Blagdon

Blagdon
Somerset
Blagdon with the lake in the foreground
Location
Grid reference:	ST500589
Location:	51°19’37"N, 2°43’1"W
Data
Population:	1,116  (2011)
Post town:	Bristol
Postcode:	BS40
Dialling code:	01761
Local Government
Council:	North Somerset
Parliamentary constituency:	Weston-super-Mare

Blagdon is a village and parish in the Winterstoke hundred of Somerset. It is located in the Mendip Hills, a recognised Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. According to the 2001 census it has a population of 1,116. The village is about 12 miles east of Weston-super-Mare.

History

The village was called Blachedon in the 1086 Domesday Book and the name comes from the Old English bloec and dun meaning 'the black or bleak down'.

Romans

There was a Roman presence in Blagdon from about AD 49 until the end of the Roman occupation of Britain. Several Roman coins and fragments of Roman pottery have been found in the village. There were lead and silver workings in Charterhouse, about a mile and a half uphill to the south, so it is likely that the wealthier supervisors had their houses away from the toxic smoke in the village. Wade and Wade in their 1929 book Somerset suggest traces of Roman mines such as tools and pigs of lead have been found at Blagdon.

Norman feudal barony

Blagdon is believed to have been the caput of the feudal barony held by Serlo de Burci (died c. 1086), who is recorded as holding the manor in the Domesday Book of 1086. However the caput may have been Dartington. The Domesday Book recorded a land area for Blagdon approximating to 2,000 acres, including 200 acres of woodland. Serlo left no sons and his daughter Geva was his sole heiress. She married twice: firstly to "Martin" (died before 1086), to whom she bore a son and heir Robert FitzMartin (died 1159), and secondly to William de Falaise. In 1154 Robert FitzMartin gave St Andrews Church and other land from around the East End of the village to Stanley Abbey in Wiltshire. He also gave land at Blagdon to the Knights Templar which became known as the Temple Hydon Estate. Robert's son was William FitzMartin (1155–1209), whose own son and heir was William FitzMartin (died before 15 February 1216). Next to inherit was Nicholas FitzMartin (1210–1282) whose son Nicholas (died 1260)predeceased him, but had married the sole heiress of the feudal barony of Barnstaple, Maud de Tracy (died before Michaelmas 1279), daughter and sole heiress of Henry de Tracy (died 1274). Nicholas's son William FitzMartin (died 1324) thus inherited Barnstaple from his mother and Blagdon from his grandfather. On the death in 1326 of William's son William without children, his co-heirs were his surviving sister Eleanor and James Audley (died 1386) the son of his deceased sister Joan FitzMartin (died 1322). Eleanor FitzMartin (died 1342) died without children, albeit having married twice. James Audley, 2nd Baron Audley (died 1386) was Joan's son by her second husband Nicholas Audley, 1st Baron Audley (died 1316) of Heleigh Castle, Staffordshire. James Audley thus in 1342 inherited his childless aunt Eleanor's moieties of the two baronies of Barnstaple and Blagdon, thus giving him possession of the whole of each.

The Blagdon Controversy

In the late eighteenth century, the famous writer and educational pioneer Hannah More, shocked at the poverty and ignorance to be found in Mendip villages, was active establishing schools in the area. In 1795 she founded a Sunday School in Blagdon, in the building now called Hannah More House. About this time she wrote to William Wilberforce, the anti-slavery campaigner, about her school, "Several of the grown-up youths had been tried at the last assizes; three were children of a person lately condemned to be hanged — many thieves! Of this banditti we have enlisted one hundred and seventy; and when the clergyman, a hard man, who is also the magistrate, saw these creatures kneeling around us, whom he had seldom seen but to commit or punish in some way, he burst into tears".

However, Mr Bere, the curate referred to in this letter, soon became implacably opposed to the school and after years of pressure it was forced to close. Nevertheless, the furore created made the "Blagdon Controversy" a milestone of national importance in the development of education for the labouring classes.

Physical history

There are several houses in the village dating from mediæval times and earlier. The houses facing on to Bell Square in the north corner of the West End date from the fourteenth century. The shape of some of the existing fields suggest they are of mediæval origin.

Blagdon in the twentieth century

In 1901 the Wrington Vale Light Railway reached Blagdon. It closed to passengers just 31 years later in 1932. Part of the line remained for freight only, but this closed in 1962.

Geography

Church tower with the lake behind

The village is located on the northern edge of the Mendip Hills on the A368, overlooking Blagdon Lake. The headquarters of the dairy company Yeo Valley Organic is located in the village.

When describing Blagdon the names of the three former separate settlements that merged to form Blagdon are usually used: West End, East End, and Street End.

The West End has much of the facilities and services of Blagdon, including its Fire station, Village Shop and Post Office, Butcher, Body & Soul Beauty Salon, Doll's House Shop (Cobblers Collectables), Haircuts shop, clothes shop and coffee parlour, The Mead and Children's Play area, tennis courts and football and rugby union pitches. In the East End there is Blagdon Primary School and the former Blagdon Police Station.

As of March 2010, Blagdon has three pubs open for business: the Seymour Arms. the New Inn, and the Queen Adelaide. (The former Live and Let Live has been demolished and turned into social housing and the new road serving the housing is named Baynard Close after the Lord of the Manor of Blagdon who founded the forerunner of the current village school in 1687. Additionally, the Village Club has a bar and is a social centre. The New Inn is a Grade-II listed building.

Transport

Blagdon is served by several bus services going to Bristol, Bath, Wells and Weston-super-Mare. A Blagdon Minibus is available for groups to use at a small charge. The A368 to Bath goes through Blagdon. The nearest railway station is at Yatton.

Religious sites

St Andrews Church

St Andrew's Church (Church of England) has a 116-foot tower with pinnacles and a cusped lozenge pattern parapet, with a stair turret spirelet in the north-east corner. The tower dates from the 15th century and is one of the tallest in Somerset. The remainder of the church was rebuilt in 1907–09 by Lord Winterstoke (of the Wills tobacco family) The tower contains a bell dating from 1716 and made by Edward Bilbie of the Bilbie family. It is a Grade-II* listed building The lychgate to the east of the church is also a Grade II listed building in its own right. Above the door are four primitive Norman carvings which survived three rebuildings.

There is also a Baptist chapel, the former Methodist chapel having been converted into residential housing.

Culture

Blagdon is the setting of Chapters 8 and 9 of Victor Canning's best-selling novel of 1934, Mr Finchley Discovers his England.

Blagdon has many clubs and organisations including:

• The local History Group
• Women's Institute
• Luncheon Club
• Rainbows ~ www.blagdonrainbows.co.uk, Brownies and Guides
• Scouts
• Tennis, football, cricket and rugby clubs

Famous residents

• John Langhorne (1735–79)
• Augustus Montague Toplady (1740–78)

Listed buildings

There are several Grade-II listed buildings:

• Aldwick Court
• Lodge to south-west of Woodlands
• Stables and Archway at Aldwick Court
• Woodlands
• Bay Trees
• Hannah More House
• The Old Rectory and Wing Cottage
• Fir Tree Farmhouse and attached outbuildings
• Blagdon Court and Court Cottage
• Blagdon House
• Court Farmhouse
• Walnut Tree House
• Coombe Lodge
• Gate Lodge and Gates south of Coombe Lodge
• Gauge House
• Masonic Lodge
• Mill House

Bibliography

• Blagdon Village Website
• Blagdon Village Plan Document

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Blagdon)

• Blagdon at the Open Directory Project
• Blagdon Primary School
• Map of Blagdon circa 1900