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
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
, England. It is on the western edge of the Mendip Hills near the A38, approximately south of
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
. It is in the
local government district
The districts of England (also known as local authority districts or local government districts to distinguish from unofficial city districts) are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the st ...
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
of Star. The parish population, according to the 2011 census, is 1,087.
History
Shipham was listed in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
of 1086 as ''Sipeham'', meaning 'The sheep home' from 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 ...
''scip'' and ''ham''. The
tenant-in-chief
In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opp ...
is shown as being Roger de Courcelles.
The parish was part of the
Winterstoke
The Hundred of Winterstoke is one of the 40 historical Hundreds in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England, dating from before the Norman conquest during the Anglo-Saxon era although exact dates are unknown. Each hundred had a 'fyrd', which ...
Hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.
In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...
.
Governance
Shipham parish council, which was established in 1894, has responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept (local rate) to cover the council's operating costs and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The parish council evaluates local planning applications and works with the local police, district council officers, and
neighbourhood watch
Neighbourhood Watch in the United Kingdom is the largest voluntary crime prevention movement covering England and Wales with upwards of 2.3 million household members. The charity brings neighbors together to create strong, friendly and active comm ...
groups on matters of crime, security, and traffic. The parish council's role also includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning. Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also the responsibility of the council. In 2008, Shipham Parish Council won the communications category of the Calor Somerset Village of the Year competition.
The village falls within the
Non-metropolitan district
Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially "shire districts", are a type of Districts of England, local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties (colloquially ''shi ...
Axbridge Rural District
Axbridge was a rural district in Somerset, England, from 1894 to 1974. It was named after the town of Axbridge.
It was created in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894 as a successor to the Axbridge rural sanitary district.
In 1974 it was a ...
building control
Building automation (BAS), also known as building management system (BMS) or building energy management system (BEMS), is the automatic centralized control of a building's HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), electrical, lighting, ...
environmental health
Environmental health is the branch of public health concerned with all aspects of the natural and built environment affecting human health. In order to effectively control factors that may affect health, the requirements that must be met in ...
,
market
Market is a term used to describe concepts such as:
*Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand
*Market economy
*Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market
Geography
*Märket, an ...
recycling
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...
tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...
. The village is part of the Cheddar & Shipham Ward, which elects three councillors to Sedgemoor District Council.
Somerset County Council is responsible for running the largest and most expensive local services such as
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
libraries
A library is a collection of Document, materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or electronic media, digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a ...
, main roads,
public transport
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typi ...
fire service
A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...
s,
trading standards
Trading Standards are the local authority departments with the United Kingdom, formerly known as ''Weights and Measures'', that enforce consumer protection legislation.
Sometimes, the Trading Standards enforcement functions of a local authority a ...
,
waste disposal
Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal.
This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitorin ...
and strategic planning.
It is also part of the Wells
county constituency
In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons.
Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called " constitue ...
represented in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
. It elects one
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) by the
first past the post
In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...
system of election.
Geography
Shipham Hill is one of the highest points in the Mendips at . The village has a panorama over
Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmix ...
and the Bristol Channel which is mentioned in ''The Secret Places of the Heart'' by
Limestone Link
The Limestone Link is a long-distance footpath in England, from the Mendip Hills in Somerset to Cold Ashton in Gloucestershire. It is marked by an ammonite waymarker.
The Mendip section starts between Churchill and Rowberrow, near Dolebury ...
Path runs from Shipham to
Cold Ashton
Cold Ashton is a village in South Gloucestershire, England. It is located north of Bath, near the junction between the A46 and A420 roads. The village church has a 14th-century tower and the rest of the church was rebuilt in the 16th century ...
in
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
.
Mining
The substrata contain rich mineral deposits and so there were
zinc
Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
and
lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
mines in the area. The Singing River Mine was worked in the 18th and 19th centuries for
calamine
Calamine, also known as calamine lotion, is a medication used to treat mild itchiness. This includes from sunburn, insect bites, poison ivy, poison oak, and other mild skin conditions. It may also help dry out skin irritation. It is applie ...
(zinc carbonate), blende (zinc sulphide) and galena (lead sulphide).
In the 1920s it was used as an underground
reservoir
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
by the water authorities. A small stream flows through the mine in parts. The entrance is actually in the back garden of a private house but access is allowed for potholers. The 5-metre high 19th-century calamine processor is a Grade II
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
The present landscape shows the piecemeal nature of the mining. Although the lead industry began to decline in the late 17th century, it revived in the mid 19th century when tips were re-worked. Its mining history has given rise to street names such as Hind Pits Lane, Hollow Road, and Comrade Avenue. The old mines have also meant that the soil is heavily contaminated by heavy metals such as
cadmium
Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it demonstrates oxidation state +2 in most of ...
. This was investigated in 1979. Concentrations of cadmium, lead and zinc in local crops were higher than would normally be expected.
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
concentrations were normal, and the results for mercury showed that mercury translocation from soil to crops was very low. Dietary copper intakes at Shipham were a little lower than national average intakes. Four participants in the duplicate diet study, or 6% of the study population, had cadmium intakes higher than 0.4 mg per week.
There is some evidence of field cultivation by the miners during the
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
period.
Religious sites
The Anglican parish church of St Leonard was built in 1843 by
James Wilson James Wilson may refer to:
Politicians and government officials
Canada
*James Wilson (Upper Canada politician) (1770–1847), English-born farmer and political figure in Upper Canada
* James Crocket Wilson (1841–1899), Canadian MP from Quebe ...
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. Stained glass in the north window of the nave commemorates
Hannah More
Hannah More (2 February 1745 – 7 September 1833) was an English religious writer, philanthropist, poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, who wrote on moral and religious subjects. Born in Bristol, she taught at a ...
, who as part of her work to 'civilise' the people of
Cheddar
Cheddar most often refers to either:
*Cheddar cheese
*Cheddar, Somerset, the village after which Cheddar cheese is named
Cheddar may also refer to:
Places
* Cheddar, Ontario, Canada
* Cheddar Yeo, a river which flows through Cheddar Gorge and t ...
tomb
A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...
to Amelia Day in the churchyard, south of the nave, is also a listed building.
Stock car racing
Near Shipham for over 40 years has flourished the ¼-mile tarmac race track of Mendips Raceway, high on the Mendips. The venue is in the bowl of an old abandoned reservoir, and features the British sport of
stock-car racing
Stock car racing is a form of Auto racing, automobile racing run on oval track racing, oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specif ...
.
The race track is perched on the edge of
Batts Combe quarry
Batts Combe quarry, is a limestone quarry on the edge of Cheddar village on the Mendip Hills, Somerset, England.
It has been operating since the early 20th century and is currently owned and operated by Singleton Birch Ltd. The output in 2005 ...
with views from the edge, across
Cheddar
Cheddar most often refers to either:
*Cheddar cheese
*Cheddar, Somerset, the village after which Cheddar cheese is named
Cheddar may also refer to:
Places
* Cheddar, Ontario, Canada
* Cheddar Yeo, a river which flows through Cheddar Gorge and t ...
, the Cheddar Valley towards
Glastonbury Tor
Glastonbury Tor is a hill near Glastonbury in the English county of Somerset, topped by the roofless St Michael's Tower, a Grade I listed building. The entire site is managed by the National Trust and has been designated a scheduled monument. T ...