Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for WILLITON

WILLITON, a small town, a chapelry, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred, in Somerset. The town stands near the West Somerset railway, under the Quantock hills, 1½ mile from the coast, and 14½ NW of Taunton; belonged, in the time of King Stephen, to the Fitzurses: passed to the Demboroughs and the Wyndhams; is a seat of county courts, and a polling place; publishes a weekly newspaper; presents a neat appearance, with cottages embowered in shrubs; comprises two long streets; and has a post-office‡ under Taunton, a r. station with telegraph, a banking office, a hotel, remains of two old crosses, an early English church restored in 1858, two dissenting chapels, a national school, a workhouse, and two annual fairs.—The chapelry seems to be identical with the town, and is in St. Decumans parish; but the pop is not separately returned. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Bath and Wells. Value, £70. Patron, the Vicar of St. Decumans.—The sub-district contains 6 parishes. Acres, 17,709. Pop., 5,679. Houses, 1,000.—The district comprehends also Minehead, Dunster, Stogursey, and Stogumber sub-districts; and it formerly included likewise Dulverton sub-district. Acres, exclusive of Dulverton, 109,202. Poor rates in 1863, £11,826. Pop. in 1851, 19,895; in 1861, 19,918. Houses, 3,836. Marriages in 1866, 81; births, 583,- of which 19 were illegitimate; deaths, 304,-of which 75 were at ages under 5 years, and 14 at ages above 85. Births in the ten years 1851-60, 5,659; deaths, 3,525. The places of worship, in 1851, inclusive of Dulverton sub-district, were 39 of the Church of England, with-8,865 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 270 s.; 6 of Baptists, with 1,388 s.; 8 of Wesleyans, with 1,359. s.; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 34 s.; and 4 of Bible Christians, with 360 s. The schools were 29 public day-schools, with 1,616 scholars; 39 private day-schools, with 783 s.; and 44 Sunday schools, with 2,514 s.-The hundred contains 31 parishes, and bears the name of Williton and Free manors. Acres, 115,485. Pop. in 1851, 17,068; in 1861, 17,345. Houses, 3,285.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a chapelry, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Williton CP/Ch       Williton RegD/PLU       Somerset AncC
Place: Williton

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