Shellow Bowells
Village in Essex, England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shellow Bowells is a small hamlet in the civil parish of Willingale, in the Epping Forest District of Essex, England. It is situated 6 miles (10 km) to the west of Chelmsford, between the villages of Willingale to the west and Roxwell to the east.
| Shellow Bowells | |
|---|---|
The converted parish church | |
  Shellow Bowells Location within Essex | |
| Civil parish | |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | ONGAR |
| Postcode district | CM5 |
The name is derived from the Old English Shellow, meaning a bend in the river, referring to the River Roding. The Bowells part of the name comes from the Bueles family who owned the manor in the 13th century.[1]
In Saxon times, Shellow Bowells and neighbouring Willingale appear to have formed part of the extensive Roding estate, which subsequently fragmented into multiple manors and parishes.[2] Shellow had become a separate vill by the time of the Domesday Book of 1086 when it was listed as "Scelda" in the Dunmow hundred.[3]
No priest or church was mentioned in the Domesday Book, but Shellow Bowells came to be a parish. The parish church, dedicated to St Peter and St Paul, was rebuilt in 1754. The parish was small, and in 1798 it became part of a united benefice with the neighbouring parish of Willingale Doe.[4] In 1924 it was decided that Willingale Doe, Shellow Bowells, and Willingale Spain would be combined into a single ecclesiastical parish next time a vacancy arose in one of the two benefices.[5] The merged ecclesiastical parish came into effect in 1928.[6] The former parish church of St Peter and St Paul at Shellow Bowells has been converted into a house.[7]
Although Shellow Bowells had ceased to be a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1928, it continued to exist as a civil parish until 1946, when the civil parish was likewise abolished and merged with Willingale Doe and Willingale Spain to become the civil parish of Willingale.[8] At the 1931 census (the last before the abolition of the civil parish), Shellow Bowells had a population of 95.[9]
Shellow Bowells is mentioned by Bill Bryson in a list of unusual British place-names in Notes From A Small Island.[10] It is also mentioned in Paul Theroux's The Kingdom By The Sea.[citation needed] It is referred to as Shallow Bowells in Part Five of Random Harvest by James Hilton.[11]
