South Cadbury, Somerset
Historical Description
Cadbury, South, a parish in Somersetshire, 2 miles E of Sparkford station on the G.W.R., and 6 WSW of Wincanton. It has a post office under Bath; money order office, North Cadbury; telegraph office, Sparkford. Acreage, 695; population, 159. Cadbury Castle, situated on the northern extremity of a ridge of hills, and anciently called Camelot, is thought to have been a Roman station, and probably was the Cathbrigion where Arthur routed the Saxons in a great battle; has yielded weapons, articles of camp equipage, a silver horse shoe, and many Roman coins; comprises four concentric deep ditches and as many massive ramparts, enclosing an area of about 20 acres; and has in the centre a moated mound, called King Arthur's Palace, in the fourth ditch a spring called King Arthur's Well, and on the north side another called Queen Anne's Wishing Well. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Bath and Wells; value, £237 with residence. The church is good, and was completely restored in 1874.
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 | South Cadbury St. Thomas à Becket | |
Hundred | Catsash | |
Poor Law union | Wincanton |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1560.
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Somerset Archives & Local Studies, have images of the Parish Registers for Somerset online.
Churches
Church of England
St. Thomas à Becket (parish church)
The church of St. Thomas à Becket is an ancient building of stone, chiefly in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, with south aisle, nave of three bays, south aisle, north porch and an embattled western tower with pinnacles, containing 5 bells, rehung in 1908 at a cost of £200: the pulpit and font are of Bath stone: in the aisle is a piscina and a hagioscope; five of the windows are stained, and include one with a figure of Thomas à Becket: in 1874 the church (with the exception of the tower) was restored and reseated with open benches of carved oak and a stone reredos erected at a cost of £1,164, the font has an octagonal basin, with panelled sides in quatrefoils and stands on a square base: there are sittings for 150 persons: in the church is an unbroken list of rectors from the year 1310.
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 South Cadbury from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Cadbury, South (St. Thomas à Becket))
Maps
Online maps of South Cadbury 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.