All Saints

Shelley is a small community of only 70 people but over a large rural area. All Saints was built probably in the 13th or early 14th century, with the tower being added about a century later. Unusually, the tower is at the north of the church, effectively at the back, as access is from the south. 

The vestry was originally a chapel built for the Tylney family after the Reformation. The family seat of the Tylneys at that time was nearby Shelley Hall (itself a Grade I listed building, not open to the public). Thomas Tylney married Elizabeth Gosnold Tylney, sister of Bartholomew Gosnold who founded Jamestown, the first English settlement in America. Elizabeth is also buried within the church. 

In 2005, after discovery near Jamestown of a grave thought to be that of Bartholomew Gosnold, amid world-wide publicity remains entombed in Shelley church and believed to be Elizabeth's were exhumed to enable a DNA comparison to be made. However, identification of the Jamestown body remains uncertain, as the body in Shelley church thought to be Elizabeth's turned out to be that of a much younger woman, possibly Anne Framlingham who had married Philip Tylney of Shelley Hall in 1561 and died around 1601. 

Philip Tylney had a tomb made for his mother, Dame Margaret Tylney, who died in 1598. This tomb can be seen in a recess on the north wall inside the church.