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Somerton, Somerset

Historical Description

Somerton, a small town and a parish in Somerset. The town stands on an eminence adjacent to the river Cary, 5 miles ENE of Langport station on the G.W.R. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office. Acreage of parish, 6620; population, 1962. Somerton was a residence of the West Saxon kings, and gave name to Somerset; suffered devastation by the Danes in 877; had anciently a castle, in which King John of France was confined; is now a seat of petty sessions, and has two banks, a town-hall, an ancient market-cross, a police station, an endowed school, almshouses for both men and women, and several annual fairs. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells; net value, £320 with residence. Patron, the Earl of Ilchester. The church is an ancient stone edifice in the Decorated style, with an embattled octagonal tower. The building was thoroughly restored in 1889. There are also Congregational, Wesleyan, and Bible Christian chapels, and a Friends' meeting-house. In the town is a shirt and collar factory and a brewery.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountySomersetshire 
Ecclesiastical parishSomerton St. Michael 
HundredSomerton 
Poor Law unionLangport 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Church Records

The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Somerton 1697-1812, Somerset is available to browse online.

Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Somerset Archives & Local Studies, have images of the Parish Registers for Somerset online.


Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Somerton from the following:


Maps

Online maps of Somerton are available from a number of sites:


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Somerset papers online:


Photographs

Somerton Brewery postcard from the early 20th century.

Somerton Brewery


Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Somersetshire, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.

DistrictSouth Somerset
CountySomerset
RegionSouth West
CountryEngland
Postal districtTA11
Post TownSomerton

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