Congresbury, Somerset
Historical Description
Congresbury, a village and a parish in Somerset. The village stands on the river Yeo, with a station on the G.W.R., 132 miles from London, and 6½ N of Axbridge; has a post and money order office of the name of Congresbury (R.S 0.); telegraph office at the railway station. It was once a market-town, and still has a fair in Sept. A college is said to have been founded at it in 711 by St Congar, an Eastern prince, and an interesting ancient market cross is still here on five flights of steps. The parish comprises 4307 acres; population, 1167. Part of the land is marshy. The living is a vicarage, united with St Lawrence-Wick, in the diocese of Bath and Wells; joint net yearly value, £591. The church is Early English. The vicarage of St Ann is a separate benefice, and the church of it was built in 1865. There is one dissenting chapel, and charities for distribution of bread. There is an interesting old vicarage with some beautiful carvings on the porch and windows, dated 1445.
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 | Congresbury St. Andrew | |
Hundred | Winterstoke | |
Poor Law union | Axbridge |
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 Congresbury from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Congresbury (St. Andrew))
Maps
Online maps of Congresbury 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.