shiplake

The earliest known surviving records of the toponym "Shiplake" are from the 13th century. The Book of Fees records Sciplak in 1236 and the Taxatio Ecclesiastica records Schipelak in 1292. It is derived from Old English and means "stream where sheep were washed".{{harvnb|Ekwall|1960|loc=Shiplake}} The other supposed origin is a mix of Saxon (Scip=ship) and Danish (Lack= to want or not to possess) 'lack of ships' and may relate to a Viking practice of sinking boats as a cache. Vikings raided the Thames and attacked Reading in 871. The Viking option was {{Cite book|title=The History of Shiplake|last=Climenson|first=Emily J|year=1894|location=London|pages=2–3}} preferred by Emily J Climenson in her 1894 tome, 'The History of Shiplake'.

File:Shiplake SSPeter&Paul ChurchyardCross.jpg in the parish churchyard]]

The Church of England parish church of Saint Peter and Paul dates from at least the 13th century and is the centre of the Church of England parish of Shiplake. In 1869 the church was restored and enlarged to designs by the Gothic Revival architect GE Street. The chancel, north aisle and parts of the south aisle were rebuilt and the tracery of all its windows were replaced.{{sfn|Sherwood|Pevsner|1974|pp=755–756}} The church is a Grade II* listed building.{{NHLE |num=1059595 |desc=Church of SS Peter and Paul |grade=II |access-date=24 July 2018}} In the churchyard is a Gothic Revival shaft cross. It was erected in 1908 as a monument to a member of the Phillimore family. It is Grade II listed.{{NHLE |num=1059596 |desc=Church of St Peter and St Paul, cross approximately 80 metres north west |grade=II |access-date=24 July 2018}}

The church tower has a ring of eight bells, all recast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 2009.{{cite web |url= http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=Shiplake&Submit=+Go+&DoveID=SHIPLAKE |title=Shiplake SS Peter & Paul |last=Davies |first=Peter |work=Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers |publisher=Central Council of Church Bell Ringers |date=17 June 2010 |access-date=7 August 2013}} Shiplake Church also has a Sanctus bell cast by Gillett & Johnston of Croydon in 1929. The earliest reference to Shiplake’s bells is in an inventory dating from the reign of Edward VI (1547–53): "Item – Three belles in ye steeple".{{Cite web|url=http://www.shiplakedunsdenharpsden.org.uk/shiplake/|title=St Peter and St. Paul's, Shiplake|date=November 2017 }} The church bells were rung for Alfred Lord Tennyson's wedding on 13 June 1850. The ceremony was performed by the Reverend Robert Rawnsley who was Vicar from 1849-62. Tennyson gave the vicar a poem in lieu of payment for the ceremony:

Vicar of that pleasant spot, Where it was my chance to marry, Happy, happy be your lot, In the vicarage by the quarry: You were he that knit the knot.{{Cite book | author=Hagen, June Steffensen| title= Tennyson and His Publishers | date=1979 | publisher= Palgrave Macmillan | location=London | isbn=1349044385 | page=86}}

File:Medieval coin, Quarter noble of Henry VI (FindID 511086).jpg coin of Henry VI, dating from {{circa|1422|1427}}, found in Shiplake{{cite web |url= https://finds.org.uk/database/ajax/webcite/id/511086/type/artefacts |title= Finds record for: SUR-5A61E8 |author=Williams, D |access-date= 24 August 2022 |publisher= The Portable Antiquities Scheme}}]]

In 1773 the Thames Navigation Commission built Shiplake Lock on the River Thames about {{convert|1/2|mi|m}} downriver from the main village. About 1830 Shiplake House was built.{{sfn|Sherwood|Pevsner|1974|p=757}} It is a three-storey early 19th-century Regency house just east of what is now Shiplake College. Part of the rear and side has a decorative wrought iron verandah.{{NHLE |num=1059601 |desc=Shiplake House |grade=II |access-date=1 May 2016}} In 1857 the Great Western Railway opened the Henley branch line between {{rws|Twyford}} and {{rws|Henley-on-Thames}}, crossing the Thames on Shiplake Railway Bridge, about {{convert|300|yd|m}} downstream from Shiplake Lock. The GWR built Shiplake railway station at Lasbrook (later Lower Shiplake), {{convert|1|mi}} northeast of the historic Shiplake village. Lower Shiplake has since grown into the largest settlement within the parish. The original railway bridge was of timber. In 1897 the GWR replaced it with the present iron bridge.

