Place:Chew Magna, Somerset, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Chew Magna (#4 on map) is a village and civil parish within the Chew Valley in the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset, in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The parish had a population of 1,149 in the UK census of 2011. The parish was part of the hundred of Chew and the Clutton Rural District (1894-1974). To the south of the village is Chew Valley Lake and the River Chew flows through the village. The village is on the B3130 road, about 10 miles (16 km) from Bristol, 15 miles (24 km) from Bath, 13 miles (21 km) from the city of Wells, and 6 miles (10 km) from Bristol Airport. The village is close to the northern edge of the Mendip Hills. There are many listed buildings reflecting the history of the village.

History

the text below is a condensation of the "History" in Wikipedia

The manor of Chew was held by the Bishops of Bath and Wells from 1062 to 1548, and therefore was called Chew Episcopi or Bishop's Chew.

Since about 1600, the name changed to Chew Magna because the parish has been the most important of the several along the banks of the River Chew. Earlier names were dropped, reflecting the reduced wealth of the established church from the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1538) onwards.

Around 1700 the Lord of the Manor was Sir William Jones, the Attorney General of England and in the 1820s it was the seat of Lord Lyttelton.

By 1848 the population was partly employed in coal mines in Bishop Sutton, and, to a limited extent, in the manufacture of stockings and of edge tools. Formerly there has been a considerable factory for cloth. Until about 1880 the village had toll roads and a toll house to collect the fees.

During the late 19th and 20th centuries the importance of the wool trade in the village declined and it became largely a dormitory area for the cities of Bristol and Bath, although it has continued to be the commercial centre of the valley.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Chew Magna from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"CHEW-MAGNA, a village, a parish, and a [registration] sub-district, in Clutton [registration] district, Somerset. The village stands on an affluent of the river Avon, 3 miles W by S of Pensford, and 5 SE of Bourton [railway] station; has a post office under Bristol; is a seat of petty sessions; and was once a borough and a market-town. The parish includes the tythings of Bishop-Sutton, North Elm, Stone, Knowle and Knighton-Sutton; and both it and the village are sometimes called Bishops-Chew. Acres: 1,006. Real property: £1,230. Population: 1,855. Houses: 394.

"The property is much subdivided. The manor belongs to the Bishop of Bath and Wells. Chew Court is a ruined mansion of the middle ages. A Druidical circle is at Stanton-Drew; and a Roman camp, at Bow-Ditch. The living is a vicarage, united with the [perpetual] curacy of Holy Trinity, in the diocese of Bath and Wells. Value: £634. Patron: alternately the Bishop and others. The church is decorated English; and was restored in 1860. The [perpetual] curacy of Dundry is a separate benefice. There is a chapel of ease at Bishops-Sutton. There are also chapels for Baptists and Wesleyans, an endowed school, and charities £36."

Smaller places in the parish

The tythings of Bishop Sutton, North Elm, Stone in Chew Magna, Knowle in Chew Magna and Knighton Sutton have all been redirected here. Some of these places have short articles in Wikipedia, but they are all in Chew Magna parish.

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