Bicknoller, Somerset

Historical Description

Bicknoller, a parish in Somersetshire, 2½ miles from Williton station on the G.W.R., and 4½ miles SE of Watchet. It has a post and money order office under Taunton. A detached part of Stogumber, known as Halsway, was amalgamated with this parish in 1883. Acreage, 1912; population of the civil parish, 312; of the ecclesiastical, 270. The surface includes part of the Quantock Hills, and contains points which command extensive views. Two Roman camps, called Trendle's and Turk's castles, and a beacon, are near the church, and very many Roman coins and other relics have been found. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells; value, £216. Patron, the Vicar of Stogumber. The church is good, and was restored in 1871, the tower in 1879, and a new cage for bells erected in 1890. The church tower has unusually large angle buttresses ornamented with winged gargoyles. The porch has a parvise or priest's chamber over it. There is a handsome carved screen with five openings. The rood staircase is in good preservation. The tower, 65 feet high, has a yew tree growing on the top, now about 5 feet high. The oldest inhabitant always remembers its being there.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

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 Bicknoller from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Bicknoller)

Maps

Online maps of Bicknoller 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.