Clevedon, Somerset

Historical Description

Clevedon, a village and a parish in Somerset. The village stands on the coast of the Bristol Channel, under a rocky height called Dial Hill, and has a station on the G.W.R., 134 miles from London, and 12¼ by road W½SW of Bristol. It dates from remote times, but now consists chiefly of a collection of villas built since 1828. It enjoys a dry mild air, is a favourite summer resort for sea-bathing, and has a head post office, marine baths, and a pier 800 feet long, constructed at a cost of £12,000, and completed in 1893. There are pleasure grounds, with bandstand, a public hall, and market-house. Dial Hill commands a magnificent view, and fine walks and rides are in the neighbourhood. Myrtle Cottage here was for some time supposed to be the residence of the poet S. T. Coleridge, and Clevedon Court, in the vicinity, a noble Tudor mansion amid beautiful grounds, now the seat of the Eiton family, is associated with the memory of the historian Hallam, whose wife was a daughter of Sir Abraham Eiton. The house was much damaged by a fire in 1882, but has since been quite restored. Coleridge sang the praises of his cottage in his " Sibylline Leaves," and the poet Tennyson, in his "In Memoriam" on Arthur Henry Hallam, sings as follows the praises of the village —" There twice a-day the Severn fills; The salt sea-water passes by, And brushes half the babbling "Wye, And makes a silence in the hills."

The parish comprises 3027 acres; population, 5412. Much of the surface is picturesque. Lead ore was formerly mined. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells, and there are also the perpetual curacies of South Clevedon and East Clevedon, and the incumbency of Christchurch. Value of Clevedon, £312 with residence; of Christchurch, £320; of East Clevedon, £115 with residence; of South Clevedon, £119 with residence. Patron of Clevedon, the Bishop of Worcester; of Christchurch, the Vicar of Clevedon. The old church belonged to St Augustine Abbey in Bristol, is partly Norman and partly Decorated and Perpendicular English, and contains the ancient burying-place of the Cleve-dons, once lords of the manor, and monuments of the Wakes and the Hallams. Christchurch is a modern edifice in the Early English style, and East Clevedon church is in the Decorated English style. There are Congregational, Wes-leyan, and Bible Christian chapels, and a Roman Catholic church.

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 Clevedon from the following:

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

Maps

Online maps of Clevedon 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.