It is on the north bank of the River Thames about 6 miles (10 km) south of Witney.

There was a modest Iron Age and Roman-era pastoral settlement east of what is now Old Shifford Farm.

Late Iron Age and Roman artefacts found at the site include ceramic loom weights and parts of pots and plates;[2] Roman coins from the 1st to the 4th centuries, but particularly the late 3rd to late 4th centuries;[3] copper items including brooches, a pin and a bracelet,[4] iron items, particularly nails;[5] lead items including weights, pot rivets and lead shot;[6] and stone items including several quern-stones and a whetstone.

[7] Bone fragments found at the site came mostly from cattle (16.4%), sheep and goats (10.7%) and horses (10.7%).

Shifford was never an ecclesiastical parish but in medieval times it was a dependent chapelry of Bampton.