Shellow Bowells is a village and civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 in Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The village church, dedicated to St Peter and St Paul, is no longer in use as such, having become a private dwelling.

Name

Its name is believed to be derived from Shellow, meaning a bend in the river, and the Beaulieu family

Location

It is located 6 miles (9.6km) to the west of Chelmsford

Chelmsford

Chelmsford is the county town of Essex, England and the principal settlement of the borough of Chelmsford. It is located in the London commuter belt, approximately northeast of Charing Cross, London, and approximately the same distance from the once provincial Roman capital at Colchester...

, between the Villages of Willingale on its westerly border and Roxwell to the East. (However it is infamous locally for how difficult it is to find using SatNav)

Literary References

It has been famously mentioned by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson

William McGuire "Bill" Bryson, OBE, is a best-selling American author of humorous books on travel, as well as books on the English language and on science. Born an American, he was a resident of Britain for most of his adult life before moving back to the US in 1995...

 in Notes From A Small Island

Notes from a Small Island

Notes from a Small Island is a humorous travel book on Great Britain by American author Bill Bryson, first published in 1995.-Overview:Bryson wrote Notes from a Small Island when he decided to move back to his native United States, but wanted to take one final trip around Great Britain, which had...

and Paul Theroux

Paul Theroux

Paul Edward Theroux is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work of travel writing is perhaps The Great Railway Bazaar . He has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his...

's The Kingdom By The Sea

The Kingdom by the Sea

The Kingdom by the Sea is a written account of a three month long journey taken by novelist Paul Theroux round the United Kingdom in the summer of 1982. Starting his journey in London, he takes a train to Margate on the English coast. He then travels roughly clockwise round the British coastline,...

External links

• photograph of the church