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Brick and stone cottages cluster about the junction of many lanes at Shirley, forming a pleasant patchwork among trim hedgerows and well-kept gardens.
The lords of the manor, who took their name from the village (rather the the other way around) later became the Earls Ferrers. One of them, immortalised by Shakespeare as valiant Shirley, was killed in the Battle of Shrewsbury.
The Church of St Michael stands at the centre and highest point of the village. The chancel and south aisle date from the 14th century, but the rest of the church, including the tower, was rebuilt in the 19th century.
A yew tree in the churchyard has a circumference of some 17 feet.
The white-painted Old Vicarage, on a hill towards Ashbourne, was the birthplace of the novelist brothers John Cowper Powys, in 1872 and Theodore Francis Powys in 1875.
Here too, lived Countess Ferrers, widow of the 12th Earl, until her death in 1969. She and her husband are buried in Shirley churchyard. The Hall Farm, north-east of the church, was the home of the Shirleys, but has been much altered since medieval times, though traces of its moat remain.
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