Kingstone, Somerset

Historical Description

Kingston, a village and a parish in Somerset. The village stands under the S extremity of the Quantock Hills, 3¼miles NNW of Taunton station on the G.W.R. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Taunton, The parish contains also the hamlet of Hestercombe. Acreage, 3022; population of civil parish, 864; of ecclesiastical, 943. The Hestercombe estate belonged, in the time of the Confessor, to Glastonbury Abbey; was given, by the-Conqueror, to the Bishop of Coutance; passed to the Bishops of Winchester; belonged for centuries to the Warre family, and now belongs to Viscount Portman. Tetton and Tain-field are chief residences. The parish is noted for its cider. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells; value, £240. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Bristol. The church is Early and Later English, consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with sculptured and pinnacled tower, and contains finely carved bench-ends in the flamboyant style, and an interesting old altar-tomb of the Warre family. There is a Congregational chapel.

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 Kingstone from the following:

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

Maps

Online maps of Kingstone 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.