Allerford is a village in the county of

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England, located within

Exmoor National Park Exmoor is loosely defined as an area of hilly open moorland in west Somerset and north Devon in South West England. It is named after the River Exe, the source of which is situated in the centre of the area, two miles north-west of Simonsbath. ...

, and is part of the parish of

Selworthy Selworthy is a small village and civil parish from Minehead in Somerset, England. It is located in the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, National Trust's Holnicote Estate on the northern fringes of Exmoor. The pari ...

in the district of

Somerset West and Taunton Somerset West and Taunton is a local government district in Somerset, England. It was established on 1 April 2019 by the Somerset West and Taunton (Local Government Changes) Order 2018. The council replaced the Taunton Deane and West Somerset co ...

. It appears in

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

as "Alresford – forda

Ralph de Limesy {{Cleanup bare URLs, date=August 2022 Ralph de Limesy (''alias'' de Limesi) lord of the manor of Limésy in Normandy (now a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France) was a Domesday Book Anglo-Norman magnat ...

Mill". The parish was part of the

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

Carhampton Carhampton is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, to the east of Minehead. Carhampton civil parish stretches from the Bristol Channel coast inland to Exmoor. The parish has a population of 865 (2011 census). History Iron Age occup ...

. One of the village's main attractions is the much-photographed

packhorse bridge A packhorse bridge is a bridge intended to carry packhorses (horses loaded with sidebags or panniers) across a river or stream. Typically a packhorse bridge consists of one or more narrow (one horse wide) masonry arches, and has low Parapet#Bridge ...

. Built as a crossing over the

River Aller The River Aller is a small river on Exmoor in Somerset, England. It rises as several small streams around Tivington and Huntscott and flows through the Holnicote Estate passing Holnicote and through Allerford, where it passes under a packhor ...

(from which the village gets its name), it is thought to be medieval in origin. Nearby is the New Bridge where the

A39 road The A39 is an A road in south west England. It runs south-west from Bath in Somerset through Wells, Glastonbury, Street and Bridgwater. It then follows the north coast of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall through Williton, Minehead, Porlock, Lynm ...

crosses

Horner Water The River Horner, also known as Horner Water, rises near Luccombe on Exmoor, Somerset, and flows past Porlock into Porlock Bay near Hurlstone Point on the Bristol Channel. The river flows into the sea though a shingle ridge at Bossington bea ...

. The wide pointed arch rises with a span half arch on the side for flood relief. Originally the bridge was wide but another was added in 1866. The packhorse bridge is an

Ancient monument In British law, an ancient monument is an early historical structure or monument (e.g. an archaeological site) worthy of preservation and study due to archaeological or heritage interest. The '' Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 197 ...

and has been added to the

Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for actio ...

. Allerford New Bridge which carries the

past the village is also a Scheduled Ancient Monument and Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. It is also on the Heritage at Risk register because of the risks of vehicle damage and erosion. The village is also home to Allerford House, childhood home of Admiral

John Moresby Rear Admiral John Moresby (15 March 1830 – 12 July 1922) was a British naval officer who explored the coast of New Guinea and was the first European to discover the site of Port Moresby. Life and career Moresby was born in Allerford, Somerset, ...

, who explored the coastline of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

and for whom

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New Z ...

, the capital city of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

, was named. Other traditional sights in the village include thatched cottages, a forge and an old-fashioned

red telephone box The red telephone box, a telephone kiosk for a public telephone designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, is a familiar sight on the streets of the United Kingdom, Malta, Bermuda and Gibraltar. Despite a reduction in their numbers in recent years, ...

. There is also a Reading Room, built by the Acland family to foster adult education. One of the thatched cottages operated as the local Primary School between 1821 and 1981 and is now a museum containing the

West Somerset Rural Life Museum and Victorian School The West Somerset Rural Life Museum is a small museum in Allerford, Somerset, England. The building was built in 1821 as the village school and was closed in 1981. It is now rented from the National Trust. In 1983 it was opened as a museum, b ...

. The museum houses the West Somerset Photographic Archive.

References

External links

*
Allerford Museum & West Somerset Rural Life Museum
* {{West Somerset Villages in West Somerset Exmoor Structures on the Heritage at Risk register in Somerset Scheduled monuments in West Somerset