Shippon is a small village just outside Abingdon, and is mentioned in the Domesday Book,
when it was known as Sipene (Old English scipene, meaning animal stable, cowshed or sheep pen).
A battle supposedly took place here between the Saxons and the Danes in the 9th century,
when the Viking host marched north from Reading in AD 781 and burnt Abingdon and its abbey
to the ground. The 16th century travel writer John Leland reported seeing parts of the
battle trenches remaining. Nothing remains nowadays, though.