Halse, Somerset
Historical Description
Halse, a village and a parish in Somerset. The village stands 2 miles SW of Bishops Lydeard station on the G.W.R., and 6½ WNW of Taunton. It has a post office under Bishops Lydeard; money order and telegraph office, Bishops Lydeard. Acreage of the civil parish, 1320; population, 361; of the ecclesiastical, 352. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Bath and Wells; gross value, £170 with residence. The church consists of nave, S aisle, and chancel, with porch and tower, has a Norman font, and is good. There is a small chapel for Bible Christians.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Somersetshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Halse St. James | |
Hundred | Williton and Freemanners | |
Poor Law union | Taunton |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Halse 1559-1812, Somerset is available to browse online.
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Somerset Archives & Local Studies, have images of the Parish Registers for Somerset online.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Halse from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Halse (St. James))
Maps
Online maps of Halse are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Somerset papers online:
- Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette
- Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser
- Western Gazette
- Wells Journal
- Somerset County Gazette
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Somersetshire, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.