Shelford is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Rushcliffe Rushcliffe is a local government district with borough status in Nottinghamshire, England. The population of the Local Authority at the 2011 Census was 111,129. Its councilRushcliffe Borough Council borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

. The population of the former civil parish of Shelford and Newton at the 2011 census was 673. It is near Radcliffe on Trent. It has an old manor house (built on the site of

Shelford Priory Shelford Priory is a former Augustinian Monastery located in the village of Shelford, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom. The priory was founded by Ralph Haunselyn around 1160–80 and dissolved in 1536. Little remains of the original priory. Fol ...

), a church and a caravan park and bar. It also has a

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

restaurant, The Earl of Chesterfield Arms. Several small farms operate in the village, engaging in arable and livestock farming, with much of the harvesting being contracted out to outside companies.

Toponymy

Shelford contains the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

word ''scelde'' for shallowness; perhaps also a shallow place, + ''ford'' (Old English), a ford, so "Shallow ford".

History

It was the location of

, a former

Augustinian Augustinian may refer to: *Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine *Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs *Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo * Canons Regular of Sain ...

house. The priory was founded by Ralph Haunselyn around 1160–80 and dissolved in 1536. The village was the scene of a battle in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

when the Royalist garrison of Shelford Manor was taken on 3 November 1645.C. Brown, ''A History of Nottinghamshire'' (1896), pp.77-9 A re-enactment of this battle takes place periodically by the

Sealed Knot The Sealed Knot was a secret Royalist association which plotted for the Restoration of the Monarchy during the English Interregnum. The group was commissioned by King Charles II between November 1653 and February 1654 from his exile in Paris f ...

, a civil war re-enactment society. Held over a weekend, the activities centre upon West and Church Streets, the church and finally the

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

Geography

On the floor of the

Trent Valley The Trent is the third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands. The river is known for dramatic flooding after storms and ...

, Shelford is protected from flooding by flood protection controls. This renders the probability of flooding very low. Even in the floods of 2000, the rising waters did not impinge upon the housing in the village.

Events

Every second year the village hosts a feast weekend, which features a street market, events and other activities, centred on the church and village hall. This event is attended by both villagers and visitors from nearby towns and villages. Over the weekend some houses open their gardens for a small donation to charity.

Transport

The village had a ferry which ran between Shelford and Stoke Bardolph, but this has long since disappeared. The wooden structure tethering the rope for pulling the ferry can still be seen today at the end of Stoke Ferry Lane. The vernacular of the village is red brick and red

pantile A pantile is a type of fired roof tile, normally made from clay. It is S-shaped in profile and is single lap, meaning that the end of the tile laps only the course immediately below. Flat tiles normally lap two courses. A pantile-covered ro ...

, with the "important" buildings under slate.

References