Bishop Sutton

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Bishop Sutton
Somerset
Location
Grid reference: ST587597
Location: 51°20’5"N, 2°35’32"W
Data
Post town: Bristol
Postcode: BS39
Dialling code: 01275
Local Government
Council: Bath & NE Somerset
Parliamentary
constituency: 		North East Somerset

Bishop Sutton is a small village within the Chew Valley in Somerset. It lies south of Chew Valley Lake and north of the Mendip Hills, approximately ten miles south of Bristol on the A368, Weston-super-Mare to Bath road.

The village has a large village hall, a public house (The Red Lion), an organic culinary school and bed and breakfast (Meadow View), a small supermarket, several shops including a Post Office within the village store, a tennis club and a caravan park. Next to the village hall are sports pitches.

The lake is a popular place for children, adults and the elderly alike with beautiful views and entertainment such as fishing and sailing. There is a museum and tea shop on one side of the lake and a restaurant on the other.

The main industry in the village was a coal mine owned by J. Lovell & Sons from 1835 to 1929, which was part of the Somerset coalfield. There was also a large flour mill, part of which was converted into flats.

Churches

Church & Primary School

The parish church, the Church of the Holy Trinity, dates from 1848 and is a Grade II listed building.[1]

The village also possesses a Methodist Chapel that dates in part from the 1780s and it is thought that John Wesley the founder of Methodism may have preached there.[2]

Bishop Sutton from Knowle Hill

History

Coal mining

Much of the exploratory survey work which identified the geology of the area was carried out by William Smith, who became known as the "Father of English Geology", building on earlier work in the same area by John Strachey, who lived at Sutton Court.

The Pensford coal basin lies in the northern area of the Somerset coalfield around Bishop Sutton, Pensford, Stanton Drew, Farmborough and Hunstrete.

The date for the first pits around Bishop Sutton are uncertain but there was at least one before 1719.[3] By 1824 a collection of four bell pits were identified in field tithe No 1409, and four shaft pits in field tithe No 1428, but they were no longer working.[3]

The Old Pit (ST587597), which was also known as Sutton Top Pit or Upper Sutton Pit, was dug before 1799 and owned by Lieutenant Henry Fisher, who sold it in 1821 to Robert Blinman Dowling and several seams of coal were identified and exploited. After Dowling's death the Old Pit was sold to Mr. T.T. Hawkes in 1852,[3] but he defaulted on the payments and it was sold in 1853 to William Rees-Mogg (an ancestor of William Rees-Mogg) and his associates.[4] The shaft reached a depth of 304 feet,[5] but went out of production by 1855,[3] when the "New" Pit which had been sunk in the early 19th century but then closed, was reopened and deepened to exploit deeper seams. The New Pit (ST587597) had two shafts of four feet diameter, one for winding and one for pumping. In 1896 it was owned by F. Spencer, New Rock Colliery.

About the village

Folly Farm

Main article: Folly Farm, Somerset

Folly Farm is a traditionally managed visitable farm and nature reserve run by the Avon Wildlife Trust. The farmhouse is of the 17th century and the surrounding land includes neutral grassland, flowery meadows and woodlands with splendid views.

Much of Folly Farm is designated as a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. The designated site comprises two adjacent areas, the meadows (48 acres) and Dowlings Wood (22 acres). The site is situated on a curved ridge of land on neutral soils derived from the underlying Keuper Marl. The soil is of the Icknield Association with dark brown, moist but moderately well-drained clay. It attracts a wide range of birds. The pasture is of a kind now rare in the area. A number of scarce species of fly are listed from the site.[6][7]

The site was purchased from the Strachey family who were lords of the manor of the nearby Sutton Court in 1987.[8]

Burledge Hill

Main article: Burledge Hill

Burledge Hill is on the southern edge of the village of Bishop Sutton. The site comprises a mixture of flower rich grassland, scrub and mature hedgerows. Three fields are designated as Burledge Sidelands and Meadows a Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI),[9] and, since November 2005, as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) covering 48.7 ha.[10]

