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Name | Milverton |
Alt names | Preston Bowyer | source: hamlet in parish |
Type | Ancient parish, Civil parish |
Coordinates | 51.033°N 3.267°W |
Located in | Somerset, England |
See also | Williton and Freemanors Hundred, Somerset, England | hundred in which it was part located | | Milverton Hundred, Somerset, England | hundred in which it was part located | | Wellington Rural, Somerset, England | rural district1894-1974 | | Taunton Deane District, Somerset, England | district municipality covering the area 1974-2019 | | Somerset West and Taunton District, Somerset, England | merged non-metropolitan district municipality covering the area since 2019 |
- the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia
Milverton (#8 on map) is a civil parish and a village in Somerset, England, situated in the valley of the River Tone 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Taunton. The village had a population of 1,438 in the UK census of 2011. The parish includes the hamlet of Preston Bowyer.
History
Just before the Norman Conquest, Milverton was granted by Queen Edith to Bishop Giso of Wells, but this was reversed by William the Conqueror. The manor was then united with Torrington in Devon and passed to William Briwere in 1212.
The Old House is a Grade II* listed building dating from the late 14th and early 15th century. It was built as a residence for the archdeacon of Taunton and was once the home of Thomas Cranmer. While the house was being renovated in the early 21st century a Tudor wall painting of Henry VIII was discovered underneath the plaster. It is the only one of its kind in a domestic dwelling. It has been speculated that there is a secret message in the image, which has been dated to around 1541.
In 1708 there was a fire which destroyed 13 properties. Trade was largely based on cloth manufacture and in 1819 Lamech Swift established a silk throwing factory which employed up to 300 women and children.
The village used to have a station on the Devon and Somerset Railway, which closed in 1966.
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Governance
The parish was part of both Williton and Freemanors Hundred and of Milverton Hundred. From 1894 until 1974 it was a parish in Wellington 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. Milverton 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 Milverton.
- 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, 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
- 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, covers the eastern section of Williton and Freemanors Hundred Hundred in Volume V.
Categories: Somerset, England | Milverton, Somerset, England | Williton and Freemanors Hundred, Somerset, England | Milverton Hundred, Somerset, England | Wellington Rural, Somerset, England | Taunton Deane District, Somerset, England | Somerset West and Taunton District, Somerset, England
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