Great Shefford (or West Shefford) is an English village and civil parish on the River Lambourn in the West Berkshire district of Berkshire. The present civil parish includes the historical parish of Little or East Shefford, a small, reduced community downstream. It also covers the village of Shefford Woodlands, about south-west of Great Shefford, near Junction 14 on the M4 motorway.

Churches

St Mary

The Church of England parish church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building.

St Stephen

The church of Saint Stephen at Shefford Woodlands is a former Methodist chapel, taken over as part of Saint Mary Church of England parish church in 1911. The church is a Grade II listed building.

St Thomas

St Thomas' Church, East Shefford is a redundant church, but listed as a Grade I historic building. It contains monuments to the widespread Fettiplace family.

Notable people

• Richard Brydges (1500–1558), politician, owned and lived at Great Shefford Manor.

• Clive Bell (1881–1964), art critic, was born in East Shefford.

• Harold Balfour, 1st Baron Balfour of Inchrye (1897–1988), Conservative MP and Privy Councillor, died in Great Shefford.

• Brian Cheesman (born 1929), international cricketer, was born in Shefford Woodlands.

Transport

Reading Buses route 4 (Newbury–Lambourn) serves Great Shefford. From 1898 until 1960 the parish included Great Shefford railway station on the Lambourn Valley Railway. The north-south A338 between Wantage and Hungerford runs through the village

Demography

The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 937, and 880 are listed on the Millennium Stone opposite the petrol station. The population had grown by about 5 per cent since the 2011 census.

2011 Published Statistics: Population, home ownership and extracts from Physical Environment, surveyed in 2005

References

Sources

External links

• Great Shefford and Shefford Woodlands

• St Mary's and St Stephen's Churches Website