Timberscombe (St. Michael)
TIMBERSCOMBE (St. Michael), a parish, in the union of Williton, hundred of Carhampton, W. division of Somerset, 2½ miles (W. S. W.) from Dunster; containing 476 inhabitants. The parish includes a small fertile valley surrounded by high hills, and is traversed by the road from Dunster to Dulverton; it comprises by admeasurement 1432 acres. The soil is in some parts gravelly, in others stony; and good stone is quarried for building. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the patronage of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, valued in the king's books at £6. 10.; net income, £170. There is a parsonage-house; the glebe consists of about 3½ acres, and the impropriator possesses 43 acres. The church has an embattled tower surmounted by a low spire, which are much more ancient than the body of the edifice; the nave is separated from the chancel by a handsome screen, in excellent preservation. Richard Ellsworth, in 1714, bequeathed £200 towards building a school-house, and an annuity of £20 for clothing and educating children; it was not erected till 1824, and the endowment having accumulated to £50 per annum, about 60 children are instructed and clothed. Here are two strong chalybeate springs.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.