The name Shapwick, meaning a sheep farm, is most recently interpreted as evidence that in the late Saxon period a multiple estate which might have been Roman in origin and which covered a large part of the Polden ridge, was divided into specialised constituent parts.
In 1230 Shapwick church was appropriated to Glastonbury abbey and the rectorial income was assigned to the abbey almoner.
In the later 12th century the Shapwick demesne was subject to change: when it was farmed before the 1170s there were still 4 ploughteams but it supported 400 ewes, 26 pigs, and 7 cows and calves; also in one year before 1171 there were 200 ewes, 32 oxen, and 14 cows.
Shapwick is a typical 'champion' or 'open-field' community, with its houses clustered in a village, surrounded by the village fields.
Shapwick is a slightly peculiar manor within the hundred, as the stewardship of Shapwick is a hereditary possession of the elderly Sir John Norton.
Shapwick traditionally holds a harvest home at Michaelmas, observed with feasting, merriment, and ancient rituals, notably the 'Kern Molly': a straw figure made from the last of the harvest is brought home from the fields with great noise and ceremony and cast on a fire.
Feeds |
Contact