The Northmarsh of Somerset, the Low-Lying Moors North of the Mendips
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THE E€ORTHMARSH ,f TOMERSET trHILIP ffi E I S LY % Tup NORTHMARSH OF SOME,RSE,T TuE, NORTHMARSH OF SOME,RSE,T Philip Beisly l7eston-super-Mare Heritage Centre, 3-6 N7adham Street, 'Weston-super-Mare First published in 1996 by the'Weston-super-Mare Heritage Centre, 'Weston-super-Mare Civic Sociery 3-6'Wadharn Street,'Weston-super-Mare. Copyright O Philip Beisly, 1996. A1l rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, storied in a retrieval systenl, or transnitted, in any fbrm, or by an1, means, elec- tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, r'vithout the prior permission of the publisher and copl,right holder[s]. The author has asserted the moral right to be identified as the author of this rvork. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library rsBN0951036823 Cover picture: Congresbury from Frost Hill ,frJ,"' AIAN surroN-" and surrc)N'n'are the \$l,/f trade nrarks of Sutton Publishing Limited Typeset in 11 / 14 pt Sabon Typesetting and origination by Sutton Publishing Limited Printed in Great Britain by Henry Lings Limited, Dorchester Contents Preface and Acknowledgements 6 1. The Northmarsh 7 2. Before History 14 3. Invaders 21 4. Medieval Life 35 5. Managing the Marsh 45 6. Churches 52 7. Houses 77 8. New Land and New Men 90 9. lmprovement 99 10. The Modern Age 115 Select Bibliography 133 Index 135 5 Preface and Acknowledgements This book is an introduction to the storv of the Northmarsh of Somerset, the low-lying moors north of the Mendips. It covers in a general way all the parishes in the area and draws on the work of many who have studied the histories of these parishes in detail. My first debt of gratitude is to them. I thank the staff of the Library and the Museum Service of North Somerset District Council, and also Mary Harding, Martin Taylor, Bob Smart, Andrew Eddy, Paul Lane, Nicholas Corcos, Angela Lewis, Brian Austin and others who are or were at various times colleagues in'Weston Civic Society's Heritage Centre. For permission to reproduce photographs and other material I thank Andrew Eddy, Jim Hunt, Roy Rice, Gordon Pratt, the Library and Museum Service of North Somerset, Somerset County Records Office, the National Buildings Record, the Francis Frith Collection, Shaftesbury, Dorset SP7 SAI, Chris Crook of the Landmark Trust, Raymond Dwerryhouse, and especially Andrew Eddy who took the photographs not other- wise acknowledged. ONE The lrlorthmarsh Ah! what d luxury of landscape rneets My gaze! Proud towers, and cots, more dear to me, Eltnshttdou,'d fields, and prospect - bonnding sea! S T Coleridge 1795 The prospect that delighted Coleridge as he looked back from Brockley Combe was the view across the North Somerset moors towards the Bristol Channel and Clevedon, where, with his new bride, he spent some of the happiest months of his life. This level tract of country is the first view of Somerset for many visitors travelling by road or rail. It offers a prelude to that noble panorama of central Somerset that lies waiting south of the Mendip Hills. For undoubtedly this is a Somerset landscape - Somerset in miniature - the low and level plain of green, dotted with the 'proud tolvers' of village churches, bounded by encircling hills, and, twinkling in the west, the Severn Sea. This is the W'est Country, soft and gentle in the summer sun, and these moors are part of the Summer Lands, the heart of Somerset, where cattle can grow fat on lusl"r pas- ture before Atlantic gales bling winter storrxs and floods. It is, too, a Celtic land, where the peat still guards the secret of ancient trackways; where the ruins of great hillforts look down from nearby hills; where stories of the Celtic saints still linger; where the pattern of settlement was ancient before the Saxon invaders found their way along the hills from the east. Only in quite recent times did man finally conquer the marshy landscape through drainage schemes and civil engin- eering; but he had exploited it through many centuries of precarious co-existence with difficulty and danger. \7e know of no ancient routes across this flood-prone land (travelling was easier along the hills), except the rivers, which offered 'VTales communication across the sea to and Ireland and the continent. Even today it can feel remote, although motorway and railway run across it. Few stop to discover, beyond the busy highways of the modern age, the unsuspected older world of ancient tracks and lonely coastline, isolated farms and streams. So close to Bristol, the great regional capital, and bordered by fast growing towns, it marvellously guards its ancient feeling. During the Middle Ages the name given to this area was rhe