Shipton probably emerged as a royal estate centre in the middle Anglo-Saxon period. It was a royal manor in 1086. Henry I granted the manor to Hasculf of St Hilary whose grand daughter, Matilda, married first Roger de Clare, Earl of Hertford from whom it descended to the Earls of Hertford. (VCH).
Excavated burials dating from the 9th or 10thc suggest, along with later documentary evidence, a late Anglo-Saxon minster set within a large churchyard, which was subsequently encroached upon. Before 1116 Shipton church and its 20-yardland endowment were given to Salisbury cathedral to support a new cathedral prebend; a vicarage was endowed c1224. In 1116 the patronage of the rectory (ie the right to nominate the prebendary) was granted to Arnulf the falconer and his heirs. (VCH)
The lower stages of the W wall of the tower apparently survive from the W end of a rather earlier nave into which the tower was inserted, and are flanked by the W end walls of 12thc. aisles, each containing a small round-headed window with continuous chamfer. Apparently when the tower was built, the westernmost bays of these aisles were divided off from the rest of the church and survive as self-contained chambers, now at a lower floor level than the nave. The rest of the church, apart from the Transitional chancel arch, was rebuilt in the late 13thc. or later.
