Place:Publow, Somerset, England

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NamePublow
Alt namesPublow with Pensfordsource: another name
St. Thomas in Pensfordsource: another name
Publow and Pensfordsource: present name of the parish
Bellutonsource: hamlet in parish since 1847
Pensfordsource: village in parish since 1847
TypeChapelry, Civil parish
Coordinates51.379°N 2.542°W
Located inSomerset, England
See alsoKeynsham Hundred, Somerset, Englandhundred in which it was located
Clutton Rural, Somerset, Englandrural district 1894-1974
Wansdyke, Avon, Englanddistrict in which Publow located 1974-1996
Bath and North East Somerset District, Somerset, Englandunitary authority which took over from Avon on its abolition in 1996
the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Publow (#20 on map) is a civil parish with a small village of the same name in Bath and North East Somerset. It lies beside the River Chew in the Chew Valley. It is 7 miles from Bristol, 9 miles from Bath, and 4 miles from Keynsham. The principal settlement in the parish is Pensford which was once a separate parish. The parish also includes the village of Belluton and part of the village of Woollard which it shares with Compton Dando (#3 in Keynsham RD). The present formal name of the parish is Publow and Pensford. At the 2011 UK census it had a population of 1,119.

Publow anciently belonged to the St Loes of Newton, and later came into the hands of the Hungerfords along with Compton Dando. The manor has had many owners, among them, Henry Hastings (also the Third Earl Becher (c1517-1570)), Sir John Popham (1531–1607), and Sir Francis Popham (1573–1644).

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Publow., especially the section entitled "History"

Image:Clutton RD 1900small PJ.png

Pensford

Until the middle of the 19th century Pensford was a separate parish with Publow surrounding it. In 1847 boundary between Publow parish and Stanton Drew (#22)) was redrawn so the the hamlet of Belluton came into Publow. At this point the parishes of Pensford and Publow were combined under the name Publow.

During the 14th to 16th centuries Pensford was a cloth centre based on local wool. During the 19th and 20th centuries the main industry was coal mining, with Pensford and the surrounding area forming a major part of the Somerset coalfield. Pensford colliery opened in 1909 and closed in 1955. A landmark on the west of Pensford is a viaduct on the disused Bristol and North Somerset Railway, built in 1873 but closed to trains in 1968 after the great flood of Pensford (see Wikipedia), after which it was deemed unsafe.

Pensford is sometimes referred to as St. Thomas in Pensford. Its church was dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket.

Governance

The parish of Publow was part of the Keynsham Hundred and, from 1894 until 1974, a parish in the Clutton Rural District.

In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, all urban and rural districts across England were abolished and counties were reorganized into metropolitan and non-metropolitan districts. In addition, this area of Somerset with the city of Bristol and part of Gloucestershire were declared a new county named Avon. Like other counties, it had non-metropolitan districts covering the more non-urban areas. The area directly south of Bristol and east to the border with Wiltshire was placed in the Wansdyke District, while the section west to the Bristol Channel was placed in the Woodspring District. The county of Avon only lasted until 1996. When it was abolished a slight restructuring of non-metropolitan districts occurred to allow those parts of Avon to return to Somerset and Gloucestershire. Publow is now in the Bath and North East Somerset district (commonly abbreviated to BANES) which is classified as a unitary authority.

Research Tips

  • GENUKI page on Publow.
  • The Somerset Heritage Centre (incorporating what was formerly the Somerset Record Office and the Somerset Local Studies Library) can be found at its new location at Langford Mead in Taunton. It has an online search facility leading to pages of interest, including maps from the First and Second Ordnance Survey (select "Maps and Postcards" from the list at the left, then enter the parish in the search box).
    The Heritage Centre has an email address: archives@somerset.gov.uk.
  • Three maps on the A Vision of Britain through Time website illustrate the changes in political boundaries over the period 1830-1945. All have expanding scales and on the second and third this facility is sufficient that individual parishes can be inspected.
  • Somerset Hundreds as drawn in 1832. This map was prepared before The Great Reform Act of that year. Note the polling places and representation of the various parts of the county.
  • Somerset in 1900, an Ordnance Survey map showing rural districts, the boundaries of the larger towns, the smaller civil parishes of the time, and some hamlets and villages in each parish
  • Somerset in 1943, an Ordnance Survey map showing the rural districts after the changes to their structure in the 1930s
  • Maps provided by the National Library of Scotland are also very useful. This map is currently set to an area now in the Sedgmoor District as it existed in the late 19th century, but can be moved to anywhere in the county using a variety of background maps. There is a very good search facility.
  • A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county
  • GENUKI gives pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish. The emphasis here is on ecclesiastical parishes (useful before 1837)
  • A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 and tables of the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. The compiler has gone to a lot of work to provide this material. Respect his copyright.
  • The FamilySearch Wiki for Somerset provides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
  • English Jurisdictions, a supplementary website to FamilySearch outlining local parish boundaries in the middle on the 19th century. The information provided is especially useful for establishing the relationship of the ecclesiastical parishes in large towns and cathedral cities.
  • The Victoria History of the Counties of EnglandHistory of the County of Somerset, produced by The Institute of Historical Research at the University of London is a scholarly website with articles tracing the history of individual parishes which are sorted into their hundreds, the early subdivisions of the county. It traces the ownership of estates and manors, describes the local church in detail, and usually provides a map of each parish. The volumes for Somerset are much more recent than those for other counties. It appears to be a work in progress, only covering about half the county so far. A map of the places covered in the series is given in Volume 6, but 3 more volumes have been published since then. If a parish is included there will be a note in its Research Tips.
  • The Somerset and Dorset Family History Society
  • The Weston super Mare Family History Society
  • The Bristol and Avon Family History Society
  • A list of all Somerset parishes with online transcripts of parish registers The size of Somerset makes this a huge project. If it does not yield what you are looking for, try getting in touch with the organizer with patience and politeness.
  • Somerset Online Parish Clerk project home page
  • A collection of West Somerset Parish Register Transcriptions are online courtesy of Martin Southwood
  • {https://bafhs.org.uk/pensford-a-publow/?v=79cba1185463 The Bath and Avon Family History Society] provides an article on the history of Publow and the surrounding villages.
  • The Somerset Heritage Centre (incorporating what was formerly the Somerset Record Office and the Somerset Local Studies Library) can be found at its new location at Langford Mead in Taunton. It has an online search facility leading to pages of interest, including maps from the First and Second Ordnance Survey (select "Maps and Postcards" from the list at the left, then enter the parish in the search box).
    The Heritage Centre has an email address: archives@somerset.gov.uk.
  • Three maps on the A Vision of Britain through Time website illustrate the changes in political boundaries over the period 1830-1945. All have expanding scales and on the second and third this facility is sufficient that individual parishes can be inspected.
  • Somerset Hundreds as drawn in 1832. This map was prepared before The Great Reform Act of that year. Note the polling places and representation of the various parts of the county.
  • Somerset in 1900, an Ordnance Survey map showing rural districts, the boundaries of the larger towns, the smaller civil parishes of the time, and some hamlets and villages in each parish
  • Somerset in 1943, an Ordnance Survey map showing the rural districts after the changes to their structure in the 1930s
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Publow. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.