Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for WESTON-SUPER-MARE

WESTON-SUPER-MARE, a town and a parish in Axbridge district, Somerset. The town stands on the coast, at the terminus of a short branch of the Bristol and Exeter railway, under the rocky fir-covered Worle hill, 3 miles NE of Brean-Down point, and 20 SW by W of Bristol; was, so late as 1810, a poor small fishing hamlet; suffered then, and for years afterwards, such extensive depositions of ooze from the tide as to be nick-named Weston-super-Mud; underwent great and rapid change, in result of becoming a watering-place; rose to a population of nearly 4,000 in 1851, and doubled that population before the end of 1861: acquired, onward to 1869, such increasingly great improvements as to become a very handsome town and a first-rate sea-bathing resort; comprises many fine streets, terraces, and crescents, together with numerous detached elegant residences; includes a fine open space, called Ellenborough Park lined along the sides with ornamental villas; enjoys a salubrious climate, a good bathing beach, and charming environs; is a seat of petty-sessions and county courts; publishes two weekly newspapers; carries on fine pottery manufacture in two establishments, and a very extensive sprat fishery; and has a new and handsome head post-office,‡ a very fine r. station with telegraph, two new and handsome banking offices, three hotels, a town hall in the Venetian style, built at a cost of £3,000, a handsome suite of assembly-rooms, a gentlemen's club-house of 1869, a market-hall built in 1854 and enlarged in 1859, a promenade-pier 1,100 feet long and 20 feet wide, completed in 1867 at a cost of £20,000, a steam-boat landing-stage beyond the pier, new harbour works at Brean-Down, a parochial church rebuilt in 1824 and enlarged in 1837, another church in the later English style built in 1847, two other churches built in 1855 and 1861, each with a tower and spire, an Independent chapel of 1858, with very fine front steeple, a Baptist chapel of 1866, cruciform and second-pointed, three other dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a tasteful cemetery of 7½ acres, with two fine mortuary chapels, a mechanics' institute, subscription reading rooms, a school of art, national and British schools, and some charities. The parish includes Ashcombe and Milton hamlets, and comprises 1,590 acres of land and 1,180 of water-Real property, £36,639; of which £384 are in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 4,034; in 1861, 8,038. Houses, 1,127. Pop. in 1869, about 12,000. Traces of ancient camps are on Worle hill; and various objects interesting to antiquaries, geologists, and tourists, are in the near vicinity. The head living or St. John's is a rectory, and the livings of Emmanuel, Christchurch, and Trinity are p. curacies, in the diocese of Bath and Wells Value of St. J., £264;* of E., £148; of C., £138; of T., not reported. Patron of St. J., the Bishop of B and. W.; of E., C., and T., Trustees.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Weston super Mare CP/AP       Axbridge RegD/PLU       Somerset AncC
Place: Weston super Mare

Go to the linked place page for a location map, and for access to other historical writing about the place. Pages for linked administrative units may contain historical statistics and information on boundaries.