Shirburn is a village and civil parish about south of Thame in Oxfordshire. It contains the Grade I listed, 14th-century Shirburn Castle, along with its surrounding, Grade II listed park, and a parish church, the oldest part of which is from the Norman period. The parish has a high altitude by county standards. Its eastern part is in the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Shirburn, the largest civil parish in the district, is forested to the south. A motorway cuts across one edge.
The building of Shirburn Castle was licensed in 1377. It was owned by the Chamberlain family for many generations.
Shirburn Castle became a centre of [[Recusancy]] throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. The castle was renovated and remodelled in the Georgian era by the Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield who made it his family seat, and altered further in the early 19th century; the property is still owned by the Macclesfield family company, although the present (2020) 9th Earl no longer resides there, having been forced by the family company to leave in 2005.[http://www.ucc.ie/law/restitution/archive/englcases/parker.htm Neutral Citation Number: [2003] EWHC 1846 (Ch)], accessed 18 December 2012.
Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, Whig politician and Lord Chancellor impeached in 1725, who purchased the castle in 1716 and extensively remodelled it, retired to Shirburn and was buried there after his death in London on 28 April 1732,A. A. Hanham, "Parker, Thomas, first earl of Macclesfield (1667–1732)" (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004 Retrieved 23 July 2017. as were succeeding members of his family.
In 1876 the architect T. H. Wyatt restored the building at the expense of the Earl of Macclesfield. In 1943 All Saints' parish was combined with that of St. Mary's, Pyrton. The combined parish is now part of the Benefice of Icknield. The Benefice of Icknield: All Saints Church, Shirburn All Saints' Church became Redundant church in 1995 and now belongs to the Churches Conservation Trust.
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