Shipton-under-Wychwood - 14
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Shipton House

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Shipton-under-Wychwood colony
Alas, Shipton House no longer exisits.  It was demolished and jousing estate was built in its place.
 
The House, called St Michael's and built in the early 1880s, was set up originally as a private school, St Michael's College for Young Ladies.  In 1899, it was acquired by the Church of England Society for Waifs and Strays and called Shipton House.  It took in girls from reformatory schools and "rescued (them) from immoral surroundings".  From 1910, the name reverted to St Michael's Home and the residents changed to girls who were orphans or whose families could not manage them, then in 1931 it housed young boys in a similar situation.  By 1933, the home was put up for sale, but stayed empty as no one came forward to buy it.
Names to follow soon.
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This page is in the process of being built, so please bear with us.

We will try and complete it as soon as possible and should you be able to shed any light on names, please e-mail us.
History
 
     However, in January 1939, 30 Basque refugees, all boys, arrived from the Faringdon colony at Eaton Hastings.  They came with an English Matron and a Warden, Walter Leonard, himself a German Jew refugee aged 27 whose real name was Walter Levy.  He was always known as 'Leon' by the boys.  The villagers brought gifts of all kinds to the children and collected money and eggs.  Many 'At Homes' were held to raise funds to pay for their keep and the Wychwood Spanish Aid Committee was set up with local members from Shipton.  However, the vicar of Shipton refused to be on the committee because he judged the children to be 'reds' or communists, and so the church was represented on the committee by the vicar of Milton-under-Wychwood.  In August 1939 the children were moved to another colony at Aston, St. Joseph's.

Information from the script of a talk given by JOHN RAWLINS to the Wychwood Historical Society in January 1999.
A group of Basque boys in front of Shipton House.
A group of boys with several adult interest.

We hope to provide the name of the boys and the adults at some point.
In the grounds of Shipton-under-Wychwood are, left to right; Luis santamaria, Luis Portillo and   ?  .
Afew boys to the left, but on the right are several adults who helped the Basque boys in a variety of ways.

We hope to name them all, soon.
Matron and several chargehands.

We hope to name them all soon.