Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for WIVELISCOMBE

WIVELISCOMBE-popularly Wilscombe-a small town, a parish, and a subdistrict, in Wellington district, Somerset. The town stands on a 1ow hill,5½ miles NW of Wellington r. station; is traditionally said to have been built by the Saxons, when driven by the Danes from Castle hill, which had been occupied by the Romans; was given by Edward the Confessor to the cathedral of Wells, and had a palace of the Bishops; is now a seat of petty sessions and a polling place; consists of several streets, with some good modern houses and a number of old ones; and has a post-office‡ under Wellington, Somerset, a banking office two chief inns, a police station, a town hall, a church rebuilt in 1829, Independent and Wesleyan chapels, a national school, a dispensary, charities £100, a very large brewery, a weekly market on Tuesday, great markets on the last Tuesday of Feb. and July, and fairs on 12 May and 25 Sept. The parish includes four hamlets, and comprises 5,984 acres. Real property, £13,958; of which £120 are in gasworks. Pop., 2,735. Houses, 607. The manor belongs to Lord Ashburton. There are slate quarries, and remains of Roman and Danish camps. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells. Value, £300. Patron, the Prebendary of Wiveliscombe.—The sub-district contains 4 parishes. Acres, 10,949. Pop., 3,526. Houses, 764.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a parish, and a subdistrict"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 3rd order divisions")
Administrative units: Wiveliscombe AP/CP       Wiveliscombe SubD       Wellington RegD/PLU       Somerset AncC
Place: Wiveliscombe

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