Place:Winscombe, Somerset, England

Prior to 1974 Winscombe (#36 on map) was a civil parish in Axbridge Rural District in Somerset, England. Since 1996 it has been a large village in the unitary authority of North Somerset. It is close to the settlements of Axbridge (#1) and Cheddar (#15), on the western edge of the Mendip Hills and 7 miles (11 km) southeast of Weston super Mare and 14 miles (23 km) southwest of Bristol. The parish includes the villages of Barton, Sandford, and Woodborough, and the hamlets of Hale, Oakridge, Nye, and Sidcot. In the UK census of 2011 the parish had a population of 4,546. The parish was part of the ancient Winterstoke Hundred. From 1894 to 1974 Winscombe was part of the Axbridge Rural District. Between 1 April 1974 and 1 April 1996, Winscombe was in the Woodspring District of the county of Avon. The Local Government Act 1972 recommended that this part of Somerset stretching north to Bristol (which was mostly in Gloucestershire) and east to Bath should be converted into a new county named Avon. Like other counties following 1974 Avon was made up of several district municipalities and the one covering Winscombe was the Woodspring District. Avon lasted until 1996 when Gloucestershire and Somerset were given back their old borders with a few adjustments. Since 1996 Winscombe has been in the North Somerset District which is a unitary authority.

As can be seen in the outline map on the page for Axbridge Rural District, Winscombe parish (#36) has an unusual shape. Sandford is located in the northern section above the narrow "waist".

Winscombe is on the A38 major road at its junction with the A371 road; Sandford is a village between Churchill and Banwell on the A368 road.

Winscombe grew in the 19th century with the arrival of a branch of the Great Western Railway, opened in 1869. This was the Cheddar Valley line, also known as the Strawberry Line, which ran from Yatton to Wells via Cheddar. The railway was closed in 1963. The railway station was originally named "Woodborough", that being the part of the parish of Winscombe where it was located. The railway station was soon renamed Winscombe to avoid confusion with another railway station in Wiltshire named Woodborough. In the 19th century Sandford was a source of calamine. There were also limestone quarries and limekilns. It is now the home to one of the region's main cider producers, Thatchers Cider.

The Church of St James in the village of Winscombe has origins from the 12th century, but the present building dates mainly from the 15th century, with restoration and a new chancel in 1863. It is designated as a Grade I listed building. The Sandford Church of All Saints was built in 1883–85 by Hans Price, and is a Grade II listed building. It was constructed as a Chappel [sic] of ease to St James the Great in Winscombe.

NOTE: The Wikipedia articles referencing Winscombe, Sandford, Somerset and Winscombe and Sandford were used in compiling this article, but some of the facts given in them have been found to be in error.

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
• 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.