Old Cleeve, Somerset

Historical Description

Cleeve, Old, a parish in Somerset, on the coast, adjacent to the Brendon Hills, and a mile from Washford station on the G.W.R. It includes the chapeh'y of Leighland, and the hamlets of Warren, Chapel-Cleeve, Blue-Anchor, Bilbrook, Roadwater, Golsoncott, and part of Washford. Post town, Taunton. Acreage, 5203; population, 1447. High craggy cliffs are on the coast, commanding fine views across the Bristol Channel, and alabaster abounds near Blue-Anchor. A Cistercian abbey was founded in the Vallis Florida, or flowery vale, in the time of Henry II., by William de Romana, Earl of Lincoln, and endowed with the property of the entire parish. A beautiful refectory and other domestic buildings remain. A Lady's chapel, long a resort of devotees, and still represented by some fragments, stood between the church and Blue-Anchor. A fragment of a cross, for guidance to the chapel, stands between the church and Washford, and another ancient cross, in tolerable preservation, stands in the churchyard. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Bath and Wells; value, £456. The church is ancient, with floor slanting upward from the tower to the chancel, but is in good condition. The vicarage of Leighland is a separate benefice.

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 Old Cleeve from the following:

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

Maps

Online maps of Old Cleeve 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.