In 1889 the author Jerome K. Jerome featured Shiplake in his novel Three Men in a Boat.{{cite book |last=Jerome |first=Jerome K |author-link=Jerome K. Jerome |year=1889 |title=Three Men in a Boat |chapter=14 |publisher=The Literature Network |url= http://www.online-literature.com/jerome/three-men-in-a-boat/14/}} Most homes in Shiplake were built or rebuilt after the railway arrived. These include Shiplake Court, an historic estate and country house beside the parish church that overlooks the Thames. Shiplake Court was re-built between 1890{{NHLE |num=1059600 |desc=Shiplake College |grade=II |access-date=24 July 2018}} and about 1905.{{sfn|Sherwood|Pevsner|1974|pp=756–757}} In 1959 it became Shiplake College, an independent boarding school.[http://www.shiplake.org.uk/ Shiplake College] Some of the college buildings are Grade II listed, including its "extraordinary"{{sfn|Sherwood|Pevsner|1974|p=757}} water tower.{{NHLE |num=1181367 |desc=Shiplake College, water tower approximately 90 metres north west |grade=II |access-date=24 July 2018}} In 2003 the village of Binfield Heath and the hamlet of Crowsley were separated from Shiplake civil parish to form the new civil parish of Binfield Heath.[http://www.binfieldheath.org.uk/ Binfield Heath, Oxfordshire] Binfield Heath and Crowsley remain part of the Church of England parish of Shiplake, as does Eye and Dunsden to the south.

File:Shiplake PlowdenArms southeast.jpg

Shiplake has two pubs: The Plough (formerly The Plowden Arms) and The Baskerville. The Plough is located on the A4155 at the junction with Plough Lane, and The Baskerville is located in Lower Shiplake, near the railway station.

Shiplake has a village hall,[http://www.shiplakehall.com/ Shiplake Memorial Hall] Women's Institute,{{cite web |url= http://shiplakevillages.com/index.php?pid=150 |title=Shiplake WI |website=Shiplake Villages |publisher=Shiplake Parish Council |access-date=24 July 2018}} amateur dramatic society,{{cite web |url= http://shiplakevillages.com/index.php?pid=188 |title=Shiplake and Dunsden Dramatic Organisation |website=Shiplake Villages |publisher=Shiplake Parish Council |access-date=24 July 2018}} bowls[http://www.bowlsshiplake.com/ Shiplake Village Bowling Club] and lawn tennis club[https://www.shiplaketennisclub.co.uk/ Shiplake Tennis Club] and many other clubs, such as the art and history societies, as well as various fitness groups. Shiplake has a small number of industrial, storage, retail, distribution and office units.

Primary schooling takes place at Shiplake CE Primary School on Memorial Avenue, a Voluntary Aided Church of England school with a school role of 178.{{cite web |url=https://www.shiplakeprimary.org.uk/about-us/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023012618/http://www.shiplakeprimary.org.uk/about-us/ |archive-date=23 October 2017 |title=About Us {{!}} Shiplake CE Primary School}} Older children attend nearby Gillotts School in Henley. Shiplake College is an independent day and boarding school for boys aged 11–18 and girls aged 16–18, located just off the main A4155 Henley on Thames to Reading road by Saints Peter and Paul parish church.{{cite web |url=https://www.shiplake.org.uk/ |title = Shiplake College {{!}} Independent day & boarding school in Oxfordshire}}

Shiplake railway station is on the Henley Branch Line. All trains terminate at {{rws|Twyford}}, where they connect with Great Western Main Line trains to London Paddington and {{rws|Reading}}. Two bus routes serve Shiplake.

• Arriva the Shires route 800 links Shiplake with Reading in one direction and Henley on Thames and High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire in the other. Buses run twice an hour on weekdays, and once an hour on Saturdays and Sundays.{{cite web |url= https://www.arrivabus.co.uk/GetTimetable/?guid=aa1908ca-3eda-4474-a43a-2354ccacb322&id=116872&date=170925-181021 |title=800, 850 |publisher=Arriva the Shires |access-date=24 July 2018}}
• Thames Travel route X38 links Shiplake with Reading in one direction and Henley on Thames, Wallingford and Oxford in the other. Buses run once an hour from Mondays to Saturdays. There is no Sunday service.{{cite web |url= https://assets.goaheadbus.com/media/cms_page_media/2018/6/1/X38-X39-X40%20River%20Rapids%20-%20Timetable%20-%20June%202018-WEB%20(1).pdf |title=river rapids X38 X39 X40 |publisher=Thames Travel |access-date=24 July 2018}}

