civil registration district (established 1837). In that era the market was on Saturday and fairs in April, June, August and October. The rectory had Tidmington annexed and received net income of £700. The patrons were Worcester Cathedral and Jesus College, Oxford, the former presenting (appointing the priest) to every third vacancy. The church had extra seats, a gallery, erected in 1790.^[5] Baptists, the Society of Friends, and Wesleyans each had a place of worship; and at Foxcote, in the parish, was a Roman Catholic chapel.^[5] A National school was endowed with about £130 per annum; and "various small bequests" were distributed among the poor.^[5]

Poor law union and rural district

Shipston poor law union (c.1830–1894) administered those functions in 37 parishes or places: 20 in Warwickshire, 13 in Gloucestershire, and 4 in Worcestershire; across in the 1840s a population of 19,685 people.^[5]

From 1894, until 1974, the offices and Council meetings of Shipston-on-Stour Rural District were in Shipston.

County exclave

Shipston was in an exclave of Worcestershire (as part of Oswaldslow hundred) until 1931, when it was transferred to Warwickshire.^[10]

Public services

The two schools serving the town are Shipston Primary School, and Shipston High School. The town also has a library, operated by the county council.^[18]

There is a small NHS community hospital serving the town; the Ellen Badger Hospital.

The Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service operate a retained fire station in Shipston-on-Stour.^[19]