Shelvock is a name of

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

origins - from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

{{lang, anm, scelf meaning a shelf of level ground, or flat topped hill, and ''ac'' meaning oak, taken from the ancient Manor of Shelvock, near

Ruyton-XI-Towns Ruyton-XI-Towns ( "ry-tən eleven towns"), formally Ruyton of the Eleven Towns or simply Ruyton, is a village and civil parish next to the River Perry in Shropshire, England. It had a population of 1,379 at the 2011 Census. The preparatory sch ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

originally pronounced "''shelf'ac''", "''shelv'ak''" or "''shelv'oak''", but today as "''shel'vock''". All families with this name (and associated variants Shilvock & Shelvoke) are believed to be given to tenant-farmers and servants attached to the manor. Shelvock is also a type of freestone quarried on the property, a Permian sandstone, known to be used in the building of Grimpo Congregational Chapel, 3 km north of Shelvock.

Manor of Shelvock

In the Domesday period (1086) Shelvock was one of the three Berewicks (a hamlet attached to a manor) of the Manor of

Wykey Wykey is a hamlet in Shropshire, England. It is approximately 2 miles north of the larger village of Ruyton-XI-Towns, and is recognised as one of the eleven ("XI") towns. In the centre of the village one can find the rare sight of a 19th-centu ...

. Sometime between the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

'' and 1175 Shelvock became the head of the manor. The first recorded spelling of Shelvock was Shelfhoc (1175), and later Sselvak and Schelfac (c. 1270). From the 15th century and for several centuries Shelvock was the seat of the Thornes family, before its decline in the 18th century and beyond. In the 1890s, then a farm house in the Parish of

(Ruyton-of-the-Eleven-Towns, or simply Ruyton), Shelvock was part of the Tedsmore Hall property. In 1894 the

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

of Shelvock included the house and one cottage. In the 21st century only the working farm remains. Detailed

History of Shelvock Manor Shelvock Manor is a house and grounds in a township (England), township of the same name near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. It was once a place of local importance, and was for more than two centuries the seat of the Thornes, a leading family ...

Family names

''Shelvock'' is the original family name of Shropshire origins. ''Shilvock'' - pronounced ''shil'vok'' - the variant created in the 17th or 18th century by

Black Country The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...

(North

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

/South

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

) dialect and is the dominant family name and spelling today. After US immigration some Shilvock families reverted to the name Shelvock. Both family names can be found in Central England, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Shelvoke is a variant (occasionally Shelvoak). Extinct as a family name (since the 1960s), the name survives only in a small number of UK engineering firms, the most notable of which are

Accles & Shelvoke Accles & Shelvoke is a company based in the English Midlands, founded in 1903 by James George Accles and James Shelvoke as Bennett's Successors Ltd, adopting its present name in 1913. It is a manufacturer of humane slaughtering pistols A pis ...

and

Shelvoke and Drewry Shelvoke and Drewry was a Letchworth, Hertfordshire, manufacturer of special purpose commercial vehicles. It was best known for its innovative waste collection vehicles that were the preferred choice of municipal authorities in the UK together ...

, which the latter became incorporated into Shelvoke Dempster,

Dennis Shelvoke Dennis or Denis is a first or last name from the Greco-Roman name Dionysius, via one of the Christian saints named Dionysius. The name came from Dionysus, the Greek god of ecstatic states, particularly those produced by wine, which is sometime ...

, and other spin-off companies. The name also exists in a firm of accountants based in

Cannock Cannock () is a town in the Cannock Chase district in the county of Staffordshire, England. It had a population of 29,018. Cannock is not far from the towns of Walsall, Burntwood, Stafford and Telford. The cities of Lichfield and Wolverhampton ...

, Staffordshire. Noted people with the name include: *

Captain George Shelvocke George Shelvocke (baptised 1 April 167530 November 1742) was an English Royal Navy officer and later privateer who in 1726 wrote the memoir ''A Voyage Round the World by Way of the Great South Sea'' based on his exploits. It includes an account o ...

, 18th-century privateer and author * George Shelvocke, son of Captain George Shelvocke, a member of the crew and later secretary general of the Post Office in London

External links

Shelvock Worldwide One-Name/Location Study & Resources (original source of this essay and submitted article)

SHELVOCK Blog - Ongoing research & discussion History of Shropshire