Place:Sampford Arundel, Somerset, England

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NameSampford Arundel
Alt namesSampford-Arundelsource: Family History Library Catalog
Bagley Greensource: hamlet in parish
Beam Bridgesource: hamlet in parish
Sampford Moorsource: hamlet in parish
White Ballsource: hamlet in parish
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Coordinates50.963°N 3.27°W
Located inSomerset, England
See alsoMilverton Hundred, Somerset, Englandhundred in which it was located
Wellington Rural, Somerset, Englandrural district 1894-1974
Taunton Deane District, Somerset, Englandnon-metropolitan district municipality covering the area 1974-2019
Somerset West and Taunton District, Somerset, Englandmerged non-metropolitan district municipality covering the area since 2019
the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Sampford Arundel is a civil parish and a village in Somerset, England. It is situated near Wellington and 10 miles (16.1 km) southwest of Taunton. The village had a population of 268 in the UK census of 2011.

The parish, which lies at the western end of the Blackdown Hills, includes the hamlets of Bagley Green, Sampford Moor, White Ball and Beam Bridge where a temporary terminus of the Bristol and Exeter Railway was established in 1843 until the line was completed to Exeter in 1844.

Sampford Arundel was originally an ancient parish in the Milverton Hundred, one of the hundreds or early subdivisions of the county of Somerset. In 1894 it was placed in the Wellington Rural District where it remained until 1974.

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. Sampford Arundel became part of the non-metropolitan Taunton Deane District in 1974.

In May 2019, West Somerset and Taunton Deane merged into a single district named the Somerset West and Taunton District. The new district is not a unitary authority, and has not taken any county level functions from Somerset County Council. West Somerset covered a largely rural area, with a population of 35,300 in an area of 740 square kilometres (290 sq mi) and is the least populous non-unitary district in England. Taunton Deane's population was over 100,000, but it was still not considered a large enough district to be kept on its own.


Research Tips

  • GENUKI page on Sampford Arundel.
  • 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, does not provide any details on the parishes of Milverton Hundred.
  • 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 Sampford Arundel. 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.