St Mary, Shipley

Another awful day - not too bad getting in but the rain kept coming in torrents! We've had a month's rainfall in a week. It was that bad at work that the girls were distracted by it and there was nearly a flood not far away from our back door!

Needless to say a walk was definately out today, so I visited Shipley Church again. As at Itchingfield, it was decorated for harvest with pumpkins and marrows everywhere inside. This is a very old church and it dates from the 12th Century. Much of Shipley Parish and the land with the church were held by the Knights Templars in the Middle Ages. Towards the close of the 13th Century, they fixed the parish boundary between Shipley and Horsham which runs along the northern edge of Marlpost Wood and this boundary remains unchanged today. Shipley is largely a parish of farms and in the north it is very well wooded.