File:Houses at Shiplake - geograph.org.uk - 947849.jpg

The Wargrave & Shiplake Regatta was founded in 1867 and is held over an August weekend for non-racing shells (also known as Olympic or fine boats).[http://www.wsregatta.co.uk/ Wargrave & Shiplake Regatta] It receives the most entries for skiffing and dongolas racing on the Thames. The regatta attracts a comparable number of entries to the largest shell-racing regattas on the Thames such as Kingston Regatta and Molesey Regatta.

• Barriemore Barlow, former drummer of Jethro Tull, lives in Shiplake.
• Robert Hardy (actor) lived in Harpsden Woods from the 1980s onwards.
• Vince Hill, singer, lived at Lower Shiplake.
• Mary Hopkin (Welsh singer and Beatles contemporary) moved to Shiplake in 1980.
• Henry Constantine Jennings, the antiquarian, was born at Shiplake and on 15 August 1731 was baptised in the parish church.
• Simon Kernick, crime fiction author, lives in Shiplake.
• Barry Lane (Ryder Cup golfer) moved to Station Road in 2003.
• Gary Moore, rock musician, lived in Shiplake.
• Kenneth More (actor) owned Lock End in Shiplake in the 1950s.
• Shane O'Brien, Gold Medalist at the 1984 games in Los Angeles, rowing for New Zealand, lived in Shiplake and was Deputy Headmaster at Shiplake College.
• George Orwell, author of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, lived in Shiplake.
• Ian Paice, drummer of rock band Deep Purple, lives in Shiplake.
• Brian Paterson, creator of Foxwood Tales and Zigby, lives in Shiplake.
• Urs Schwarzenbach, the financier, has one of his houses at Lower Shiplake.
• Alfred Tennyson and Emily Sellwood were married in Saints Peter and Paul parish church.
• Richard Todd (actor) owned Haileywood House (and farm) 1955–67.
• Antony Worrall Thompson, English restaurateur, celebrity chef, television and radio broadcaster lived in Shiplake, and has family connections to the village going back to 1888.{{cite web |url=https://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/celebrity-news/80475/and-he-blames-water-firm-for-floods.html |title = ...and he blames water firm for floods - Henley Standard}}

• The Lords Phillimore (of Shiplake), head of family-owned underlying legal interests of a private housing Kensington network of streets of the same name, is seated at Shiplake. The Phillimore family was granted a UK Peerage in 1918, in addition to the baronetcy created in 1881.
• Vanderbilt family

{{Geographic location

|title = Nearest villages

|Centre = Shiplake

|North = Harpsden (part of)

|Northeast = Remenham

|East = Wargrave

|Southeast = Wargrave (part of)

|South = Charvil

|Southwest = (Sonning) Eye and Dunsden

|West = Binfield Heath

|Northwest = Harpsden

}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Ekwall |first=Eilert |author-link=Eilert Ekwall |orig-year=1936 |year=1960 |title=Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names |edition=4th |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0198691033 |at=Nuffield }}
• {{Cite book |last1=Sherwood |first1=Jennifer |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |author2-link=Nikolaus Pevsner |year=1974 |title=Oxfordshire |series=The Buildings of England |place=Harmondsworth |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0-14-071045-0 |pages=755–757 }}
• {{cite book |last=Thacker |first=Fred S |year=1968 |orig-year=1920 |title=The Thames Highway |volume=II: Locks and Weirs |place=Newton Abbott |publisher=David & Charles |id=SBN 7153-4233-9 |pages=132, 247, 253–258, 265, 277, 288, 327 }}

{{Commons category}}

• [http://shiplakevillages.com/ Shiplake Villages]
• [http://www.saintmichaelsonningcommon.org.uk/ourstandard.asp?pageid=74 St Michael's Roman Catholic Church, Shiplake Bottom]
• [http://www.shiplakedunsdenharpsden.org.uk/ The United Benefice of Shiplake, Dunsden and Harpsden]

{{South Oxfordshire}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Civil parishes in Oxfordshire

Category:Populated places on the River Thames

Category:Villages in Oxfordshire

Category:South Oxfordshire District