Somerset

This article is about the county of Somerset in England. For other uses, see Somerset (disambiguation).

Somerset
Ceremonial county
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	South West England
Origin	Historic
Time zone	UTC+0 (GMT)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (BST)
Ceremonial county
Area
• Rank	of 48
• Rank	of 48
Density
Ethnicity	98.5% White

Somerset is a county in the south-west of England. The county town is Taunton. The ceremonial county of Somerset borders the counties of Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is also partly bounded to the north and west by the coast of the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the River Severn.

Somerset is a rural county of rolling hills such as the Mendip Hills, Quantock Hills and Exmoor National Park, downland, and large flat expanses of land including the Somerset Levels.

History

Main article: History of Somerset

Etymology

The name is pronounced as though spelled 'Summerset'. The name derives from Old English Sumorsǣte, which is short for Sumortūnsǣte = "the people living at or dependent upon Sumortūn. Sumortūn is modern Somerton and may mean "summer settlement", a farmstead tended during the summer but not occupied in winter. However, Somerton is not down on the levels where only summer occupation was possible because of flooding but on a hill where winter occupation would have been feasible. An alternative derivation is that the name came from "Seo-mere-saetan" meaning settlers by the sea lakes.

The name continues in the motto of the county, 'Sumorsaete ealle', which was adopted in 1911, meaning 'all the people of Somerset' in Old English, which is taken from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and indicates the wholehearted support given to King Alfred in his struggle to save Wessex.

Somerset settlement names are mostly Anglo-Saxon in origin. A few hill names include Brythonic elements, for example a charter of 682 concerning Creechborough Hill defines it as "the hill the British call Cructan and we call Crychbeorh". A few modern names are Brythonic in origin, such as Tarnock, while a few others have both Saxon and Brythonic elements such as Pen Hill. Many of the river names are Brythonic, while a few may be pre-British such as Parret (earlier Pedred).

Going back into prehistory we can think that people named or identify the world with what they better know. So, the Stonehenge builders named Summer Set the region where the sun sets on Summer and similer way Eridu Kings named Sumer the region where the sun rises in Summer time.

Human occupation

The Somerset Levels, and specifically the dry points such as Glastonbury and Brent Knoll, have a long history of settlement, and are known to have been settled by Mesolithic hunters, with travel being aided by the world's oldest known engineered roadway, the Sweet Track. The caves of the Mendip Hills were settled during the Neolithic period and contain extensive archaeological sites such as the caves of Cheddar Gorge. There are numerous Iron Age Hill Forts, some of which were later reused in the Dark Ages, such as Cadbury Castle, and Ham Hill.

Somerset, like Dorset to the south, held the Saxon invasion back for over a century, remaining a frontier between the Saxons and the Romano-British Celts. The first known use of the name Somersæte was in 845 after the region fell to the Saxons. After the Norman Conquest the county was divided into 700 fiefs, and large areas were owned by the crown.

Somerset contains HMP Shepton Mallet, which opened in 1610 and is England's oldest prison still in use.

In the English Civil War Somerset was largely Parliamentarian. In 1685 the Monmouth Rebellion was played out in Somerset and neighbouring Dorset. The rebels landed at Lyme Regis and traveled north hoping to capture Bristol and Bath, but were defeated in the Battle of Sedgemoor at Westonzoyland, the last battle fought on British soil.

The eighteenth century was largely one of peace and declining industrial prosperity in Somerset. The Industrial Revolution in the Midlands and Northern England spelt the end for most of the cottage industries of Somerset. However, farming continued to flourish, with the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society being founded in 1777 to improve methods. Billingsley conducted a survey of the county's agriculture in 1795 but found that methods could still be improved.

In north Somerset the Somerset coalfield was an important industry and in an effort to reduce the costs of transportation the Somerset Coal Canal was built, although part of this was later converted into a railway. Other canals included the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, Westport Canal, Glastonbury Canal and Chard Canal. The Dorset and Somerset Canal was proposed, but very little of it was ever constructed.

File:Westsom.rail.80136.750pix.jpg

The West Somerset Railway

The nineteenth century saw improvements to the roads of Somerset with the introduction of turnpikes, the building of canals and of railways. The usefulness of the canals was short lived though they have now been resurrected for recreation. The railways became nationalised after WW2 and continued until 1965 when many were scrapped, though two, the West and East Somerset Railways were transferred back to private ownership as "heritage" lines.

