. 26 .ASHWICK. SOMERSETSHIRE. ' (KELLY'S who also gave the stained west window as a memorial to Richard Charles Strachey esq. J.P. is a handsome mansion, the late H. P. Jillard esq.: the pulpit of pitch pine, oak situated on a declivity on the Bath road, surrounded by fine and mahogany, was the gift of Mrs. Gane: there are three timber, and well sheltered and protected by a mass of craggy other memorial windows, presented by Miss Davis, of Oak- rock : it contains a choice collection of paintings by old hill, and Miss Benfield: there are about 234 sittings. masters. Hilly lands is the residence of John Maitland Spen­ During the year r882 the churchyard was enlarged on the cer esq. J.P. Sir John Hippisley hart. is lord of the manor north side by an exchange of land between the vicar and R. and Richard C. Strachey esq. J.P. John Maitland Spencer C. Strachey esq. the owner of Ashwick Court. The register esq. J.P. and Frederick Spencer esq. J.P. of Poundsmead, dates from the year 1701. The living is a vicarage, tithe · Oakhill, are the chief landowners. The soil is light loam; rent-charge £8o; net yearly value under £no, in the gift subsoil, limestone. The land is chiefly in pasture. The of the vicar of Kilmersdon, and held since 1874 by the Rev. area is 1,385 acres; rateable value, £3,344; the population John Burton D'Aguilar B.A. of St. John's College,Cambridge; in 1881 was 755· the impropriator is Lord Hylton, of Ammerdown Park. There The villages of NETTLEBRIDGE and GuRNEY SLADE are is a Wesleyan chapel and an endowed Unitarian. Billingsley's partly in this parish. charity of £4 15s. is for distribution in money annually. Letters through Bath. WALL Box, Nettlebridge, cleared at On the south-west side of the parish is a Roman camp with 6.30 p.m. week days only. The nearest money order a double entrenchment called Maesbury, more fully de- offices are at Oakhill & Stratton-on-the-Fosse; & Midsomer scribed under Croscombe. Ashwick Grove, the residence of Norton & Shepton Mallet the nearest telegraph offices Burr Henry Deane Edwin L.R.C.P.Edin. surgeon & . Longman Geo. commsn. agt.Nettlebrdg D'Aguilar Rev. John BurtonB.A. [vicar] med. officer & public vac. No. 2 dist; Moon Alfred, farmer, Church farm Davis Miss, Oakhill house Shepton Mallet union, Ashwick court Morgan George, farmer, Romead Deane Edwin, Ashwick court Fowler Abraham, farmer Oram Frederick, carpenter & builder, Major Robert Augustus Gabe J ames, scripture reader (Somerset Beech Row house Spencer John Maitland .J .P. Hilly lands Evangelist Society), Ash wick Oram HenryGeorge, Duke of W ellingron StracheyRichard Chas. .J.P.Ashwick gro GouldAbraham, tobacconist,Nettlebridg inn, N ettlebridge COMMERCIAL. Green George, contractor, Nettlebridge Perry Mary Elizabeth (Mrs.), George Ashman Paul, butcher, Gurney Blade HamblinHenry,engineer,Pound cottage inn, Gurney Slade Brown James,shopkeeper,Gurney Blade Hedges Albert, farmer, Harridge house Rossiter James, Mendip inn ChappellGeorge Edwin,farmer&miller Hill Vernon, farmer, Rookery farm Selway Ann (Miss), school,Harridge vil (water), Gurney Blade Huish Thomas, blacksmith Snook Robert, farmer,Highcroft cottage Coles Theoph. George inn, Nettlebridge Hutchins James, gardener to Richard Steeds Emanuel,shopkpr. Gurney Slade Cosh Waiter, farmer, Highcroft Charles Strachey esq. J.P Urch Wm. grocer&draper,Nettlebridge Creighton Mrs. farmer, Lime Kiln farm Lambert Thos. contractr. Neighbourne Willcox Israel, Fire Engine inn Doman James, farmer, Strouds farm Lane Mrs. laundress Willcox: John, farmer, Tape Hill farm AXBRIDGE, a market town, and formerly a borough, along the centre, on one of which is the date 1636, at which is the head of a union, a petty sessional division and county time considerable repairs were effected : in a pew under the court district, in the hundred of Winterstoke, Wells division pulpit was found a singular painting, on oak panelling of of the county, Axbridge district of the rural deanery, and Our Saviour and conjectured to date from the latter part of archdeaconry of Taunton and diocese of Bath and Wells, 18 the 14th century: there are numerous marble monuments miles from Bristol, 10 north-west from Wells and 130 from to the Prowse and other families: in the north aisle there is London, with a station on the Cheddar Valley branch of the a brass, in good preservation, with kneeling effigies to Roger Great Western railway: it is an irregularly built town, Harper, merchant, of Axbridge, ob. 22 August, and Joan, situated on the line of the old Roman road from Old Sarum his wife, ob. 22 July, both in 1493: in 1879, the whole of to the Bristol channel, south of, and immediately under, the the exterior and interior stone work of the nave and aisles Mendip hills, and being sheltered from north and north- was restored and the church re-seated, at a cost of £3,192, west winds by those lofty heights, the air is