Banwell

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Banwell
Somerset

Banwell Castle
Location
Grid reference: ST398591
Location: 51°19’37"N, 2°51’50"W
Data
Population: 2,919  (2011[1])
Post town: Banwell
Postcode: BS29
Dialling code: 01934
Local Government
Council: North Somerset
Parliamentary
constituency: 		Weston-super-Mare

Banwell is a village and civil parish on the River Banwell in the Winterstoke Hundred of Somerset.[2] Its population was 2,919 according to the 2011 census.[1]

History

Banwell Camp, east of the village, is a univallate hillfort which has yielded flint implements from the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age.[3] It was also occupied in the Iron Age.[4] In the late 1950s it was excavated by J.W. Hunt of the Banwell Society of Archaeology.[5] It is surrounded by an over 12-ft-high bank and ditch.[6]

The remains of a Romano-British villa were discovered in 1968. It included a courtyard, wall and bath house close to the River Banwell. Artefacts from the site suggest it fell into disuse in the 4th century.[7] Earthworks from farm buildings, 460 yards south of Gout House Farm, occupied from the 11th to 14th centuries where archaeological remains suggest the site was first occupied in the Romano-British period. The raised area which was occupied by the Bower House was surrounded by a water filled ditch, part of which has since been incorporated into a rhyne.[8]

Banwell Abbey was built as a bishops residence in the 14th and 15th century on the site of a monastic foundation. It was renovated in 1870 by Hans Price, and is now a Grade-II* listed building.[9] Nearby is a small building presented to the village by Miss Elizabeth Fazakerly, who lived at The Abbey in 1887 to house a small fire-engine. It served as the fire station until the 1960s and now houses a small museum of memorabilia related to the fire station.[10]

"Beard's Stone" in Cave's Wood dates from 1842. It marks the reburial site of an ancient human skeleton found in a cave near Bishop's Cottage. William Beard, an amateur archaeologist who had found the bones, had them reinterred and marked the site with the stone with a poetic inscription.[11]

Banwell Castle is a Victorian castle built in 1847 by John Dyer Sympson, a solicitor from London. Originally built as his home, it is now a hotel and restaurant and is a Grade-II* listed building.[12]

Of the two historic village pumps standing in the village, one of them was erected to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.[13]

Geography

Banwell is located five miles east of Weston-super-Mare on the A371 road and is where the western end of the A368 road begins. The village is at the west end of the northern side of the Mendip Hills.

The village is located between the M5 motorway and the A38, and is used by traffic travelling from the motorway to Bristol Airport. This traffic, together with other users of the A371 and A368, often causes the narrow streets of Banwell to become jammed.[14] There has been a campaign to bypass Banwell for many years, but other villages in the area have objected as increasing the traffic capacity on the roads would create problem on their roads. The Greater Bristol Strategic Transport Study in 2006 recommended that a road be built from Junction 21 of the M5 directly to Bristol Airport, bypassing Banwell and all the other local villages, thus alleviating their concerns.[15] However, this would not benefit local traffic passing through Banwell to and from Weston-super-Mare, Wells and Bath, so some traffic problems would still exist.

Banwell Caves is a four-acre geological and biological Site of Special Scientific Interest at the western end of Banwell Hill.

Religious sites

St Andrew's Church

The mainly 15th-century parish church of St Andrew is a Grade-I listed building.[16] The body of the church has a nave with a clerestory, north and south aisles and a rather short chancel, considering the proportions of the rest of the church. The font dates from the 12th century and there is a carved stone pulpit from the 15th century and a carved rood screen built and set up in 1552, which escaped the Reformation. The 100-ft-high tower that contains ten bells dates from the 18th to 20th century and the clock is dated 1884. Bells dating from 1734 and 1742 were made by Thomas Bilbie, of the Bilbie family.[17]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "2011 Census Profile" (Excel). North Somerset Council. Archived from the original on 4 January 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140104204530/http://www.n-somerset.gov.uk/Environment/Planning_policy_and-research/researchandmonitoring/Documents/North%20Somerset%20Small%20area%20geography%20profiles%20tool.xls. Retrieved 4 January 2014. 
  2. ↑ "Somerset Hundreds". GENUKI. http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SOM/Miscellaneous/. Retrieved 9 September 2011. 
  3. ↑ "Banwell Camp". Pastscape. English Heritage. http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=194460&resourceID=2. Retrieved 29 January 2011. 
  4. ↑ "Archaeological Aerial Survey in the Northern Mendip Hills: A Highlight Report for the National Mapping Programme". English Heritage. p. 32. http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/archaeological-aerial-survey-northern-mendip-hills-nmp/Northern_Mendip_Hills_AONB_NMP_Report_web.pdf. Retrieved 29 January 2011. 
  5. ↑ "Banwell Camp". Fortified England. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110711021322/http://www.fortifiedengland.com/Home/Categories/ViewItem/tabid/61/Default.aspx?IID=1331. Retrieved 29 January 2011. 
  6. ↑ "Mendip Hills". English Heritage. http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/research/landscapes-and-areas/protected-landscapes/mendip-hills/. Retrieved 29 January 2011. 
  7. ↑ "Romano-British villa, Banwell". English Heritage. Archived from the original on 10 September 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140910012751/http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1013434. Retrieved 21 August 2014. 
  8. ↑ "Deserted medieval farmstead 420m south of Gout House Farm". English Heritage. Archived from the original on 13 December 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141213210950/http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1011133. Retrieved 7 December 2014. 
  9. ↑ "Banwell Abbey and The Cloisters". Images of England. English Heritage. Archived from the original on 2 November 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20121102144117/http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=33358. Retrieved 19 March 2011. 
  10. ↑ Warren, Derrick (2005). Curious Somerset. Stroud: Sutton Publishing. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-0-7509-4057-3. 
  11. ↑ Warren, Derrick (2005). Curious Somerset. Stroud: Sutton Publishing. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-0-7509-4057-3. 
  12. ↑ "Banwell Castle detailed record". Images of England. Archived from the original on 8 December 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20071208202225/http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=350213. Retrieved 24 October 2007. 
  13. ↑ http://www.villagepumps.org.uk/banwell.htm
  14. ↑ "The problem". Bypass Banwell campaign website. Archived from the original on 7 December 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20071207063624/http://www.bypassbanwell.co.uk/textpages/theproblem.htm. Retrieved 24 October 2007. 
  15. ↑ "On the right road at last?". The Weston Mercury. 30 June 2006. Archived from the original on 8 October 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20061008165624/http://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/content/twm/flatfiles/features/Features2006/aspx/06-06-30Road.aspx. Retrieved 24 October 2007. 
  16. ↑ "Parish Church of St Andrew detailed record". Images of England. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?id=33352. Retrieved 24 October 2007. 
  17. ↑ Moore, James; Rice, Roy; Hucker, Ernest (1995). Bilbie and the Chew Valley clock makers. The authors. ISBN 0-9526702-0-8. 

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