Shenington - Social and Economic History

Social and Economic History

On 3 December 1810 a bare-knuckle boxing match was staged at Shenington Hollow, exploiting the parish's inaccessibility from Gloucestershire's Justices of the Peace. The pugilists were British champion Tom Cribb and Virginian former slave Tom Molineaux. Cribb's victory made him World champion.

In 1868 the National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland described Shenington:

"...a parish in the upper division of Tewkesbury hundred, county Oxford, formerly in, Gloucestershire, 6 miles N.W. of Banbury, its post town, and 29 N.W. of Oxford. The village, which is situated on the borders of Warwickshire and Gloucestershire, is wholly agricultural. The surface is hilly, and the land chiefly arable. The soil produces good crops of wheat, barley, and turnips. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Worcester, value £321. The church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was partially rebuilt in the last century. The parochial charities produce about £6 per annum. The Dissenters have a place of worship. There is a free school."

A National School was operating in Shenington by 1868 and a school building for it was completed in 1871. The building was enlarged in 1905 to absorb the children of neighbouring Alkerton, whose own National School was closed that year. By 1962 Shenington school was a Church of England school. At some point it must have been reorganised as a junior school, as it is now a primary school.