East Huntspill is a village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
on the
Huntspill Level, near
Highbridge,
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. The
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
includes Cote, Hackness and Bason Bridge.
The parish of East Huntspill has a population of 1,146.
History
Huntspill was listed in the
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 manus ...
of 1086 as ''Honspil'', meaning 'Huna's creek' possibly from the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
personal name ''Huna'' and from the
Celtic ''pwll''.
The parish of Huntspill was part of the
Huntspill and Puriton 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 des ...
.
Three 18th century farmhouses in East Huntspill, Hackney, New Road and Phippins, have all been designated as 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 ...
s.
In 1949 the civil parish of Huntspill was abolished and divided into Huntspill All Saints and West Huntspill along the line of the
Bristol and Exeter Railway. The parish of Huntspill All Saints was renamed East Hunstspill in 1972.
Governance
The village falls within the
Non-metropolitan district
Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially "shire districts", are a type of Districts of England, local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties (colloquially ''shi ...
of
Sedgemoor, which was formed on 1 April 1974 under the
Local Government Act 1972, having previously been part of
Bridgwater Rural District
Bridgwater was a rural district in Somerset, England, from 1894 to 1974.
It was created in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894.
In 1974 it was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972 becoming part of Sedgemoor.
It contained the civi ...
.
Religious sites
![Church at East Huntspill - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Church_at_East_Huntspill_-_geograph.org.uk_-_109473.jpg)
The
Anglican parish Church of All Saints in East Huntspill was built in 1839 by G P Manners, as a
chapel-of-ease
A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently.
Often a chapel of ease is deliberately bu ...
to the then parish church at Huntspill. It became the parish church in 1845, when the chapelry was formed into a parochial district,
and the bell-chamber was added in the late 19th century. It has been designated as a 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 on 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 acti ...
because of the condition of the roof.
There was a
United Methodist
The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelic ...
chapel in East Huntspill built in 1923, which replaced an earlier building in Chapel Lane. The chapel closed by 1997.
See also
*
Huntspill River
The River Huntspill (or Huntspill River) is an artificial river, in the Somerset Levels, in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England. It was built in 1940 to supply process water to ROF Bridgwater, and has resulted in reduced flooding of the ...
*
River Brue
The River Brue originates in the parish of Brewham in Somerset, England, and reaches the sea some west at Burnham-on-Sea. It originally took a different route from Glastonbury to the sea, but this was changed by Glastonbury Abbey in the twelft ...
*
River Parrett
References
* Moore, R. (2005) ''A Parish Survey of East Huntspill and Bason Bridge'' (available via Somerset Studies Library, Taunton)
External links
* A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 8: The Poldens and the Levels
Huntspill (2004)
* The Somerset Urban Archaeological Survey
Burnham and Highbridge by Clare Gathercole
{{Sedgemoor
civil parishes in Somerset
Somerset Levels
villages in Sedgemoor