Crewkerne, Somerset

Description
Crewkerne, a town, a parish, and a hundred in Somerset. The town stands in the valley of the river Parret, with a station on the L. & S.W.R., 132 miles from London, surrounded by a wide amphitheatre of hills, 2 1/2 N of the boundary with Dorset, and 8 1/2 SW by W of Yeovil. It dates from ancient times, was known to the Saxons as Crocern or Cruaern, is now a busy place, publishes a weekly newspaper, and has a head post office, a bank, two chief inns, a market-house, two churches, four dissenting chapels, an hospital, a free grammar school, another endowed school, two almshouses, and other charities. One of the churches succeeded a previous edifice, given by the Conqueror to Caen Abbey, and is itself a beautiful cruciform structure of the loth century in Perpendicular English, with richly-carved doors and windows, and with a lofty central tower surmounted by turrets. It was thoroughly restored in 1888. The other church was built in 1853, is also in the English Perpendicular style, and consists of nave, north aisle, chancel, and bell-turret. The grammar school was founded in 1499, has an endowed income, with several exhibitions and scholarships, and had for a pupil Mr Justice Best, afterwards Lord Wyndford. A large swimming bath was built in 1888. Markets are held on Wednesday and Saturday, and a fair on 4 Sept. Manufactures of sail-cloth, webbing, and girths are carried on. The father of Tom Paine, author of the " Rights of Man," was a native. The parish includes also the tithings of Clapton, Coombe, Easthams, Furland, Hewish, Woolmin stone, and part of Black Down. Acreage, 6049 ; population of the civil parish, 4946; of the ecclesiastical, 5093. The manor belonged at Domesday to the Crown, and passed through the Redvers, the Courtenays, and others, to the Pouletts. Wulfric, the anchorite, who was visited by Henry I. and Stephen, lived in a cell at Hasilborough, and St Ranns was buried in a chapel on Ranna Hill. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells; value, £260. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Winchester.