The population of Somerset has continued to grow since 1800. particularly in the seaside towns, notably Weston-super-Mare. Some population decline occurred earlier in the period in the villages but this has now been reversed.

During World War I many Somerset soldiers were killed and war memorials were put up in most of the towns and villages. Only a few villages escaped casualties. In World War II there were also casualties, which were added to the memorials though much fewer. During WW II the county was a base for troops prior to the D-Day landings and some hospitals still date partly from this time. In case the Germans invaded, the Taunton Stop Line was set up and the remains of the pill boxes can still be seen, as well as ones along the coast. A decoy town was constructed on Black Down which was intended to represent the blazing lights of a town which had omitted to follow black out regulations.

The traditional northern border of the county is the River Avon, but the administrative boundary has crept southwards, with the creation and expansion of the City of Bristol.

Geology, landscape and ecology

Main article: Geology of Somerset

The River Brue in an artificial channel draining farmland near Glastonbury.

Much of the landscape of Somerset falls into types determined by the underlying geology. These landscapes are the limestone karst and lias of the north, the clay vales and wetlands of the centre, the oolites of the east and south, and the Devonian sandstone of the west. To the north east of the Somerset Levels, the Mendip Hills are moderately high limestone hills, with an extensive network of caves and underground rivers and a number of gorges, the most notable being Cheddar Gorge. 76 square miles (197 km²) of the central and western Mendip Hills was designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1972. The main habitat on these hills is calcareous grassland, with some arable agriculture. The Somerset coalfield is part of a larger coalfield which stretches into Gloucestershire. To the north of the Mendip hills is the Chew Valley and to the south, on the clay substrate, are a number of broad valleys which support dairy farming and drain into the Somerset Levels.

The Somerset Levels (or Somerset Levels and Moors as they are less commonly, but more correctly, called) is a sparsely populated wetland area of central Somerset, between the Quantock and Mendip hills. They consist of marine clay "levels" along the coast, and the inland (often peat based) "moors". The Levels are divided into two by the Polden Hills, with the catchment areas of the River Parrett and Axe-Brue on either side. The total area of the levels amounts to approximately 160,000 acres (650 km²) and broadly corresponds to the administrative district of Sedgemoor but also includes the south east of Mendip district. Approximately 70% of the area is grassland and 30% is arable. This expanse of flat land, stretching up to 20 miles (32 km) inland, is only a few feet above sea level. Before it was drained, much of the land was under a shallow brackish sea in winter and a marsh in summer. Drainage started in Roman times, restarting in Saxon times and is continuing now. According to legend, Joseph of Arimathea sailed across the levels to Glastonbury, a dry point near the eastern edge of the levels.

In the far west of the county, running into Devon, is Exmoor, a high Devonian sandstone moor, which was designated as a national park in 1954, under the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act. The highest point in Somerset is Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor, with an altitude of 1,704 feet (519 m). Over 100 sites in Somerset have been designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

Brean Down from Steep Holm

The 64km coastline of the Bristol Channel and Severn estuary forms part of the northern border of Somerset. The Bristol Channel has one of the largest tidal ranges in the world, at Burnham-on-Sea, for example, the tidal range of a spring tide is over 39 feet (12 m). Proposals for the construction of a Severn Barrage aim to harness this energy. The main coastal towns of today are, from the west to the north east, Minehead, Watchet, Burnham-on-Sea, Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon and Portishead. The coastal area between Minehead and the eastern extreme of the administrative county’s coastline at Brean Down is known as Bridgwater Bay, which is a National Nature Reserve. North of that, the coast forms Weston Bay and Sand Bay, then the Mouth of the Severn.

In the mid and north of the county the coastline is low as the level wetlands of the levels meet the sea. In the west the coastline is high and dramatic as the plateau of Exmoor meets the sea with high cliffs and waterfalls.

The county has many rivers, including the Axe, Brue, Cary, Parrett, Sheppey, Tone and Yeo. These both feed and drain the flat levels and moors of mid and west Somerset. In the north of the county the River Chew flows into the Bristol Avon.

