In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Weston super Mare like this:
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.
Weston super Mare through time
Weston super Mare is now part of North Somerset district. Click here for graphs and data of how North Somerset has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Weston super Mare itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Weston super Mare in North Somerset | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/703
Date accessed: 16th April 2024
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