Swalcliffe

Swalcliffe Barn

New College, Oxford, had the barn built in about 1401 to hold the produce of its estate here: ten bays of ironstone under a medieval timber roof of upper cruck trusses. Inside are the county's collection of farm and trade vehicles and an exhibition on the village's history. It opens free on Sundays and bank holidays from 2pm to 5pm in summer. The county council's page gives the season as 3 May to 27 September without a year, so check the 2027 dates. Our page on Swalcliffe Barn has the detail.

St Peter and St Paul's church

The church is large for the village, and the county history reads most of its growth from the twelfth to the mid-fourteenth century. The three western arches of the north arcade are mid-twelfth century, the south arcade early thirteenth, and the tower was heightened in the fifteenth. On the east gable of the nave, look for a fourteenth-century pinnacled niche that once held the sanctus bell. Inside, the chancel screen may date from 1483, traces of medieval wall painting remain in the aisles, and the north aisle holds the monuments of the Wykeham family, with brasses to Humphrey and Martha Wykeham, who died in 1650 and 1661. The six bells were cast in 1685 by Henry and Matthew Bagley of Chacombe. We found no published opening hours.

The Manor House and Swalcliffe Park

Next to the church, the Manor House is a rectorial manor house of ironstone, listed Grade I, now a private home. Its screens passage keeps two thirteenth-century pointed doorways, and the undercroft of its solar has four bays of vaulting. You see it from the lane only. Across the main road, Swalcliffe Park, the Wykehams' house, was probably rebuilt by William Humphrey Wykeham between 1765 and 1767. It is private too.

A Sunday afternoon in Swalcliffe

Park at the barn when it opens at 2pm, give it an hour, then walk up to the church. Broughton Castle, under 3 miles back towards Banbury, also opens on summer Sunday afternoons, so you can do both if you start at one promptly.

Walks and the hillfort

We found no council or parish leaflet for a walk from Swalcliffe. The Sibfords, a mile and a half west, publish their own village trail. North-east of the village is Madmarston camp, an Iron Age enclosure that the county history says was probably occupied from the second century BC to the first century AD. A Romano-British settlement lay at Swalcliffe Lea. Neither has visitor access that we could confirm, so plan any walk on the rights of way with an OS map.

Food and drink

The Stag's Head on the green is a seventeenth-century thatched pub, listed Grade II. It was trading in spring 2026, when the village newsletter advertised a quiz night there on 9 March. We found no website of its own, and CAMRA's entry, updated in February 2026, rests on a 2017 survey, so ring 01295 788660 before you go. The barn lists no refreshments. The Bell at Shenington is the nearest pub we have checked.

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When to come

A Sunday or bank holiday afternoon between early May and late September, when the barn is open. Outside that season the church and the street are still worth a short stop on the way to the Sibfords, but the barn stays shut.