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History
The name Crewkerne is thought to be derived from Cruc-aera; from the British cruc - a spur of a hill, and the Old English aera - a house, especially a storehouse. The town was known as Crocern, or Cruaern in the 899 will of Alfred the Great when he left it to his younger son Æthelweard, and by 1066 the manor was held by Edith Swanneck mistress of King Harold. After the Norman conquest is was held by William the Conqueror and the church estate was given to the Abbaye-aux-Hommes in Caen, Normandy. In the Domesday Survey of 1086 it was described as a royal manor.
In 1499, John de Combe, a precentor of Exeter Cathedral and former vicar of Crewkerne, founded Crewkerne Grammar School. The school survived until 1904.
A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:
- "CREWKERNE, a town, a parish, a [registration] sub-district, and a hundred in Somerset. The town stands in the valley of the river Parret, on the Yeovil and Exeter railway, surrounded by a wide amphitheatre of hills, 2¼ miles N of the boundary with Dorset, and 8½ 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 railway station with telegraph, a banking office, two chief inns, a market-house, two churches, four dissenting chapels, a free grammar school, another endowed school, two alms-houses, and other charities with a total of £524. One of the churches succeeded a previous edifice, given by the Conqueror to Caen abbey; and is itself a beautiful cruciform structure of the 15th century, in perpendicular English, with richly-carved doors and windows, and with a lofty central tower, surmounted by turrets. 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 of £320, with four exhibitions; and had for a pupil Mr. Justice Best, afterwards Lord Wyndford. Markets are held on Saturdays; 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. Population: 3,566. Houses: 725.
- "The parish includes also the tythings of Clapton, Coombe, Easthams, Furland, Hewish, Woolminstone, Laymore, Horn, Ash [in Crewkerne], Greenham, and part of Black Down. Acres: 5,331. Real property: £22,025. Population: 4,705. Houses: 942. The property is subdivided. 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, united with the {perpetual] curacy of Christ Church, in the diocese of Bath and Wells. Value: £300. Patrons: the Dean and Chapter of Winchester."
The hamlets listed in italics are presumed to all be in West Crewkerne, a civil parish broken off from Crewkerne itself in 1894.
Research Tips
- 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 England – History 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
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