Chiselborough

Chiselborough
Somerset
Chiselborough from Balham Hill
Location
Grid reference:	ST469148
Location:	50°55’49"N, 2°45’21"W
Data
Population:	275  (2011)
Post town:	Stoke-sub-Hamdon
Postcode:	TA14
Dialling code:	01935
Local Government
Council:	Somerset
Parliamentary constituency:	Yeovil

Chiselborough is a village in Somerset, beside the River Parrett, five miles west of Yeovil, in the Houndsborough Hundred in the south of the county. It had a recorded population of 275 at the 2011 census.

The village consists largely of small cottages built in the local golden hamstone quarried at the local Ham Hill. It is surrounded by five hills within the parish. Geologically, the valley consists of a thin layer of Fuller's earth clay over Yeovil sands.

History

The village was recorded in Saxon times as Ceoselbergon and is later mentioned in the Domesday Book as Ceolseberge in the holding of Robert, Count of Mortain. The name derives from the Old English cisel beorg ('gravel hill').

The Earls of Ilchester held most of the village until 1914 when the estate was sold, having inherited it from the heirs of Joan Wadham, Lady Strangways, first wife of Sir Giles Strangways (1528–1562) of Melbury Sampford, sister and co-heiress of Nicholas Wadham, co-founder of Wadham College, Oxford. The current Baron and Baroness of Chiselborough do not reside in the area.

The annual Chiselborough Fair was held on common ground near the street now known as Fair Place.

Church

The parish church, St Peter and St Paul, has 12th-century origins. The chancel dates from the 17th century and the nave was rebuilt by E L Bracebridge 1842.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Chiselborough)

References

• Countryside Commission, The New Map of England: A Celebration of the South Western Landscape, (Cheltenham: Countryside Commission, 1994)
• Havinden, Michael A. The Somerset Landscape, (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1981)