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Stanton-Drew (St. Mary)

STANTON-DREW (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Clutton, hundred of Keynsham, E. division of Somerset, 1½ mile (W. by S.) from Pensford; containing 704 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, with the living of Pensford St. Thomas annexed, valued in the king's books at £7. 2. 8½.; patron, the Archdeacon of Bath. The great tithes have been commuted for £234. 18., and the vicarial for £237; the impropriate glebe comprises 48 acres, and the vicarial one acre. Richard Jones, Esq., in 1668 bequeathed to his executors a large sum of money for charitable uses (with which they purchased an estate), one-fifth for the instruction of poor children of this parish and that of Stowey, and another fifth for apprenticing boys of this parish only: the portion allotted to Stanton-Drew is £72 per annum. Near the church is an extensive Druidical temple of three circles of stones, of which the diameters are respectively 120, 43, and 32 yards, spreading itself over ten acres of ground. In the parish is also the hamlet of Belton, supposed to be a corruption of Belgeton, or the town of the Belgæ, being situated on the line of the Wansdyke, the ancient boundary of their territory.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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