Witham Friary, Somerset
Historical Description
Witham Friary, a parish, with a village and several hamlets, in Somerset, with a station on the G.W.R., 112 miles from London, at the junction of the line to Wells, and 5 SSW of Frome. It has a post office under Bath; money order office, Maiden Bradley; telegraph office, Wanstrow. Acreage, 5456; population of the civil parish, 413; of the ecclesiastical, 486. There is a parish council consisting of five members. The manor belongs to the Duke of Somerset. A Carthusian friary was built at the church by Henry II., and was given at the dissolution to R. Hopton. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells; net value, £100. Patron, the Duke of Somerset. The church is the ancient friary chapel, with groined roof. A western bay was added when the church was restored in 1876.
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 | Witham-Friary St. Mary | |
Hundred | Frome | |
Poor Law union | Frome |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Somerset Archives & Local Studies, have images of the Parish Registers for Somerset online.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Witham Friary from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Witham-Friary (St. Mary))
Maps
Online maps of Witham Friary 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.