SHELFORD (GREAT), a parish in the hundred of THRIPLOW, county of CAMBRIDGE, 4 miles (S. by E.) from Cambridge, containing 718 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the peculiar jurisdiction and patronage of the Bishop of Ely, rated in the king's books at £13. 6. 8., endowed with £600 royal bounty, and £1600 parliamentary grant. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is said to have been built by Bishop Fordham, who died in 1425; the steeple was blown down by the great storm of 1703, and again, in 1798; it has since been rebuilt by subscription.