Broadway (St. Aldelme)
BROADWAY (St. Aldelme), a parish, in the union of Chard, hundred of Abdick and Bulstone, W. division of Somerset, 2½ miles (W. by N.) from Ilminster; containing, with the tythings of Capland, Broadway, and Rapps, 570 inhabitants. The name of this place was given as descriptive of the situation of the few scattered huts which were constructed at an early period, along each side of a broad path leading through what was then the forest of Roche, or Neroche, so denominated from a Roman encampment called Roche or Rachiche Castle, on the edge of Blackdown Hill. The parish comprises 2012a. 3r. 32p., of which 1043 acres are arable, 850 meadow and pasture, 99 acres orchards and gardens, and 19 wood. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £167; patron and impropriator, the Rev. William Palmer, D.D. The church belonged, until the Reformation, to the abbey of Bisham in Berks, and is a fine cruciform structure, with an ancient tower at the west end, and windows in the later English style: in the churchyard is a beautiful cross on a pedestal, ornamented with figures of saints.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.