peculiarly soft of which Charles Edwards esq. J.P. of The Grove, Wrington, and salubrious. The now extinct borough was one of high gave £ r,ooo : the chancel was afterwards restored at a cost antiquity, and charters exist among the archh·es of the' of £8s6: in 1884 a further sum of £140 was raised and dissolved corporation, renewed by different monarchs from spent on the restoration of the north transept, at which the days of Edward the Confessor down to the reign of time a new organ of the value of £245 was placed there: Queen Elizabeth, under whose charter the town was till and in 1887 the work was completed at a coRt of nearly recently governed; but the corporation, which consisted of a £1,300, when the stained east window was given by Sidney mayor, one alderman, recorder, 8 common councillors and 22 Hill esq. of Langford: in 1888 a beautiful low metal screen burgesses, was abolished in 1886 by the Unreformed Cor- was presented by H. F. Tiarks esq. : the total cost has ex­ porations Act, 1883 (46 & 47 Vict. c. 18). Axbridge appears ceeded £5,500 : there are 400 sittings. The register dates to have been a place of some importance in the Roman from 1562. The living is a rectory, average tithe rent-charge period, as several Roman roads intersect here ; in later £48, net yearly value £ r6o, with residence, in the gift of times it was the centre of a royal hunting forest, and after- the Bishop of Bath and Wells, and held since r883 by the wards, for a long time, a demesne of the Crown, but the Rev. Henry Toft. There is a Wesleyan chapel with about nominal royalty was vested in the corporation. In the years 250 sittings. The Town Hall, situated in the square, is a 1295, 1313, 1321-5, the town was represented in Parliament, modern building ; in the basement are shambles for butchers, but on the petition of its inhabitants, representing their but the market is now almost extinct. The Axbridge and inability to bear the expense, it was "excused" in the 17th West Mendip Friendly Society and The Foresters' Club, No. Edward Ill. (1343·4) from further representation. The 5,512, hold their meetings here. There are charities magistrates for the county hold fortnightly meetings in the amounting to about £128, of which £1 rss. is for sermons; Town hall. The town is lighted with gas supplied by a and 13s. 4d. for church purposes; £10 is distributed to the company. The church of St. John, situated on an eminence, poor yearly in bread and about £ir6 in money. A very is a large and handsome cruciform edifice, in the Perpen- considerable portion of the trade of the town and neigh­ dicular style, consisting of chancel, with north and south bourhood arises from the culture of potatoes and peas, chapels, nave, transepts, aisles, soutll porch and a fine tower which are produced in such immense quantities under the with angle buttresses, terminating in crocketed pinnacles Mendip range, and so early in the season, that the early and a richly pierced parapet: the tower contains 6 bells Axbridge potatoes will be found in London, Bristol, Man­ and a clock with chimes ; on the west side is a canopied chester and Birmingham, among the first of their growth niche, inclosing a crowned figure carrying a sceptre, and in the year. Iron ore has been found here, but it is not probably representing Henry VII. who rebuilt the tower worked. There are three fairs held here, on February 3rd and part of the church ; and on the east side is a figure of , and March 25th and second Tuesday in October, according St. John the Baptist holding the "Agnus Dei": the win- to the charter; and a monthly market on the second Tues­ dows are fine examples of Perpendicular work : the nave day in every month for the sale of cattle is well attended. roof is curiously divided by projecting ribs, with a fieur-de- The area is 467 acres; rateable value, £2,532; the popula­ lis at each intersection, and a row of immense pendants tion in r881 was 718. Official Establishments, Local Institutions &c. PosT, M. 0. & T. 0., S. B. & Annuity & Insurance Office, Edwards Chas.Lund Fry esq.M.A.'rheGrove,WringtonR.S.O Market place (letters should have R.S.O. Somerset added). Harford William Alfred esq. Aldown house, Almondsbury -Miss Sarah Jane Laver, postmistress. Letters received R.S.O. Gloucestershire via Weston·super-Mare at 5·43 a. m. & 1.45 p.m.; box: Harford William Henry esq. Barley wood, Wrington R.S.O closes at 2. 35 & 8 p.m. & at 5 p. m. on sundays HesseLieut.-Col.Jn. Valentine, W edmore, W eston-super-Mare CoUNTY MAGISTRATES FOB AxBRIDGE PETTY SESSIONAL Hill Sidney esq. Langford house, Langford R.S.O DIVISION. Law Major James Adeane, The Caves, Banwell R.S.O Battiscombe Capt. Waiter Ernest Sax, Hillside, Worle, Llewellyn Evan Hy. esq. M.P. Langford et. Langford R.S.O Weston-super-Mare Long Lieut.-Col. William, .Woodlands, Congresbury R.S.O

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