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Between Banbury and Shipston-on-Stour, just off the B4035, lie the delightful
Sibford villages, known locally as The Ferris and The Gower, with the tiny
hamlet of Burdrop adjoining the latter.
In the 12th century considerable land at Sibford was given by William Fitz Roger
to the Knights Templars. Todays Temple Close, with its dovecote, and Temple
Mill, bear witness to their Norman connections.
The two local inns are other reminders of the past. Dated 1610, the Bishop
Blaize (patron saint of wool weavers) indicates that Sibford was part of the
flourishing Cotswold sheep-farming area. The Wykham Arms undoubtedly derived its
name from the Wykehams, lords of nearby Swalcliffe Manor.
The spiritual welfare of the Sibfords is cared for by the church, the small
Methodist chapel and the Society of Friends. The church of Holy Trinity,
consecrated in 1840 when the modern parish was created, is unusual in having
neither tower nor steeple.
The first Friends Meeting House, a small thatched building dated 1680, was
erected by an enthusiastic band of puritan dissenters following a visit from
George Fox, the Quaker leader. This was replaced in 1866 by the present, much
larger, building.
In 1839 Joshua Lamb walked to Oxford from Sibford, and resulting from his
meeting with other Quakers there, the Great House in Sibford Ferris, built in
1666 and later known as the Manor, was purchased for 1,200. Three years later
26 boys and 22 girls were admitted as the first boarding scholars. Girls
assisted with household duties and boys worked on the 25 acre farm, from whence
home-grown corn was ground at Temple Mill.
There has been a village school on the present site in the Gower since 1631. The
mid-Victorian building was updated in 1957 when coke stoves, bucket toilets and
high latticed windows gave place to modern amenities. With its panoramic views
to the south, it is thought to be one of the most beautifully situated in the
county.
The Sibford Gower and Burdrop Town Estates Charity was founded in 1560, the
income from the bequeathed land being equally divided between the poor, pious
and charitable purposes and the primary school and school master. Much
benefit is still derived from this charity.
The Lamb family have farmed in the village for over 300 years. Unquestionably
the best-known member of the family was Theodore, born about 1880. The youngest
of a large family he attended the Quaker school and became a skilled watch and
clock mender. There is no known explanation of why he spent his last 40 years
living as a hermit; his home, on Sibford Heath, a shack of galvanised sheets and
iron bedsteads; his transport a tyre-less bicycle; and his raiment mostly
sacking. His sustenance was purchased from the village shop, supplemented from
his own vegetable patch. A meagre income was derived from passers-by, often in
coaches, who stopped to look and wonder, but Theodore never conversed before a
coin had been dropped in his tin mug. Totally honest, completely harmless and
immensely strong, he eventually contracted pneumonia and died, aged 70, in
Banbury hospital, the nurses respecting his request not to cut his long matted
hair he said it would spoil his appearance! Money which he had entrusted to
the vicar was sufficient to pay for his funeral, attended by many paying their
last respects to a long-to-be-remembered Sibford character.
Another local man was Joseph Alcock, recalled as the last of the cottage weavers
attached to the local plush industry. He wove part of the red carpet used in
Westminster Abbey for the coronation of Edward VII.
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