Kingston Seymour
| Kingston Seymour | |
| Somerset | |
|---|---|
 The Triangle, Kingston Seymour | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST402670 |
| Location: | 51°23’54"N, 2°51’38"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 388 (2011) |
| Post town: | Clevedon |
| Postcode: | BS21 |
| Dialling code: | 01934 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | North Somerset |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
North Somerset |
Kingston Seymour is a small village in Somerset, in the north of the county between Clevedon and Weston-super-Mare, on the North Somerset Levels, and within the Chewton Hundred parish has a population of 388. The M5 motorway passes very close to the village.
History
The late mediæval village cross stands on "The Triangle".[1]
The village suffered serious flooding in the Bristol Channel floods of 1607 when the sea walls were breached and the church in Kingston Seymour was said to have had five feet of water in it for ten days.[2] The parish, which extends to the Severn Estuary coast, saw flooding on a regular basis as late as the 1800s. After flooding, the land was considered unsuitable for dairy cattle for some time and the resulting bad air was said to cause "attacks of the ague" in local people.[3]
Kingston Seymour school opened its doors in 1858. Closing in 1968, the building was then used as an office for the local drainage board and later as a spinning and weaving centre. It has now been converted into a private house.[4]
The village used to be on the route of the Clevedon branch line a 3.5 miles (5.6 km) railway line that ran from Yatton station to Clevedon. It was opened in 1847 and passenger services ceased in 1966. The last original bits of track, around Kingston Seymour, were lifted in the late 1980s.
Geography
The village is close to Blake's Pools a nature reserve owned by Environment Agency and leased by the Avon Wildlife Trust, on the banks of the Congresbury Yeo close to its mouth. The three freshwater and brackish pools were dug between 1983 and 1987 to attract wildlife. It forms part of the Severn Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Area and RAMSAR site.
Parish church
The parish church, the Church of All Saints, dates from the late 14th or early 15th century and is in the Perpendicular Gothic style. The porch contains a noticeboard which describes the Bristol Channel floods which affected this area of coastal Somerset in 1607. During that event the floodwaters rose over the top of the church's pews and filled the font.
The church today is a Grade I listed building.[5]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Kingston Seymour) |
- Kingston Seymour at the Open Directory Project
- Yatton Moor Team Ministry
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1320994: Village Cross
- ↑ Havinden, Michael (1982). The Somerset Landscape. The making of the English landscape. London: Hodder and Stoughton. pp. 159. ISBN 0-340-20116-9.
- ↑ Rutter, John (1829). Delineations of the North Western Division of the County of Somerset. author ... London: Longman, Rees, and Company and J. and A. Arch, Cornhill.. pp. 64. https://archive.org/details/delineationsnor00rowbgoog. "kingston seymour."
- ↑ Pudner, Marion; Sue Thomas (2008). Kingston Seymour School: The Root of Village Life 1858-1968. J.R. Marketing. ISBN 978-0-9540430-2-5.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1313027: Church of All Saints
