Staple Fitzpaine
| Staple Fitzpaine | |
| Somerset | |
|---|---|
 Castle Neroche in Staple Fitzpaine | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST262183 |
| Location: | 50°57’36"N, 3°3’7"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 189 (2011) |
| Post town: | Taunton |
| Postcode: | TA3 |
| Dialling code: | 01823 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Somerset West and Taunton |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Taunton Deane |
Staple Fitzpaine is a village in Somerset, within the Blackdown Hills five miles south of Taunton. The village had a recorded population of just 189 in 2011. The wider parish includes the hamlet of Badger Street.
The parish (by area the second-largest in Somerset) stretches south to Castle Neroche, east to Whitty Cross, west to Staple Hill and north to just past Smokey Bottom.
The main part of the village itself is centred on the crossroads by the Greyhound Inn,[1] on the Taunton to Chard road. Curland and Bickenhall, two smaller villages close by to the east, are socially and culturally one with Staple Fitzpaine. They have a combined population of almost 200.
History
Around the crossroads at Staple Fitzpaine there are several large sandstone boulders. They are called devilstones and are said to have been thrown by the Devil from Castle Neroche (some went over Staple to land in the Witch Lodge area, another he tossed back over his shoulder into West Buckland). According to legend if you prick them with a pin they draw blood. English word 'Stapol' means pillar or post and it is thought likely that this gave the village the first part of its name.[2] The second part of the name comes from the Fitzpaine family who owned the manor between 1233 and 1393.[3]
St Peter's Church
The parish church, the Church of St Peter, is Norman in origin, and has a Norman doorway reset in the south aisle. The chancel dates from the 14th century. The north aisle was added and the church refenestrated in the 15th century.
The tower dates from about 1500; a crenelated, three-stage tower has merlons pierced with trefoil headed arches set on a quatrefoil pierced parapet. The south porch and vestry though are much more recent, dating from 1841.
The church has been designated as a Grade I listed building.[4]
The church has six bells, the heaviest at 16/17cwt. The no.2 is the oldest, from 1480, and the newest addition is the treble bell which was brought in during the mid 1980s from Chaffcombe church.[5] In 1803 one of the bells was made by Thomas Castleman Bilbie of Cullompton, one of the Bilbie family of bell founders and clock makers.[6]
Within the churchyard stands a sandstone cross, built in the 14th century and largely rebuilt around 1894.[7]
About the village
The William Portman Almshouses in the village date from 1643, and were restored in 1970. They were originally donated by Sir William Portman.[8] The Portman family from nearby Orchard Portman purchased the village in 1600 and dominated it until 1944.[3]
The Manor was built in 1840 as the rectory for the Rev. Fitzhardinge Berkeley Portman.[9]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Staple Fitzpaine) |
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1060278: Greyhound Inn
- ↑ "The villages of Staple Fitzpaine, Curland and Bickenhall,". Stoke St Mary.net. Archived from the original on 2007-09-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20070912174952/http://www.stokestmary.net/NEROCHE/historystaple.htm. Retrieved 2007-09-30.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bush, Robin (1994). Somerset: The complete guide. Wimborne, Dorset: Dovecote Press. ISBN 1-874336-27-X.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1060274: Church of St Peter
- ↑ "Tower and Bells". Staple Fitzpaine Ringers. Archived from the original on 2011-05-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20110522223927/http://www.freewebs.com/staple_ringing/towerandbells.htm. Retrieved 2007-09-30.
- ↑ Moore, James; Rice, Roy; Hucker, Ernest (1995). Bilbie and the Chew Valley clock makers. The authors. ISBN 0-9526702-0-8.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1060277: Cross in churchyard
- ↑ "Almshouses". Images of England. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=271105. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
- ↑ "The Manor". Images of England. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=271114. Retrieved 2007-09-29.