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Name | Winsham |
Alt names | Ammerham | source: hamlet in parish | | Bridge near Winsham | source: hamlet in parish | | Purtington | source: hamlet in parish | | Whatley near Winsham | source: hamlet in parish |
Type | Ancient parish, Civil parish |
Coordinates | 50.853°N 2.89°W |
Located in | Somerset, England |
See also | Kingsbury Hundred, Somerset, England | hundred in which it was part located | | South Petherton Hundred, Somerset, England | hundred in which it was part located | | Chard Rural, Somerset, England | rural district 1894-1974 | | South Somerset District, Somerset, England | district municipality covering the area since 1974 |
- the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia.
Winsham (#35 on map) is a village and civil parish 4 miles (6 km) southeast of Chard and 6 miles (10 km) from Crewkerne, in the South Somerset District of Somerset, England. The parish is on the border between Somerset and Dorset. It had a population of 748 residents living in some 320 households in the 2011 UK census. The parish covers an area of approximately 12 square miles (3,100 hectares) and includes the hamlets of Whatley, Bridge, Purtington and Ammerham. (The suffix "near Winsham" has been added to Whatley and Bridge to prevent confusion with parishes of the same names elsewhere in Somerset.)
Winsham Parish Council was one of the first to be formed in 1894, shortly after the passing of the Local Government Act of the same year.
Winsham had its roots in Saxon times, and was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. Three estates had a major influence on Winsham's rural community: Forde Abbey, Cricket St. Thomas and Leigh House. The Fry family, the Bristol chocolate manufacturers, who owned the Cricket St Thomas estate from 1897 until 1919, and the Hall family who followed them, were particularly active in their support of the village. The Henley family (Henry Henley (1612–1696)) and the Davies family (George Davies (1875-1935)) of Leigh House also played an active part in village affairs.
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In the nineteenth century, the West of England Woollen Mill employed large numbers (said to be 600 at its peak). During that time the population of Winsham increased to over a thousand (1,062 in the UK census of 1851). This boom was over by 1850, when the mill closed, having lost its business to the north of England. At a later date, it continued on reduced scale processing jute until the early twentieth century.
Governance
Winsham was a parish in the South Petherton Hundred and also in the Kingsbury Hundred, both of which were hundreds or early subdivisions of the county of Somerset. From 1894 until 1974 it was part of the Chard 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. Winsham joined the non-metropolitan South Somerset District in 1974.
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.
- Population of the parish in 1851 comes from A Vision of Britain through Time.
Categories: Somerset, England | Winsham, Somerset, England | South Petherton Hundred, Somerset, England | Kingsbury Hundred, Somerset, England | Chard Rural, Somerset, England | South Somerset District, Somerset, England
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