Shipham

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Shipham

Coordinates: 51.3138° N 2.7956° W
Population	765
OS grid reference	ST445575
District	Sedgemoor
Shire county	Somerset
Region	South West
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Bristol
Postcode district	BS25 1R
Dial code	01934
Police	Avon and Somerset
Fire	Devon and Somerset
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	Wells
European Parliament	South West England
List of places: UK • England • Somerset

The Square in Shipham with the War Memorial in the foreground. In the background St.Leonards Church.

Shipham (grid reference ST445575) is a village in Somerset, England on the western edge of the Mendip Hills near the A38, approximately 15 miles south of Bristol. It is in the local government district of Sedgemoor. The population, according to the 2001 census, is 765.

Shipham Hill is one of the highest points in the Mendips at 1066 feet. The village has a panorama over Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel which is mentioned in "Secret Places of the Heart" by H. G. Wells: "But the loveliness of the weather did not fail, and the whole day was set in Severn landscapes. They first saw the great river like a sea with the Welsh mountains hanging in the sky behind as they came over the Mendip crest above Shipham".

Shipham was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Sipeham, meaning 'The sheep home' from the Old English scip and ham. The tenant-in-chief is shown as being Roger de Courcelles.^[1]

The 58 km (36 miles) Limestone Link Path runs from Shipham to Cold Ashton in Gloucestershire [1]

Near to the village is GB Cave

1 Mining
2 Church
3 Stock car racing
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Mining

The substrata contain rich mineral deposits and so there were zinc and lead mines in the area. The 'Singing River Mine' which was worked in the 18th and 19th centuries for calamine (zinc carbonate), blende (zinc sulphide) and galena (lead sulphide). In the 1920s it was used as an underground reservoir by the water authorities. A small stream flows through the mine in parts. The entrance is actually in the back garden of a private house but access is allowed for potholers.^[2] The 5 meter high 19th Century Calamine processor is a grade II listed building.^[3] The present landscape shows the piecemeal nature of the mining. Although the lead industry began to decline in the late seventeenth century, it revived in the mid 19th century when tips were re-worked. Its mining history has given rise to street names such as Hind Pits Lane, Hollow Road, and Comrade Avenue. The old mines have also meant that the soil is heavily contaminated by heavy metals such as cadmium. This was investigated in 1979. Concentrations of cadmium, lead and zinc in local crops were higher than would normally be expected. Copper concentrations were normal, and the results for mercury showed that mercury translocation from soil to crops was very low. Dietary copper intakes at Shipham were a little lower than national average intakes. Four participants in the duplicate diet study, or 6% of the study population, had cadmium intakes higher than 0.4 mg per week.^[4]

There is also some evidence of field cultivation by the miners during the medieval period.^[5]

[edit] Church

The Anglican parish church of St Leonard was built in 1843 by J. Wilson of Bath. It is a grade II listed building. Stained glass in north window of nave commemorates Hannah More,^[6] who as part of her work to 'civilise' the people of Cheddar and the surrounding villages, particularly the lead-miners of Shipham, established the Shipham Church of England Voluntary Controlled School. A Chest Tomb to Amelia Day in the churchyard, 5 metres south of nave, is also a listed building.^[7]

[edit] Stock car racing

Near Shipham for over 40 years has flourished the 1/4 mile tarmac race track of Mendip Raceway, high on the Mendips. The venue is in the bowl of an old abandoned reservoir, features the oft misunderstood British sport of stock-car racing. Since 1954, this sport has encouraged do-it-yourselfers to build and race "specials" to compete in full contact competition. The big-league formula has winged cars with 500+ horsepower V-8 motors, and the smaller F2 cars have 2-litre four-bangers, lightweight but hardy. A working man's sport for many years, there is now money, sponsorship, international match racing, and television.

The race track is perched on the edge of Batts Coombe quarry and the views from the edge, across Cheddar and the Cheddar Valley towards Glastonbury Tor and the Bristol Channel are spectacular.