Place:Monkton Combe, Somerset, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Monkton Combe (#13 on map) is a civil parish with a village of the same name in north Somerset, England, 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Bath. The parish, which includes the hamlet of Tucking Mill, had a population of 554 in a local estimate of 2013. It was formerly known as "Combe", owing to its geography, while it was also known as Monckton Combe and Combe Monckton until last century. Combe was settled and cultivated by the Anglo-Saxon period, when it formed part of the hundred of Bath Forum. It was probably given to Bath Abbey, along with other surrounding villages, in the early 1060's by either Edward the Confessor or Harold Godwinson. The Abbey had been impoverished, and Bishop Gisa made use of patronage to expand its lands. In 1086, Combe was assessed in the Domesday Book as having around twenty families, and supporting a range of agricultural activities. During the medieval period, it acquired the additional name 'Monkton', noting its ownership by the Abbey and disambiguating it from other nearby 'Combes'. The village's industry diversified in the late 18th century, with the opening of local mines and the Somerset Coal Canal in 1800. This prompted the expansion of the village's population, and the construction of new housing to accommodate workers, built in the local Bath stone. The canal was converted to a railway in 1910, giving the village a short-lived railway station of its own. The closure of the line encouraged the further de-industrialisation of the village, with the neighbouring flock mill (mill was driven by a large water wheel and also had a large chimney stack) closing the following year [not given].

Governance

Monkton Combe was part of the Bath Forum Hundred, one of the hundreds or early subdivisions of the county of Somerset. Between 1894 and 1933 it was a parish in the Bath Rural District. In 1933 the rural district was abolished and Monkton Combe was transferred to the newly formed Bathavon 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. Monkton Combe is now in Bath and North East Somerset unitary authority.

Research Tips

• Combe GENUKI page on Monkton Combe.
• 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
• The Victoria History of the Counties of England – History of the County of Somerset, produced by The Institute of Historical Research, is not available for this hundred.