TORQUAY CHURCHES
The New Church of England Parishes
St John the Baptist
the Parish church of Shiphay
The history of this church goes back to the end of the 1800s, when William Kitson, who lived at nearby Shiphay Manor, decided to build a new chapel & school house at his own expense. The old school house was considered unfit. This new building was opened in 1897 and although the school was discontinued in 1924 the little church remained and was looked after by the incumbent of Coffinswell, but from 21 September 1928 (upon the sale of the Shiphay estate by the Kitson Family) it was handed over to, and looked after by, the Parish church at St Marychurch. After WW2 the area saw a massive growth in housing- both private and local authority, and so it was deemed necessary to have a church capable of looking after the area. William Kitson's little church was greatly enlarged and the new building was consecrated in December 1956. At the same time Shiphay was declared a Parish.
The old part of the church was built using local red sandstone and the new part was built using red brick, and compliment each other quite nicely.
The Church now has a web site, see www.stjohnshiphay.org.uk.