Place:Charterhouse on Mendip, Somerset, England

this text is based on an article in Wikipedia Charterhouse on Mendip (#14 on map) was an extra parochial area of 2,457 acres in the ancient hundred of Winterstoke and from 1894 until 1933 a civil parish in the Axbridge Rural District. In 1933 the parish was abolised and the area divided between the parishes of Blagdon (1,475 acres) and Cheddar (982 acres). In the 1931 UK census the parish only had a population of 68. Since 1974 the area has been covered by the Mendip District. The name is believed to come from the Carthusian order of Chartreuse in France, which was established in Witham Friary (near Frome in 1181 and formed a cell at Charterhouse in 1283 with a grant to mine lead ore. The lead and silver mines at Charterhouse were first operated on a large scale by the Romans, from at least AD49. At first the lead/silver industries were tightly controlled by the Roman military, but within a short time the extraction of these metals was contracted out to civilian companies, probably because the silver content of the local ore was not particularly high. There is further evidence of mine workings in the medieval and Victorian periods. After the dissolution of the monasteries (circa 1538), Charterhouse parish was granted to Robert May who constructed a substantial house here and one of his descendants, John May, became High Sheriff of Somerset in 1602.

The Church Of St Hugh was built in 1908 from the former welfare hall for the lead miners. It is a Grade II* listed building. A cross in the churchyard and the churchyard wall are also listed buildings. The roof-truss, screen, rood, and altar are all made of carved whitened oak. The lack of a church within the parish before 1908 is probably why there are no church-based sources of baptisms, marriages and burials listed by FamilySearch. These details will probably be found in the Cheddar or Blagdon registers.

Some facts above have been obtained from A Vision of Britain through Time.

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.