Wringmarsh. The River Yeo was known as the \7ring Yeo (because, it is thought, of its twisting course), and \Trington, near its head, was an important settlement (perhaps, before the Yeo was bridged at Congresbury, Wrington was the more important crossing place). Sir William Dugdale quotes, as his earliest reference for drainage works in Somerset, a Commission issued under the Great Seal of England in 1304 and directed to Robert de Clare, Gilbert de Bere, and Master Gereberd 'who were thereby assigned to view and take order for the repair of the banks, ditches, gutters, and sewers in Brentmershe, Pederham, .ff/ringmershe, and Saltmershe; and to cleanse the gutters and channels in such sort, as that the streams, as well the fresh water, as salt, might have henceforth their right and ancient course in all those places'. The four names refer to the four low-lying areas of the county. Brentmarsh (the name of the four that lasted longest) was the area south of the Mendips, including Brent Knoll, stretching inland to Glastonbury and drained by the Axe. Pederham was the land drained by the River Parrett (North and South Petherton take their names from being the 'tuns' or settlements on the Pether or Peder). Saltmarsh was the area adjoining the mouth of the Avon, and 8 included the Gordano Valley. These names were 'broad brush stroke' terms for the areas in question, such as outsiders would use, but also reflecting an era when more precise designations of the Somerset marshes had not yet arisen. They continued to be used in Royal Commissions through the Middle Ages, and were no doubt in use in common parlance long after that. It is only in comparatively recent times that the more local names of precise areas of the marshes came to the fore - at the time, indeed, when they ceased to be marshes and were more systematically drained and exploited. The parliamentary en- closures of the late 18th and early 19th centuries finally establish the nomenclature of Nailsea Moor, Hutton Moor, \7orle Moor etc. These more specific names also replaced the term North- marsh, which seems to have replaced ril/ringmarsh (at least for much of the area) after the Middle Ages, and was still in use in early Victorian times. The only doubt is whether 'Northmarsh' ever applied to the whole of this area, or was restricted to the parishes closer to the Mendips - for the inevitable question 'north of what?' can only be answered by these hills. Only after the Middle Ages (perhaps not until the 17th century) did people become 'cartographically minded' as more and more maps were produced: before then directional names had been more local, implying a specific point of reference. Would the inhabitants of Clevedon or Tickenham, say, have ever referred to that portion of the moors in their parishes, south of their settlements, as the Northmarsh? In 1835 Rev. \7 Phelps was quite specific about the rerm, distinguishing it from Nailsea and Kenn Moors. Further west is what is called the North Marsh, from its situation north of the Mendip Hills. It comprises the extensive tract of low lands bordering on the Bristol Channel, in the parishes of Congresburn Yatton, Kingston-Seymour, Wick St Lawrence,'Worle,'Weston, Kewstoke, Uphill, Hutton, Locking, On the Northmarsh, looking towards Congresbury and tbe Wrington Valley. and Banwell; a rich and well cultivated district, chiefly in pasture. The outlet of this tract is the Yeo, and another smaller stream, which flow into the Bristol Channel betrveen Clevedon and Woodspring Hill. Phelps goes on to describe the South Marsh, comprising 'the Great Brent Marsh'. But - besides that writers such as Phelps are not always entirely accurate and lack detailed local know- ledge (there are, after all, more than two rivers draining the parishes he iists, one joining the River Axe at Uphill) - this only gives a 'photograph' of usage at a time when the term was beginning to pass away. In 1829 Rutter had referred to 'that flat and marshy tract of land which terminates at Congresbury, provincially called, the Normarsh or Northmarsh', but also, describing the view from Uphill Church, 'the broad vale of the North Marsh, bounded 10 i;i*-l by the hills beyond Congresbury and Yatton.' The hills are those of the Clevedon and Tickenham Ridge. But the name may have been less used in those parts, implying as it does a vantage point on the main Mendip range. The low-lying parts of Somerset had ceased to be 'marshes' and became 'moors'. As such, parish by parish, they were described. The broader generic terms fell away. Then in more recent times, interest was rekindled in the area now known as the Somerset Levels. (The distinction drawn by geographers and planners between Levels and Moors - the coastal clay belt and the inland flats - is a modern one).