{{Short description|Hamlet in Essex, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2026}} {{Use British English|date=January 2026}} {{Infobox UK place | official_name= Shopland | civil_parish = Sutton | country= England | region= East of England | coordinates = {{coord|51.5608|0.7370|display=inline,title}} | os_grid_reference= | post_town= ROCHFORD | postcode_area= SS | postcode_district= SS4 | dial_code= | shire_district= Rochford | shire_county= Essex | hide_services= yes | population = | population_ref = | area_total_km2= | static_image= Cottage near Butler's Farm - geograph.org.uk - 3892963.jpg | static_image_caption= Cottage near Butler's Farm |website= }} '''Shopland''' is a hamlet in the civil parish of Sutton in the Rochford District of Essex, England. It lies {{convert|2|miles|km|0}} south-east of Rochford, its post town, and a similar distance north-east of the centre of Southend-on-Sea. Shopland was formerly a parish; the ecclesiastical parish formed a united benefice with Sutton from 1893, and the civil parish was abolished in 1933 when most of its area absorbed into Sutton, apart from a smaller section at the southern end of the parish which went instead to Southend. Shopland's parish church suffered damage during the Second World War and was subsequently demolished in 1957.
== History == The name Shopland means "island with a shed", coming from the Old English word ''sceoppa'' meaning a shop, booth or shed.<ref>{{cite web |title=Shopland |url=http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Essex/Shopland |website=Key to English Place-Names |publisher=University of Nottingham |access-date=1 December 2025}}</ref> The name appears as ''Scopingland'' in a list of c. 1000 AD of the manors of St Paul's Cathedral held at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (MS. 383), and as ''Scopiland'' in Feet of Fines records from 1208.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Eilert Ekwall |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names |date=1960 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780198691037 |page=419 |url=https://archive.org/details/conciseoxforddic0000ekwa/page/418/mode/2up?q=shopland |access-date=1 December 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Shopland |first1=Tony |title=The Shopland Story |url=http://shoplandfamily.co.uk/shopland-story.html |website=The Shopland Family |access-date=1 December 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817211439/http://shoplandfamily.co.uk/shopland-story.html |archive-date=17 August 2018}}</ref>
In the Domesday Book of 1086 it is listed as ''Scopelanda'' when it formed an estate or manor owned by Eustace, Count of Boulogne, and formed part of the Rochford Hundred of Essex.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Powell-Smith |first1=Anna |title=Shopland |url=https://opendomesday.org/place/TQ8988/shopland/ |website=Open Domesday |access-date=1 December 2025}}</ref>
No church or priest is mentioned in the Domesday Book, but the manor of Shopland came to be a parish. Its parish church, dedicated to Mary Magdalene, was built in the 13th century, and stood to the north-east of the manor house of Shopland Hall.<ref>{{cite web |title=Essex Sheet LXXVIII |url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/102342026 |website=National Library of Scotland |publisher=Ordnance Survey |access-date=1 December 2025 |date=1880}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Rectory sale to save church: Fate of 13th century structure - Priest as builder |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0005049%2F19281030&page=5 |access-date=1 December 2025 |work=Daily Chronicle |date=30 October 1928 |location=London |page=5}}</ref> The northern boundary of the parish was the River Roach.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/essex/vol4/pp135-136|title=Shopland|publisher=British History Online|accessdate=5 November 2025}}</ref>
From 1893, the ecclesiastical parish of Shopland formed a united benefice with neighbouring Sutton, sharing a priest.<ref>{{cite book |title=Kelly's Directory of Essex |date=1914 |page=514 |url=https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/61104/rec/2 |access-date=1 December 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Shopland: The New Vicar |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000381%2F18930311&page=1 |access-date=1 December 2025 |work=Essex Newsman |date=11 March 1893 |location=Chelmsford |page=1}}</ref>
Shopland's church became dilapidated in the first half of the 20th century. The final service was held there in 1940. A land mine exploded {{convert|150|yards|metres|0}} from the building during the Second World War, and other bombs exploded nearby, further weakening the structure. The building was not repaired and it was eventually demolished in 1957.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kirton |first1=Richard |title=Church of St Mary Magdalen, Shopland |url=http://www.barlingwakeringvillages.co.uk/heritage/stmarymagdalen.html |website=Barling and Wakering Heritage |access-date=1 December 2025 |date=September 2012}}</ref>
When elected parish and district councils were established in 1894, Shopland was included in the Rochford Rural District. The population of the parish was too small for it to be given a parish council, and so it had a parish meeting instead. The civil parish was abolished in 1933. The majority of the area, including the hamlet around Shopland Hall, was absorbed into the parish of Sutton. A southern strip of the parish was transferred instead to Southend-on-Sea.<ref>{{cite web |title=Shopland Parish |url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10246635 |website=Vision of Britain |publisher=University of Portsmouth |access-date=1 December 2025}}</ref> At the 1931 census (the last before the abolition of the civil parish), Shopland had a population of 81.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10246635/cube/TOT_POP|title=Population Statistics Shopland CP/AP through time|publisher=Vision of Britain|accessdate=31 January 2020}}</ref>
The modern parish council for Sutton calls itself "Sutton with Shopland Parish Council" and describes Shopland as being one of the two hamlets in the parish.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sutton with Shopland Parish Council |url=https://www.suttonwithshoplandparishcouncil.com/ |access-date=1 December 2025}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == {{commons category|Shopland}} * [https://www.shoplandchurchyard.co.uk/ Shopland Churchyard]
Category:Former civil parishes in Essex Category:Rochford District Category:Southend-on-Sea