Mudford
| Mudford | |
| Somerset | |
|---|---|
 Church of St Mary, Mudford | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST574199 |
| Location: | 50°58’24"N, 2°36’24"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 649 (2002 est.) |
| Post town: | Yeovil |
| Postcode: | BA21 |
| Dialling code: | 01935 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | South Somerset |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Yeovil |
Mudford is a village in Somerset, 3 miles north of Yeovil and downstream from it on the River Yeo. The parish includes the hamlets of Mudford Sock, West Mudford and Up Mudford.
The village falls within the Stone Hundred. The Monarch's Way, a 615-mile long-distance footpath that approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated at the Battle of Worcester.[1]
Contents
Parish church
Mudford's parish church is the Church of St Mary The Virgin, which dates back to the 12th century and is a Grade I listed building.
The church has a three-stage tower divided by string courses with clasping corner buttresses, a battlemented parapet with small corner and intermediate pinnacles, and corner gargoyles. There is a stair turret on the north-east corner with a weathervane finial, and a clock face on the east side. It contains five bells dated 1582, 1621, 1623, 1664 and 1666, all by the Purdue family of nearby Closworth.[2] It was granted by Montacute Priory to the Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1339.[3]
Mudford Sock
Mudford Sock ST557191 is a farming village of one large house and a single street. It lies west of Mudford all along the south side of Sock Lane, which runs westward from the Mudford to Yeovil road. At the head of Sock Lane stands Sockhill Farm and at its foot, Sock Farm.
West Mudford
West Mudford ST569202 is a tiny village, half a mile or so to the northwest of Mudford itself.
Up Mudford
Up Mudford ST575187 is barely more than a group of cottages, three-quarters of a mile to the south of Mudford, off the main road but otherwise half-way to the edge of Yeovil. It is barely up any hill as would justify its name but not on the river. It was once the centre of the manor of Mudford Monachorum. Manor Farm is at the east end of the village.
History
At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 there were five manors. The largest which was given with the church to Montacute Priory in 1192, became Mudford Monachorum (Monks' Mudford) and was centered on the present hamlet of Up Mudford.[3]
At the eastern end of the parish on the border with Dorset, the village of Nether Adber was held by Siward the fowler before and after the Battle of Hastings and had a chapel in 1351 but was totally abandoned in the mid 16th century.[3]
Manor Farm House, the Manor House of Up Mudford, was built in 1630 on the site of an earlier building after a fire.[4]
Pictures of the hamlets and farms
Mudford Sock
West Mudford
Up Mudford
Hummer Farmhouse
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Mudford) |
References
- ↑ "The Monarch's Way". The Quinton Oracle. 2005. http://www.qlhs.org.uk/oracle/monarchs-way/monarchs-way.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
- ↑ "Church of St Mary". Images of England. English Heritage. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=262693. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Bush, Robin (1994). Somerset: The complete guide. Wimborne: The Dovecote Press Ltd. pp. 152. ISBN 1874336261.
- ↑ "Manor Farm House". Images of England. English Heritage. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=262716. Retrieved 2009-01-31.
