Early settlement

Iron Age barrows in the neighbouring villages of Sibford Gower and Swalcliffe, as well as the remains of an extensive Romano-British settlement, suggest that the area was inhabited from an early time. Shutford was not mentioned in the Domesday Book but was recorded as a settlement in the twelfth century under the name schiteford. Nearby Madmarston Hill, a late Iron Age hill camp, is the earliest known settlement in the (Banbury) hundred. It was probably occupied from the 2nd century B.C. until the 1st century A.D. when it appears to have been deserted, except for a brief period in the 4th century. The site was extensively excavated in 1957–58.

Shutford also lies close to what is now known as Swalcliffe Lea and was one of the largest Roman occupation sites in the county, covering 50 acres. The site was occupied throughout the Roman period and possibly earlier. The settlement which was quite large in the 1st century A.D. seems to have declined in the second but flourished again in the late third and fourth centuries. From the 14th to the 17th centuries a medieval hamlet called the Lea stood on the site all traces of which have now disappeared. The site was excavated by the Oxford University Archaeological Society in 1958. A villa in the field to the south east of the township site and immediately to the east of Lower Lea farmhouse was excavated in 2000.

The Manor House

The manor house was built in the last quarter of the 16th century and is the main house of the former East Shutford parish. Built by Sir Richard Fiennes, the MP for Banbury, between 1580 and 1600. A distinguishing feature is the tall staircase tower. Although the Fiennes family never lived at the Manor it is said that just before the outbreak of the Civil War the Parliamentarian William Fiennes, Lord Saye and Sele drilled soldiers in the upper storey of the house (then one large room). In 1928 the architect Walter Tapper added a western extension and northwest wing.^[3] The manor house was once owned by the Saye and Sele family, whose seat is now 3 miles (4.8 km) from Shutford at Broughton Castle.

Plush industry

From about 1750 Shutford was part of the Banbury area's plush industry.^[6] Banbury was the centre for dyeing, marketing and distributing, but yarn was sent out to surrounding villages where it was woven.^[7] In 1841 two thirds of all plush weavers in the country lived in the Banbury area and, of these, about a quarter were in Shutford.^[8] By 1850 the industry in the rest of the Banbury area was declining under competition from power loom weavers in Coventry.^[7] However, Shutford remained in the plush trade by concentrating on the skilled manufacture of high quality plush for liveries, upholstery and furnishings.^[7]

By 1910 the only handwoven livery plush manufacturer in the world, Wrench's, based in Shutford supplied plush for the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in 1896, produced decorations at Windsor Castle for Queen Victoria and specially made liveries for royal courts all over Europe and for the embassies of China, Japan, Persia and the United States.^[7] Despite a disastrous fire at the factory in 1913, the industry was revived and enjoyed a degree of prosperity between the wars. After the Second World War, however, with supply, demand and labour problems, the owners decided to reluctantly sell up in 1948.^[8] From the collapse of the plush industry to the 1960s Shutford declined, losing its school, its public house, and for a time having no Vicar. Property and street names such as Weavers Row, Weavers Cottage and The Weavers Shop give an indication of the village's illustrious past.