Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for SOMERTON

SOMERTON, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, and a hundred, in Somerset. The town stands on an eminence adjacent to the river Cary, 5 miles ENE of Langport r. station; was a residence of the West Saxon kings, and gave name to Somersetshire; suffered devastation by the Danes in 877; had anciently a castle, in which King John of France was confined; is now a seat of petty-sessions; and has a post-office‡ under Taunton, a banking office, two chief inns, a town hall, an ancient market cross, a recent police station, a decorated English church, three dissenting chapels, an endowed school with £30 a year, a national school, alms houses with £50 a year, charities £59, a weekly market on Tuesday, and nine annual fairs.—The parish includes the tythings of S.-Borough, S.-Earl, and Hurcott, and the hamlets of S.-Door, Catsgore, Highbrooks, and Midney. Acres, 6,925. Real property, £11,973. Pop., 2,206. Houses, 480. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells. Value, £279.* Patron, the Earl of Ilchester. -The sub-district contains nine parishes, and is in Langport district. Acres, 20,744. Pop., 5,797. Houses, 1,266.-The hundred comprises 24,917 acres. Pop., 5,929. Houses, 1,271.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, a sub-district, and a hundred"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Somerton CP/AP       Somerton Hundred       Somerton SubD       Somerset AncC
Place: Somerton

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