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- the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia
Williton (#33 east on map) is a medium-sized village and a civil parish in West Somerset, England. It has many of the facilities of a small town, being the administrative centre for the West Somerset District Council from 1974 until 2019. Williton is situated at the junction of the A39, A358 and B3191 roads. It is situated south of Watchet on the coast and is roughly equidistant between Minehead, Bridgwater and Taunton. In the UK census of 2011 the parish had a population of 2,607.
The parish includes the seaside village of Doniford and St. Decumans hamlet (both redirected to St. Decumans) which had been an ancient parish in the Williton and Freemanors Hundred. St. Decumans became Watchet (#25) in 1902.
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Churches
The date of the origin of St Peter's Church in Bridge Street is uncertain but it is believed that a religious edifice has been on the site for more than 1000 years. The names of the Priests serving the Church and the parish can be traced back to the 13th century. The status of the Church changed dramatically in 1170 when The Lord of the manor, Sir Reginald Fitzurse, became one of the murderers of St. Thomas a Becket. Following the murder, the ownership of the manor passed to Reginald's brother Robert and the Knights Templar. The historian Collinson recorded in 1792 that Robert rebuilt the chapel of Williton implying that the Saxon chapel was in ruins. The Liber Albus manuscripts in Wells Cathedral library show Robert gave to the Church of St Decuman, Watchet, some important property and certain rights in the chapel. The church at Williton thus became very much a daughter Church of Watchet and became known as a Chapel of Ease.
The current building is mostly from the 16th century and is now a Grade II* listed building. Further work was undertaken in the 17th century when the Church was known as All Saints. In 1810 a south extension was built, although the Elizabethan windows were relocated and reused in the south wall. The Priest responsible for the large restoration of 1856/59, Samuel Heathcote (at the Church 1854 to 1906), was appointed Perpetual Curate but was signing the registers as Vicar from 21 November 1889 showing that Williton had become a parish separate from Watchet. The full details of the Church are recorded in Harry Armstrong's book The Parish of St Peter Williton published privately in 1982 and printed by Langley Print of Taunton.
Williton also has a Methodist Chapel.
Governance
From 1902 until 1974 Williton was part of the Williton 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. Williton joined the non-metropolitan West Somerset District which covered northwestern Somerset.
In 2019, for economic reasons, the West Somerset District joined with the Taunton Deane District to become the Somerset West and Taunton District.
Research Tips
A combined article on St. Decumans, Watchet and Williton from the Victoria History of the Counties of England – History of the County of Somerset, produced by The Institute of Historical Research.
- 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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