Place:Cannington, Somerset, England

Watchers
NameCannington
Alt namesEdstock and Beersource: former parish containing Edstock
Beersource: part of Edstock and Beer
Edstocksource: part of Edstock and Beer
Rodwaysource: settlement in the south of the parish
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Coordinates51.15°N 3.067°W
Located inSomerset, England
See alsoCannington Hundred, Somerset, Englandhundred in which it was located
Bridgwater Rural, Somerset, Englandrural district 1894-1974
Sedgemoor District, Somerset, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area since 1974
the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Cannington (#6 on map) is a civil parish and a village in Somerset, England, located 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Bridgwater in the Sedgemoor District. It lies on the west bank of the River Parret, and has contained the hamlet of Edstock (formerly the parish of Edstock and Beer), since 1886. Its population in the UK census of 2011 was 2,721.

The parish includes the settlement of Rodway and, formerly, part of the village of Combwich (now in Otterhampton and redirected there). In 1881 the parish contained 4,980 acres (2,020 hectares).

It was the site of a Benedictine nunnery, founded by Robert de Courcy about 1140, which survived until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The nunnery owned significant land in the area. The site is now Cannington Court which incorporates some remains of the Priory.

The lords of the manor were the Clifford family including Hugh Clifford, 2nd Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1663-1730). Gurney Manor is a 13th-century manor house with an attached chapel wing. A third manor house existed at Blackmore Farm, with its own chapel, built around 1480 for Thomas Tremayll.

The Church of St Mary has a tower which dates from the 14th century, the remainder was rebuilt in the early 15th century and restored in 1840 by Richard Carver. It was previously connected to Cannington Court and is postulated as the former church of the Benedictine Nuns (described above). It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building.

Image:Bridgwater Rural small.png

Governance

Cannington was originally a parish in the Cannington Hundred, one of the hundreds or early subdivisions of the county of Somerset. From 1894 until 1974 it was part of the Bridgwater 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. The parish of Cannington joined the non-metropolitan Sedgemoor District which covered the north-central section of Somerset.

Research Tips

  • GENUKI page on Cannington.
  • A series of articles on Cannington from the Victoria History of the Counties of England – History of the County of Somerset, produced by The Institute of Historical Research, begins with this link.
  • 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 Cannington, Somerset. 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.