Place:Long Ashton, Somerset, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Long Ashton (#14 on map) is a civil parish and a village in Somerset, England. It is one of a number of large villages just outside the boundary of city of Bristol. The parish had a population of 6,044 in the UK census of 2011. This figure includes the hamlet of Yanley and the residential area of Leigh Woods (although most of the woods themselves are in the neighbouring parish of Abbots Leigh). The village is built on the south-facing slopes of a valley running from east to west, and on the old road from Bristol to Weston-super-Mare. [edit] History the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia Prehistoric and Roman artefacts have been found in the area, at the site of the Gatcombe Roman Settlement, but the village originated in Saxon times. The Domesday Book of 1086 records it as Estune (the place by the ash tree). Afterwards, it was granted to Bishop Geoffrey of Constances. The village is near two waterways, the Longmoore Brook and the Ashton Brook, hence the name Long Ashton. The manor house dates to 1265 and, in the late 15th century, shares in the estate were purchased by Richard Amerike (one of the possible sources of the name "America"). Previously the manor had passed through the hands of the Lyons, Choke and finally the Smyth families. By 1603 the Smyths had become the principal landowners in the parish and were lords of Long Ashton for four centuries; the estate finally being sold in 1946.

The parish church of All Saints dates from about 1380, and the arms of its founder (Thomas de Lyons) are on the outside of the tower. The interior has some fine tombs, and some relatives of the poet Robert Southey are buried in the churchyard.

The other Church, Hebron Methodist Church was founded in 1934 by Ernest Dyer, who cycled to the village from Keynsham to run a Sunday School. Many of the people who have grown up in the village passed through this Sunday School.

Since the earliest recorded times, agriculture has been the major occupation of the parish, and there are still several working farms, some just outside the village. The Ashton Court estate provided occupations such as gamekeeper and forester. There have been several mills in the parish including a snuff-mill on the Land Yeo at Gatcombe in 1769, however the current building dates from the early 19th century. By 1846 it had been converted to grind mustard, annatto and drugs, but by 1874 it was a flour mill. The internal machinery is still in place and the mill has been designated as a Grade II listed building. Kincott Mill had stood since at least the 13th century. By the early 19th century it was rented out for snuff grinding and in the 1830s a steam engine was installed to power a flour and corn mill. Later it was owned by an iron founder, who made edge tools and other farm implements and installed cast-iron water wheels.

Stone has been quarried for lime burning, as well as for building and road making. There was an iron foundry in the 19th century and coal was mined — the Bedminster-Ashton coalfield finally closed in 1924.

The National Fruit and Cider Institute opened at Fenswood on the edge of the village in 1903. It became the Agricultural and Horticultural Research Station in 1912, and was known as Long Ashton Research Station until it was closed in 2003. During the Second World War it developed rose hip syrup and Ribena.

Governance

The parish was part of the Hartcliffe with Bedminster Hundred, one of the hundreds or early subdivisions of the county of Somerset. From 1894 until 1974 it was part of the Long Ashton 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. In addition, this area of Somerset with the city of Bristol and part of Gloucestershire were declared a new county named Avon. Like other counties, it had non-metropolitan districts covering the more non-urban areas. The area directly south of Bristol and east to the border with Wiltshire was placed in the Wansdyke District, while the section west to the Bristol Channel was placed in the Woodspring District. The county of Avon only lasted until 1996. When it was abolished a slight restructuring of non-metropolitan districts occurred to allow those parts of Avon to return to Somerset and Gloucestershire.

Long Ashton now falls within the unitary authority of North Somerset

Research Tips

• GENUKI page on Long Ashton.
• 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