Shillington, Bedfordshire
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Shillington 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
in
Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...
, England. In the south of the parish the hamlet of Pegsdon includes the Pegsdon hills nature reserve and is a salient of the county into
Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...
. Since 1985 its administration has included the village of Higham Gobion, south-west on the minor road leading to the main north–south road in the district, the A6. It has a population of 1,831 and is centred midway between stopping services railway stations on the
Midland Main Line The Midland Main Line (MML), sometimes also spelt Midland Mainline, is a major Rail transport in Great Britain, railway line from London to Sheffield in Yorkshire via the East Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras railway ...
and
East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between its northern terminus at and southern terminus at . The key towns and cities of , , , , and are on the line. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Grea ...
away. Farmland and hedgerows forms 95% of the land use and to the south and north of the boundaries is intermittent woodland.


History

On 2 June 1977 the parish was renamed from "Shillington" to "Shillington & Stondon". On 1 April 1985 "Shillington & Stondon" parish was abolished and divided between "Shillington" and Stondon.


Etymology

The village's name evolved through Sethlindone (6th century), Suthlingdon (8th century), Shutlyngdene, Shetelyngton (14th century), and then into an unfortunate ''Shytlington'' in official returns and letters of the 17th and 18th centuries, and ''Shittington'' even until the 1881 census. The name was later bowdlerised.


Early history

Miscellaneous Roman artefacts have been found. Most notably, the Shillington Hoard, consisting of 127 gold ''
aurei The ''aureus'' ( ''aurei'', 'golden') was the main gold coin of ancient Rome from the 1st century BC to the early 4th century AD, when it was replaced by the ''solidus (coin), solidus''. This type of coin was sporadically issued during the Roman ...
'', was discovered in 1998. Shillington is mentioned 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
. The entry is headed: "Sethlindone: verlord St Benedict's of Ramsey. a broken mill, 2 others". It contained 34 households, of which four were slaves, however 27 were villagers or ''
villein A villein is a class of serfdom, serf tied to the land under the feudal system. As part of the contract with the lord of the manor, they were expected to spend some of their time working on the lord's fields in return for land. Villeins existe ...
''s, and five were homes of more independent smallholders. Per year it rendered a large £12, assessed by the Book's compilers to be the same at the conquest twenty years before, had 14 ploughlands and woodland for 100 pigs per year. The chief hamlets were: Lower Stondon in the north-east, Pegsdon on high ground south of the village on the hills which form the Hertfordshire border, Aspley — with Aspley Bury manor — to the south, Little Holwell, to the east, and Woodmer End and Bury End close to the village on the north.


World War II (1939–1945)

In 1940 a
Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
Dornier Do 17 The Dornier Do 17 is a twin-engined light bomber designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Dornier Flugzeugwerke. Large numbers were operated by the ''Luftwaffe'' throughout the Second World War. The Do 17 was designed during ...
was attacked over Great Offley (to the south of Pegsdon), the bomber crashed killing the pilot alongside the road at Pegsdon. On 21 February 1944 Lancaster LL729 (A4 B) belonging to 115 Squadron RAF left its base at RAF Witchford for a raid on
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
, several hours later the plane crashed killing its crew near Pegsdon whilst trying to return to its base.


