Creech St Michael
| Creech St Michael | |
| Somerset | |
|---|---|
 Main bridge over the canal | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST273253 |
| Location: | 51°1’22"N, 3°2’16"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 2,416 (2011[1]) |
| Post town: | Taunton |
| Postcode: | TA3 |
| Dialling code: | 01823 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Somerset West and Taunton |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Taunton Deane |
Creech St Michael is a village and parish in Somerset, three miles east of Taunton in the Andersfield hundred. The parish straddles the M5 motorway and includes several scattered settlements. The village of Creech St Michael and the hamlets of Charlton, Creech Heathfield, and Ham lie east of the motorway. The hamlets of Adsborough, Coombe,[2] Langaller, and Walford[2] lie west of the motorway. The civil parish has a population of 2,416.[1]
History
The name derives from the Celtic crug, "hill", and the parish church of St. Michael]], which dates from the 13th century.[3][4]
The Bridgwater & Taunton Canal provides a picturesque route through the village for pleasure boats, and the towpath is open to pedestrians and cyclists. There are also dramatic remains of the Chard Canal, including the (filled) junction with the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal, a raised embankment leading south from the village, a ruined aqueduct that would have carried the canal over the River Tone, and the abutments of a second aqueduct across a local road.
The Bristol and Exeter Railway line was opened through the village in 1842 and the junction of the Chard Branch Line was located here in 1860, but Creech St Michael railway station was not opened until 13 August 1928. The station was actually north of the junction so was only used by trains to Yeovil and Bristol. It closed on 5 October 1964 but the line is still open, forming a part of the London to Penzance main line. The branch is closed but remains of it are visible. including the skeleton of a five-arched bridge across the River Tone, and an embankment curving south, parallel to the abandoned canal.
A large paper mill was built on the river to the west of the village in 1875, finally closing in 1993.
In the Second World War, a line of fortifications was built on the boundary of the village, as part of the Taunton Stop Line. The line was meant to contain any German invasion of the south west peninsula. Several pillboxes remain along the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal, one at the old junction with the Chard canal, and one on the embankment of the Chard railway.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Statistics for Wards, LSOAs and Parishes — SUMMARY Profiles" (Excel). Somerset Intelligence. http://www.somersetintelligence.org.uk/files/Somerset%20Census%20Key%20Statistics%20-%20Summary%20Profiles.xls. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The western parts of Coombe and Walford are in the civil parish of West Monkton.
- ↑ Hanks, Patrick; Hodges, Flavia; Mills, A. D.; Room, Adrian (2002). The Oxford Names Companion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 999. ISBN 978-0198605614.
- ↑ "Church of St michael". Images of England. English Heritage. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=270578. Retrieved 17 October 2008.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Creech St Michael) |
- A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 6: Creech St Michael (1992)
- Creech St Michael Baptist Church
- Creech [St Michael] in the Domesday Book
- Adsborough in the Domesday Book