Burledge hillfort is a univallate Iron Age hillfort.[11][12] The site was investigated three times: in 1955 by the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society and in 1959 and 1966 by field investigation.[13] In 1955, the excavating archaeologists found evidence of post or stake holes, ditches, pits, and gullies inside the fort. They also found artifacts like a part of an iron fibula, animal bones, and pottery. One find which evidenced that metalworking was done at this site was the discovery of iron slag.[14]

The Elms

The Elms on Sutton Hill Road is a detached house dating from the early 18th century which has Grade II listed building status.[15]

Sport and leisure

  • Football: Bishop Sutton A.F.C., established in 1977, although it is actually a reformed version of a club that dated from the early 1900s.
  • Tennis: Bishop Sutton Tennis Club[16]

In 2011, residents of Bishop Sutton and surrounding villages banded together to form a new charity, the Chew Valley Youth Trust,[17] to combat the declining provision in leisure and recreational activities for young people in the region. In response to the closure of local Youth Clubs and declining state support for local transport, the charity combats issues of rural isolation and provides young residents with recreational activities.

Outside links

 ("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Bishop Sutton)

References

  1. ↑ National Heritage List 1320762: Church of the Holy Trinity
  2. ↑ "Bishop Sutton Methodist Church". North East Somerset and Bath Methodist Circuit. Archived from the original on 10 May 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110510104255/http://nesb-methodists.org.uk/churches/bishop_sutton. Retrieved 21 December 2010. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Williams, W.J. (1976). Coal Mining in Bishop Sutton North Somerset c. 1799–1929. 
  4. ↑ Durham, I. & M. (1991). Chew Magna and the Chew Valley in old photographs. Redcliffe Press. ISBN 1-872971-61-X. 
  5. ↑ Down, C.G.; A. J. Warrington (2005). The history of the Somerset coalfield. Radstock: Radstock Museum. ISBN 0-9551684-0-6. 
  6. ↑ SSSI listing and designation for Folly Farm
  7. ↑ Gibbs, David J. (2002) Scarcer Diptera found in the Bristol region in 1999, 2000 and 2001 Dipterists Digest (second series) 9:1-13
  8. ↑ Ewart, Alan W.; Douglas C. Baker; Glyn C. Bissix (2004). "3". Integrated Resource and Environmental Management. CABI Publishing. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-85199-834-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=i54yObbn1xcC&pg=PA41&dq=Sutton+Court+Somerset. 
  9. ↑ "Burledge Hill". Avon Wildlife trust. http://www.avonwildlifetrust.org.uk/reserves/burledge_hill.htm. Retrieved 31 December 2010. 
  10. ↑ SSSI listing and designation for Burledge Sidelands and Meadows
  11. ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 197270 – Burledge Hillfort
  12. ↑ "Mendip Hills An Archaeological Survey of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty". Somerset County Council Archeological Projects. Archived from the original on 16 May 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110516154619/http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/hes/downloads/HES_MendipAONB.pdf. Retrieved 16 January 2011. 
  13. ↑ "Burledge Camp". Fortified England. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110711021242/http://www.fortifiedengland.com/Home/Categories/ViewItem/tabid/61/Default.aspx?IID=1359. Retrieved 22 December 2010. 
  14. ↑ Template:Cite report
  15. ↑ National Heritage List 1136622: The Elms
  16. ↑ Bishop Sutton Tennis Club
  17. ↑ "Chew Valley Youth Trust". Archived from the original on 30 March 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120330223629/http://www.chewvalleyyouthtrust.org/. Retrieved 12 May 2006. 
  • Durham, I. & M. (1991). Chew Magna and the Chew Valley in Old Photographs. Redcliffe Press. ISBN 1-872971-61-X. 
  • Janes, Rowland (ed.) (1987). The Natural History of the Chew Valley. ISBN 0-9545125-2-9. 
  • Ross, Lesley (ed.) (2004). Before the Lake: Memories of the Chew Valley. The Harptree Historic Society. ISBN 0-9548832-0-9. 

Further reading

  • Dews, Karen & Henon, Andrew, eds. (2008) Water Memories Making History; with young people of Bishop Sutton Youth Centre. Nesa Publications ISBN 978-0-9557079-1-9
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