Bishops Lydeard, Somerset

Historical Description

Bishops-Lydeard, a village and a parish in Somersetshire. The village stands near the Quantock Hills, 5 miles NNW of Taunton, and has a station on the G.W.R. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office (E.S.O.) The parish includes the tithings of Lydeard-Punchardon, Town, Church, East Bagborough, Quantock Hill, East Coombe, Cames-Ash, Ash-Week, and Free, and the hamlet of Kenley-Bottom. Acreage, 4832; population of the civil parish, 1105; of the ecclesiastical, 1093. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells: value, £253. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Wells. The church has a very beautiful tower in Perpendicular English, of the time of Henry VII., and was repaired in 1860. There are two sculptured crosses in the churchyard, a Congregational chapel, a petty sessions court-house, ten almshouses with £230 a year, and some other charities. Sandhill Park is a fine seat in the vicinity.

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.

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 Bishops Lydeard from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Lydeard, Bishop's (St. Mary))

Maps

Online maps of Bishops Lydeard 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.