Manors

;Shillington of Shillington Bury Until the Dissolution of the Monasteries the powerful
Ramsey Abbey Ramsey Abbey was a Order of Saint Benedict, Benedictine abbey in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, Ramsey, Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire), England. It was founded about AD 969 and Dissolution of the Monasteries, dissolved in 1539. The site ...
held this, with its noble arms of three rams heads with golden horns on a blue band, set on a gold (or yellow backdrop), i.e. " or a bend azure". Including much of Pegsbury as well as the hub of the village, at the Dissolution it was valued at £88 2s. 10d per year and formed part of the (royal) honour of
Ampthill Ampthill () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. It lies between Bedford, Bedfordshire, Bedford and Luton. At the 2021 census it had a population of 8,825. Histor ...
, conferred on Princess Elizabeth, remaining in the Royal Family until after James I (or VI of Scotland). Its
mesne lord A mesne lord () was a lord in the feudal system who had vassals who held land from him, but who was himself the vassal of a higher lord. Owing to ''Quia Emptores'', the concept of a mesne lordship technically still exists today: the partitionin ...
s (intermediate landlords) included George Rotherham (21 years), Sir Henry Hobart (99 years) for Anthony Chester (assumed title three years later), Dr. Peter Barwick, Roger Gillingham, John Borrett and finally the 1764 will of John Briscoe bequeathing Shillington Bury to Henry
Earl of Sussex Earl of Sussex is a title that has been created several times in the Peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. The early Earls of Arundel (up to 1243) were often also called Earls of Sussex. The fifth creation came in the Pee ...
for life, remainder to the daughters of the late chivalric Bath King of Arms, Grey Longueville. As such, it settled in 1800 on Grey Arnold and cousin Bridget Frances Anne. Little is known of the mid-19th century except for a sale by a Miss Profit to the father of William Hanscombe, the 1908 lord of the manor. ;Shillington or Apsley Bury (Tudor to Georgian subdivision) This secondary manor was sold in 1760 to Joseph Musgrave, and henceforward it follows the same descent as Aspley Bury manor below. In 1476, when Thomas Lawley first transferred this so-called manor held of the Abbey to Thomas Rotherham
Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers the ...
who left it at his death in 1500 to Thomas Rotherham, son of his brother John. His grandson Thomas and his wife Alice, for their lives were later heirs, then George, their son, who held the manor from 1561 to 1599. Then came his son John, having succeeded him, who appears to have alienated (sold or lost) this manor, as in the case of
Luton Luton () is a town and borough in Bedfordshire, England. The borough had a population of 225,262 at the 2021 census. Luton is on the River Lea, about north-west of London. The town's foundation dates to the sixth century as a Saxon settleme ...
to Sir Robert Napier, who held manorial court here in 1651 and like Luton it remained in this family to the death of Sir John Napier in 1714. In 1748 the manorial court was held by Sir Conyers D'Arcy, and in 1759 by his kinsman, the former Ambassador at Venice (to Italy), and at the Hague (to the Netherlands) Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness. ;Apsley or Apsley Bury Owners in succession from 1504, for this is a later manor, have been only four families: Lane, Eton, Sir John Franklin's and his grandson-in-law's, that of Sir Christopher Musgrave (with subsequent Musgraves until 1908).


Charities

Charity of Edward Pilsworth produced in 1908 a sum of £12 14s "received annually from the Clothworkers Company, London", applied as follows: £10 8s. in money generally among fifty parishioners, £1 to the vicar, 16s. (80% of that amount) for repair of church, and 10s. to the churchwardens who assisted in its administration. In 1796 Samuel Whitbread, esq., by will, left £10 10s a year, charged on the manor of Cardington, for providing clothing for the inmates (occupants) of the four almshouses situated in the churchyard. In 1897 this annuity was redeemed by making a transfer of India stock.


Demography and topography

A local adage is that 'all roads lead away from Shillington' — somewhat true as more efficient routes avoid the village altogether. Shillington is though not demographically, physically agricultural — mostly green- buffered strings of homes and working farms with farmhouses across a broad area. In all 1.69;km2 of its 1.78–km2 is 'greenspace' leaving the remainder largely domestic gardens, roads, buildings and watercourses. The number of residents increased by a net total of 11 (0.5%) in the ten years to 2011.


Localities


Apsley End


Historically Aspley End (see manors above), this small gently sloping hamlet unusually has three moated sites in a line from north to south, all scheduled ancient monuments, two with ponds, one of which was a fishpond. The other, Pirton Grange has a settling pond, moat remains and enclosure. Sixteen houses or farmhouses are listed here for architecture, fifteen at Grade II. ;Pirton Grange At Grade II*, this is the highest listed secular building of the parish and has 15th and 16th century parts, a c. 1690 hall roof and mostly timber-framed construction, however Victorian chimneys and fireplaces.


Facilities

Local amenities include two shops (one in the old Methodist church), and several
public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...
s.


Education

The village is home to Shillington Lower School. It is in the catchment zone for Robert Bloomfield Academy. It is also in the catchment zone for Samuel Whitbread Academy, which has an upper school and sixth form. - Map is on p. 35/35.


All Saints Church

All Saints Church is mostly 14th century, with an 18th-century tower and is grade I listed. The Church is a contender for the most easterly in the triangular chalk belt enclosing most of South-East England all of
East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...
. The building was originally a
Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...
, which grew richer and more influential through the mining and selling of
coprolite A coprolite (also known as a coprolith) is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology. The name ...
, fossilised dinosaur dung, once used as a fuel and also a fertiliser. It is known as "The Cathedral of the Chilterns".


Notes and references

;References ;Notes


External links


Parish council websiteVillage website
which includes a parish magazine
Shillington History Society
village history society {{authority control Villages in Bedfordshire Civil parishes in Bedfordshire Bedfordshire folklore Central Bedfordshire District