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{{Short description|Hill in the United Kingdom}}
{{About|the hill and forest|other uses|Shotover (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox UK place
 | official_name=         Shotover
 | civil_parish =         [[Forest Hill with Shotover]]
 | country=               England
 | region=                South East England
 |coordinates = {{coord|51|44|58|N|1|10|54|W|type:forest_region:GB|display=title}}
 | os_grid_reference=     
 | post_town=             
 | postcode_area=         
 | postcode_district=     
 | dial_code=
 | constituency_westminster = 
 | shire_district=        [[South Oxfordshire]]
 | shire_county=        [[Oxfordshire]]
 | hide_services=         Yes
 | population =
 | population_ref =
 | area_total_km2=
 |static_image=The Sandpit in Shotover Country Park (geograph 5102831).jpg
 |static_image_caption=The Sandpit in Shotover Country Park
 |website=
}}
'''Shotover''' is a hill and forest in the [[civil parish]] of [[Forest Hill with Shotover]], in the [[South Oxfordshire]] district, in the county of [[Oxfordshire]], England. The hill is {{convert|3|mi|km}} east of [[Oxford]]. Its highest point is {{convert|557|ft|m}} above sea level.

==Early history==
The [[Toponymy|toponym]] may be derived from the [[Old English]] {{lang|ang|scēot ofer}}, meaning "steep slope". Shotover was part of the [[Wychwood]] [[royal forest]]<ref name="pevsner">Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, pp. 763–765</ref> from around the period of the [[Domesday Book]] until 1660. It was also known as the Forest of Shotover.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Parishes: Shotover |editor-last=Lobel |editor-first=Mary D |editor-link=Mary Lobel |series=[[Victoria County History]] |encyclopedia=A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 5, Bullingdon Hundred |year=1957 |publisher= |location=London |isbn= |pages=275–281 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol5/pp275-281}}
</ref>

A [[hill figure]] is recorded as having once been carved on the hill. Antiquarian [[John Aubrey]] writes:
:"On Shotover Hill [near Oxford] was heretofore (not long before the Civil Wars, in the memory of man) the effigies of a Giant cut in the earth, as the White Horse by Ashbury Park"<ref>{{cite journal |first=O. G. S. |last=Crawford |title=The Giant of Cerne and other Hill-figures |journal=Antiquity |volume=3 |issue=11 |date=September 1929 |pages=277–282|doi=10.1017/S0003598X0000346X |s2cid=163392096 }} Refers to John Aubrey's ''Monumenta Britannica'', unpublished manuscript in the Bodleian, part 2, folio 242b</ref>

Shotover was formerly an [[extra-parochial tract]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/place/21071|title=History of Shotover in South Oxfordshire|publisher=[[A Vision of Britain through Time]]|accessdate=25 May 2024}}</ref> in 1858 Shotover became a separate civil parish,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10349813|title=Relationships and changes Shotover CP/ExP through time|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=25 May 2024}}</ref> on 25 March 1883 the parish was abolished and merged with Forest Hill.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/districts/headington.html|title=Headington Registration District|publisher=UKBMD|accessdate=25 May 2024}}</ref> In 1851 it had a population of 163.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10349813/cube/TOT_POP|title=Population statistics Shotover CP/ExP through time|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=25 May 2024}}</ref>

==Shotover Road==
The road between London and Oxford used to pass over the top of Shotover Hill. The road was made into a [[Turnpike trust|turnpike]] under the 1719 [[Stokenchurch Turnpike Act]].

==Shotover Park==
{{main|Shotover Park}}
[[Shotover Park]] and garden were begun in about 1714 for [[James Tyrrell (writer)|James Tyrrell of Oakley]]. Tyrell died in 1718 and the house was completed by his son, [[James Tyrrell (British Army officer)|General James Tyrell]]. There is no known record of the name of the architect. In 1855 the architect [[Joshua Sims (architect)|Joshua Sims]] added two wings in the same style of the original part of the house.<ref name="pevsner" />

The garden was begun in 1718 and completed in 1730. It is a rare survivor of formal gardens of this period, laid out along an east–west axis {{convert|1200|yd|m}} long. The centrepiece of the garden east of the house is a straight canal, ending with a [[Gothic Revival]] [[folly]]. The architect of the folly is unknown, but if it was built before 1742 it may be one of the earliest examples of the Gothic Revival. The garden west of the house has a similarly long vista, ending with an octagonal temple designed in the 1730s by [[William Kent]].<ref name="pevsner" />

During the [[World War II|Second World War]] there was a [[prisoner-of-war camp]] in the grounds.{{citation needed|date=June 2009}}

Major Alexander Alfred Miller and his youngest brother, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir [[John Miller (equerry)|John Miller]] ([[Crown Equerry#List of Crown Equerries|Crown Equerry]] 1961–87), both lived in [[Shotover Park]].

Shotover Park and the wider estate is privately owned by the Shotover Trust. It lies on the north and east slopes of Shotover hill and should not be confused with Shotover Country Park (see below).

== Shotover Country Park ==
'''Shotover Country Park''' is a public park and nature reserve on the southwest slopes of Shotover Hill managed by Oxford City Council.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.oxford.gov.uk/directory_record/907/shotover_country_park |title=Countryside and nature reserves – Shotover Country Park  |publisher=Oxford City Council |access-date=7 September 2020}}</ref>

==References in popular culture==
"Shotover Hill" is a track on the album ''[[Supergrass (album)|Supergrass]]'' by the Oxford indie band of the same name.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources and further reading==
* {{cite encyclopedia |title=Parishes: Shotover |editor-last=Lobel |editor-first=Mary D |editor-link=Mary Lobel |series=[[Victoria County History]] |encyclopedia=A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 5, Bullingdon Hundred |year=1957 |publisher= |location=London |isbn= |pages=275–281 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol5/pp275-281}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Roberts |first1=Edward |year=1963 |title=The Boundary and Woodlands of Shotover Forest ''circa'' 1298 |journal=[[Oxoniensia]] |volume=XXVIII |pages=68–73 |publisher=[[Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society|Oxford Architectural and Historical Society]] |url=http://oxoniensia.org/volumes/1963/roberts.pdf}}
* {{cite book |last1=Sherwood |first1=Jennifer |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |authorlink2=Nikolaus Pevsner |series=[[Pevsner Architectural Guides#Buildings of England|The Buildings of England]] |title=Oxfordshire |year=1974 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |location=Harmondsworth |isbn=0-14-071045-0 |pages=763–765}}

==External links==
* [http://home.clara.net/shotover/shotover.htm Shotover Hill and Country Park]
* [http://www.shotover-wildlife.org.uk/ Shotover Wildlife]

{{South Oxfordshire}}

[[Category:Country parks in Oxfordshire]]
[[Category:Forests and woodlands of Oxfordshire]]
[[Category:Hills of Oxfordshire]]
[[Category:Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Oxfordshire]]
[[Category:Former civil parishes in Oxfordshire]]
[[Category:South Oxfordshire District]]