Locking, Somerset

Historical Description

Locking, a parish in Somerset, 3¼ miles from Weston-super-Mare station on the G.W.R., and 3 miles N of Banwell station on the Cheddar Valley branch of the G.W.R. It has a post office under Weston-super-Mare; money order and telegraph office, Banwell. Acreage, 1030; population, 127. The manor and much of the land belong to the Merchant Adventurers of Bristol. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells; value, £120 with residence. The church was rebuilt in 1810, retains the tower of the previous edifice, comprises nave, aisle, transept, chancel, and porch, and contains a fine stone pulpit, and a curious old carved font. The tower is a beautiful specimen of 14th century work. The font is Anglo-Saxon, and one of the oldest in the kingdom. There are several stained glass windows in the church, three of them in memory of the Law family.

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 Locking from the following:

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

Maps

Online maps of Locking 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.