Shotley, Suffolk

Shotley, Suffolk
St Mary's Church, Shotley
Shotley, Suffolk  Shotley, Suffolk shown within Suffolk
OS grid reference	TM2463
District	Babergh
Shire county	Suffolk
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Ipswich
Postcode district	IP9
Dialling code	01473
EU Parliament	East of England
List of places: UK • England • Suffolk

Shotley is the parish giving its name to the peninsula between the River Orwell and the River Stour in Suffolk. The village of the same name is located about a mile northwest from the tip of the peninsula where the larger Shotley Gate village is. Population of Shotley as a whole is currently over 2300.

Shotley was recorded in Domesday as Scoteleia.

Shotley Cottage (half of 1 km southeast) was a WWI radio telegraphy station.

A school is located outside the village (half of 1 km east) opposite the turning into Oldhall Road. Oldhall Road located east of the village leading north to the church. St Mary's Church is a mile north at Church End. It contains a naval cemetery.

Shotley Hall is located near to the church.

Shotley Gate

Shotley Gate is a settlement to the south of Shotley. In AD885, Alfred, King of Wessex fought off Guthrum the Dane's invading army in a naval battle. This area became known as "bloody point".

Shotley Gate and Parish has a strategic position for protecting the ports of Felixstowe, Harwich and Ipswich and there were fortifications put in place in 1865 with Shotley Battery, and a Royal Navy training establishment, RNTE Shotley, opened in 1905. It has since closed and the site sold for redevelopment (see below).

Shotley Gate harbours HMS Ganges, which was a Naval training establishment for 15 year olds. The ship was a teak ship constructed 1821 and taken out of service in 1861. It was moved to Shotley in 1899. By 1905 it was moved ashore and training finished in 1976. Martello towers (grade I site) and mast (Grade II site) sold and still remains in the area.

Present day

Lying north and south off the B1456 (the Street forms the main road) makes up the village.

The Rose pub lies in the village whilst the Bristol Arms lies in nearby Shotley Gate near the piers and Martello towers. A third pub, the Shipwreck, is located at Shotley Marina, also in Shotley Gate at the end of King Edward VII Drive. This is a popular tourist destination. In the Summer months a foot ferry service licensed to carry up to 12 passengers operates between Shotley Marina and Harwich.

Rose Farm lies to the south of Shotley.

St Mary's Church Walking Club, Shotley, meets on the second Sunday of every month.

Shotley Parish Council meets at the village hall on the third Thursday of every month, meetings commencing at 7.15PM and are open to the public.

Ongoing concerns

Sea defences erected at Shotley Cliff

In 2008 the collapse of a section of the footpath which runs along the base of Shotley Cliff (subsequently reinstated by Shotley Parish Council) drew attention to a coastal erosion issue affecting a lengthy exposed section of the cliff further along, where the path had already crumbled away. It became apparent that the cliff was eroding at a rate not previously recognized and that this would ultimately be likely to endanger several properties above it. A group of local residents in Shotley Gate, informally known as the Shotley Stour Footpath Renovation Group, began a long term project to deal with the issue, which eventually led to the Group (with assistance from the Parish Council) obtaining funding for sea defences to protect the first 90 metres (295 ft) of the exposed area from a number of sources including Suffolk County Council, the Environment Agency, the Haven Gateway Partnership, Hutchison Ports, Suffolk Coasts & Heaths and Shotley Parish Council, as well as local fundraising; in total, these defences (which were installed by Welham Plant Ltd under the project management of the Stour Footpath Group and Hawes Associates) cost just under £40,000 to install, with a further £60,000 subsequently raised for defences along the remaining 120 metres (394 ft) of exposed cliff and for the renovation of a derelict picnic area at the other end of the footpath, both hopefully to be completed in 2011 (£18,000 of this funding came as a result of the Shotley project winning the Haven Gateway Authority's 'I Love Landscapes' competition in May 2011, the project receiving 1413 votes from the public). Phase two of the sea defence work began on 11th July 2011, extending the defences to the far end of Shotley Cliff and creating a maintenance path to the rear of them which effectively links the remains of two public footpaths to create a continuous coastal path (albeit one which in theory is not a 'public footpath' for the entirety of its length). The sea defences, as well as the newly renovated Shotley Gate Picnic Area at the other end of the footpath, were formally opened by Tim Yeo MP on the morning of September 19th 2011, an event which was also broadcast on BBC Radio Suffolk. The project has been written up by the Estuaries Officer and Suffolk County Council as a case study in inter-agency cooperation with the public.

The attempted development of the former HMS Ganges site has caused considerable controversy in the area over several years, as the scale of the development being proposed was felt by local residents in both Shotley and other villages along the B1456 to be in excess of what the local infrastructure could cope with. As of November 2010, planning permissions on the site have lapsed following an unsuccessful appeal by the developer, and the site remains undeveloped and in limbo. The mast which stands in what was formerly the parade ground, a listed structure, is currently due for repair.

In fiction

In Arthur Ransome's children's novels We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea and Secret Water, the character Commander Walker is a naval officer stationed at Shotley. The village also features in Julia Jones' children's novel The Salt-Stained Book, and Alan Peck's murder mystery The Shotley Incident revolves around the former HMS Ganges site.

External links

• Free computer support in the village run by Tyson Bedwell
• MyShotley - site for residents
• Parish Council site
• St Mary's Church
• Rose pub
• Bristol Arms
• Footpath between the village and Hall