Shipton Moyne

Shipton Moyne
Wiltshire
Shipton Moyne Village hall
Location
Grid reference:	ST890895
Location:	51°36’16"N, 2°9’35"W
Data
Postcode:	L
Local Government
Council:	Cotswold
Parliamentary constituency:	The Cotswolds

Shipton Moyne is a village in Wiltshire, sitting amongst the Cotswolds. Its nearest towns are Malmesbury three miles to the south-east and Tetbury, three miles to the north in Gloucestershire.

The population taken at the 2011 census was 265.

History

The name Shipton, first recorded in 1086, is the Old English sceap tun, meaning 'sheep estate' which indicates the early importance of sheep-farming in the parish economy, as across much of the Cotswolds. The affix Moyne, recorded from 1287, was acquired when the manor was owned by the Moyne family.

A Roman road, the Fosse Way forms part of the parish boundary (and further to the north-east it marks the county boundary with Gloucestershire, though Wiltshire spreads to the west of the road around Shipton Moyne).

Sites of interest

The Cat and Custard Pot c.1950

The Cat and Custard Pot (Public House)

In 1661 two parishioners were keeping unlicensed alehouses and in 1755 two victualers were licensed. A beerhouse on the west side of the village street was recorded in the early 19th century and was presumably occupied by the beer-retailers listed in the parish later. Apparently still unnamed in 1891, it was called the Estcourt Arms in 1927 but by 1931 the name had been changed to the Cat and Custard Pot.

The village pub's unusual name is said to originate from the book 'Handley Cross or Mr Jorrocks's Hunt' by Robert Smith Surtees:

"when they reached the meet—the sign of the “Cat and Custard-pot,” on the Muswell Road, they found an immense assemblage"

Parish church

Shipton Moyne Church

The parish church is St John The Baptist. The present church was built in 1864 replaced a church with a record going back to Norman times. Part of the north aisle and the porch were preserved and the Eastcourt Chapel on the south side and part of the nave, the central tower being demolished and the nave extended to form an enlarged chancel. A south aisle was constructed with a new tower at the South West corner forming a belfry and entrance.<erf>Shipton Moyne: Church', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 11: Bisley and Longtree Hundreds (1976), pp. 255–256.

Thomas Henry Wyatt was an eminent architect and had a large practice that included work on many Wiltshire churches owing to his patronage by the Beauforts. His design of St John the Baptist's Church is a good example of a High Victorian design if bearing little relation to its predecessor.

Five bells were recorded in 1680 and a further bell was added in 1865 - a treble weighing five hundred weight. A tenor bell was cast in the mid-fifteenth century in London weighing fourteen hundred weight. Two were cast in Bristol by Roger Purden in 1620, on weighing 6cwt. and the other 7cwt. Two were cast in Gloucester by Abraham Rudhall in 1704, one weighing 8cwt. and the other 10cwt. In 1962, at the expense of Col. St. George of Hillcourt, two bells were re-cast by John Taylor of Loughborough; the 1620 bell weighing 7cwt. and the 1704 bell weighing 5cwt. All were rehung on a strengthened frame and re-dedicated. The total weight of the bells being some two and a half tons.

The organ of St John's was built by Bevington and Sons of Soho, London and restored by Osmond & Co. of Taunton in 1995. It has one manual electrically operated blower.

Nearby

The Fosse Way passes through Shipton Moyne. Its route takes it from Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) in Devon, to Lincoln (Lindum) in Lincolnshire, by way of Bath (Aquae Sulis), Cirencester (Corinium Dobunnorum) and Leicester (Ratae Coritanorum).

HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, lives at Highgrove, to the north of Shipton Moyne, across the border in Gloucestershire.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Shipton Moyne)