Shotgate

Shotgate is a suburb of the town of Wickford and a civil parish in the Basildon borough of Essex, England. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 3,632.

==History== Mid-Iron Age pottery found at Shotgate Farm shows that the area was inhabited around 300 BC. In Roman times, a road ran from Ilford to Latchingdon through here. In the Saxon period commonhold land was often sliced into parallel strips known as 'Sceats'. This is the origin of the 'Shot' part of Shotgate, which has nothing to do with shooting or hunting. The Domesday Book of 1086 lists four farmsteads in Wickford, one of which was probably on the site of Shotgate. By 1300 this is listed as Ames or Aimes Farm. By 1540 the Rede family owned the farm, and one of its members, Elizabeth, emigrated to America to marry the son of the governor of Massachusetts, and is an ancestor of both former US president George W. Bush and presidential contender John Kerry.