Shelley is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include L ...

, England. Located on the west bank of the

River Brett The River Brett is a river in Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ips ...

around three miles south of Hadleigh, it is part of

Babergh Babergh may refer to the following places in England: * Babergh Hundred, a defunct hundred of the county of Suffolk, named for a "mound of a man called Babba" * Babergh District Babergh District (pronounced , ) is a local government district in ...

district. The population of the village was only minimal at the 2011 Census and is included in the civil parish of Higham. Most of the parish is within the Dedham Vale

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of th ...

. Other points of interest are Shelley Hall, a listed building with a protected moat, once owned by the Partridge family, and Snakes Wood, which is classified as

Ancient Woodland In the United Kingdom, an ancient woodland is a woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or 1750 in Scotland). Planting of woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 16 ...

and serves as a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

. The village is first recorded before the

Norman conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conq ...

in the S1051 charter of 1000AD in the will of Ælfflæd. 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 manusc ...

of 1086 records the population of Shelley in 1086 to be 42 households along with 8 cattle, 32 pigs, 200 sheep, 3 other animals, 28 acres of meadow, 1,000 woodland pigs, two mills. Barker writes that there is an unusually long hedge in Shelley made up of coppiced

lime trees ''Tilia'' is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. In Britain and Ireland they ...

. He writes that this follows the boundaries of remnants of nineteenth-century clearances of some of the ancient forest. Hedges of this sort are known as assart hedges. Elizabeth Gosnold Tilney, sister of Jamestown colonist and explorer Bartholomew Gosnold, is buried at All Saints' Church, Shelley. An attempt was made to use DNA from her supposed remains to confirm the identity of the body of her brother in Jamestown, but it was inconclusive as it could not be confirmed which body was hers.Bone test may solve 'US founder' mystery , UK news , The Guardian
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References

External links

Villages in Suffolk Babergh District Civil parishes in Suffolk {{suffolk-geo-stub