Ilton, Somerset
| Ilton | |
| Somerset | |
|---|---|
 St Peter's Church, Ilton | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST355175 |
| Location: | 50°57’12"N, 2°55’11"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 854 (2011) |
| Post town: | Ilminster |
| Postcode: | TA19 |
| Dialling code: | 01460 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Somerset |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Yeovil |
Ilton is a village in Somerset, eight miles south-east of Taunton, and two miles north of Ilminster. The parish includes the hamlets of Ilford and Cad Green, the latter with 16th-century almshouses.[1]
The Church of St Peter dates from the 14th century, and includes memorials to the Wadham family.[2] It is a Grade II* listed building.[3]
History
The village was one of the possessions of Athelney Abbey until the dissolution of the monasteries.
The current hamstone Ilford Bridge probably dates from the early 18th century when it was on the Curry Rivel to Chard turnpike road.[4] The current A303 is just south of the village.
In the 18th century the Chard Canal was built close to the village. This had been intended as a part of a ship canal, passable by vessels of up to 200 tons, between the Bristol Channel and the English Channel, but was never completed.
North of the village is the Merryfield Aerodrome, which served as a bomber base in Second World War, reopened as HMS Heron II, RNAS Merryfield and was then used for helicopter training.[2]
Ilton Halt was a small railway station on the Chard Branch Line between 1928 and 1962. It included a platform of concrete construction. During wartime (Second World War) it also served the nearby aerodrome.
About the village
Cad Green
Cad Green takes its name from the nearby stream, currently called Cad Brook.[5]
Merryfield
- Main article: Merryfield, Ilton
About a mile west-north-west of the parish church, situated between the disused railway line and the disused Chard Canal, is a moated site which is all that remains of the mediæval fortified manor house of Merryfield (or Muryfield), which was the seat of the ancient Wadham family. The last of the family in the direct male line was Nicholas Wadham who, with his wife Dorothy Petre, founded Wadham College, Oxford in 1610.[2]
Monuments to the Wadham family survive in the Church of St Peter, Ilton and also in the nearby Church of St Mary, Ilminster. The three sisters of Nicholas Wadham were (in their issue) his heirs, one of whom was Florence Wadham (died 1596), wife of Sir John Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham in Somerset, and mother of Sir John Wyndham (1558-1645).
The Wyndham family, which later commonly used the first name "Wadham", inherited the estate of Merryfield and the "Wyndham Estate" is still today the largest employer in the village of Ilton.[6] It bears no relation to the present large 19th-century grade II listed mansion known as Merryfield House, immediately south of the parish church.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Ilton, Somerset) |
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1345865: Whetstone's Almshouses (Grade II listing)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Bush, Robin (1994). Somerset: The complete guide. Wimborne, Dorset: Dovecote Press. ISBN 1-874336-27-X. https://archive.org/details/somersetcomplete0000bush.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1057052: Church of St Peter (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1057060: Ilford Bridge (east) (Grade II listing)
- ↑ Andrew Breeze, 'Cad Green, Ilton, Somerset', in Richard Coates, Andrew Breeze, and David Horovitz, Celtic Voices English Places: Studies of the Celtic Impact on Place-Names in England (Stamford: Tyas, 2000), pp. 83-84 [first publ. 'The Name of Cad Green, Ilton', Notes and Queries for Somerset and Dorset, 34 [351 of the continuous series] (2000), 355-56].
- ↑ http://iltontalking.btck.co.uk/People/St%20Peters%20Church
