{{Short description|Village in Essex, England}} {{Infobox UK place | official_name= Shellow Bowells | civil_parish = Willingale | country= England | region= East of England |coordinates = {{coord|51.746|0.332|display=inline,title}} | post_town= ONGAR | postcode_area= CM | postcode_district= CM5 | dial_code= | shire_district= Epping Forest | shire_county= Essex | hide_services= Yes | population = | population_ref = |static_image_name=Church conversion, Shellow Bowells, Essex - geograph.org.uk - 138116.jpg |static_image_caption=The converted parish church }} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2015}} {{Use British English|date=June 2015}} '''Shellow Bowells''' is a small hamlet in the civil parish of Willingale, in the Epping Forest District of Essex, England. It is situated {{convert|6|mi|km|0}} to the west of Chelmsford, between the villages of Willingale to the west and Roxwell to the east.
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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Shellow Bowells |url=http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Essex/Shellow%20Bowells |website=Key to English Place-Names |publisher=University of Nottingham |access-date=4 November 2025}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rippon |first1=Stephen |title=Territoriality and the Early Medieval Landscape: The Countryside of the East Saxon Kingdom |date=2022 |publisher=Boydell Press |isbn=9781783276806 |page=181 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Territoriality_and_the_Early_Medieval_La/jj52EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA181&printsec=frontcover |access-date=1 November 2025}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Powell-Smith |first1=Anna |title=Shellow [Bowells] |url=https://opendomesday.org/place/TL6007/shellow-bowells/ |website=Open Domesday |access-date=4 November 2025}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite book |title=Kelly's Directory of Essex |date=1914 |page=510 |url=https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/61100/rec/2 |access-date=24 November 2025}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32694|page=6040|date=12 August 1924}}</ref> The merged ecclesiastical parish came into effect in 1928.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Youngs |first1=Frederic |title=Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England: Volume I, Southern England |date=1979 |publisher=Royal Historical Society |location=London |isbn=0901050679 |page=150}}</ref> The former parish church of St Peter and St Paul at Shellow Bowells has been converted into a house.<ref>{{NHLE|desc=Church of St Peter and St Paul|grade=II|num=1306781}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite web| url =http://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10246556|title=Relationships and changes Shellow Bowells AP/CP through time|publisher= Vision of Britain|accessdate = 18 February 2018}}</ref> At the 1931 census (the last before the abolition of the civil parish), Shellow Bowells had a population of 95.<ref>{{cite web| url =http://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10246556/cube/TOT_POP|title=Population Statistics Shellow Bowells AP/CP through time|publisher= Vision of Britain|accessdate = 18 February 2018}}</ref>
Shellow Bowells is mentioned by Bill Bryson in a list of unusual British place-names in ''Notes From A Small Island''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bryson |first1=Bill |title=Notes from a Small Island |date=1995 |publisher=Black Swan |location=London |isbn=0552996009 |page=182}}</ref> It is also mentioned in Paul Theroux's ''The Kingdom By The Sea''.{{citation needed|date=June 2015}} It is referred to as Shallow Bowells in Part Five of ''Random Harvest'' by James Hilton.<ref name="Gutenberg0500341H">{{cite web|url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500341h.html|title=Random Harvest|author=James Hilton|publisher=gutenberg.net.au|accessdate=2016-10-30}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{commons category-inline|Shellow Bowells}}
{{Portalbar|England|United Kingdom}} {{Essex|state=collapsed}} {{Epping Forest|state=collapsed}}
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Category:Villages in Essex Category:Former civil parishes in Essex Category:Epping Forest District
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