Place Name
A reference to the nearby village. Takes its name after local area, which means bright woodland, without a forest canopy blocking the light – from the Old English words scīr and lēah . It has been suggested that as the village was not far from the old Surrey/Kent county border it may have come from the Old English word for shire but this is now thought unlikely. It was mentioned as early as 1314 when it was written as Shirleye. In 1461 it had mutated ro Shirley and in 1498 as Sherlegh.