Climate

Along with the rest of South West England, Somerset has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of England. The annual mean temperature is approximately 10 °C and shows a seasonal and a diurnal variation, but due to the modifying effect of the sea the range is less than in most other parts of the UK. January is the coldest month with mean minimum temperatures between 1 and 2 °C. July and August are the warmest months in the region with mean daily maxima around 21 °C.

The number of hours of bright sunshine is controlled by the length of day and by cloudiness. In general December is the dullest month and June the sunniest. The south-west of England has a favoured location with respect to the Azores high pressure when it extends its influence north-eastwards towards the UK, particularly in summer. Convective cloud often forms inland, especially near hills, and acts to reduce sunshine amounts. The average annual sunshine totals around 1600 hours.

Rainfall tends to be associated with Atlantic depressions or with convection. The Atlantic depressions are more vigorous in autumn and winter and most of the rain which falls in those seasons in the south-west is from this source. In summer, convection caused by solar surface heating sometimes forms shower clouds and a large proportion of rainfall falls from showers and thunderstorms at this time of year. Average rainfall is around 31–35 inches (800–900 mm). About 8–15 days of snowfall is typical. November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, with June to August having the lightest winds. The predominant wind direction is from the South West.

Economy and industry

The Dunster Yarn Market was built in 1609 for the trading of local cloth

Somerset has few industrial centres. Bridgwater was developed during the Industrial Revolution as the West Country's leading port. Yeovil is important in the manufacture of helicopters. Many towns have developed small-scale light industries, such as Crewkerne's Ariel Motor Company, Ltd, one of the UK's smallest car manufacturers.

Agriculture continues to be a major business in the county, if no longer a major employer. Apple orchards were once plentiful, and to this day Somerset is linked to the production of strong cider, arguably more so than any other part of the world. The towns of Taunton and Shepton Mallet are involved with the production of cider, especially Blackthorn Cider, which is sold nationwide.

Much of the county is scenic and unspoilt. Tourism is a major industry in the county, estimated in 2001 to support around 23,000 people. Attractions include its coastal towns, part of the Exmoor National Park, the West Somerset Railway (a heritage railway), and the museum of the Fleet Air Arm at RNAS Yeovilton. The town of Glastonbury is famous for its mythical associations, and open-air rock festival (actually in Pilton), while the Cheddar Gorge is famous for caves open to visitors, as well as its locally produced cheese.

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of the non-metropolitan county of Somerset at current basic prices with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Year	Regional Gross Value Added[A]	Agriculture[B]	Industry[C]	Services[D]
1995	4,601	298	1,608	2,695
2000	5,872	199	1,936	3,737
2003	6,586	215	1,956	4,416

Notes

^[A]Components may not sum to totals due to rounding

^[B]Includes hunting and forestry

^[C]Includes energy and construction

^[D]Includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

Demographics

In the 2001 census the population of the Somerset County Council area was 498,093 with 169,040 in Bath and North East Somerset, and 188,564 in North Somerset giving a total for the historic county of 855,697. This was estimated to have risen to 895,700 in 2006.

The Somerset County Council area is one of the fastest growing regions in the United Kingdom. Population growth is higher than the national average, with a 6.4% increase since 1991, and a 17% increase since 1981. The population density is 1.4 persons per hectare which can be compared to 2.07 persons per hectare for the South West region. Within the County, population density ranges in persons per hectare from 0.5 in West Somerset to 2.2 in Taunton Deane. The percentage of the population which is economically active is higher than the regional and national average and the unemployment rate is lower than the regional and national average.

The Black Minority Ethnic population of the total population is 2.9% in Somerset. Chinese is the highest ethnic population and whilst there is no official recording, it is believed that Romany Gypsy are a significant ethnic minority.. Over 25% of the Somerset population is concentrated in Taunton, Bridgwater or Yeovil. Outside of these major towns, the county is rural and sparsely populated. Over 9 million tourist nights are spent Somerset each year, this significantly increases the population at peak times.

Politics

The county is divided into nine constituencies for the election of Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons. The constituencies of Bridgwater, Wells, Weston-super-Mare and Woodspring currently elect Conservative MPs, while Bath, Somerton and Frome, Taunton and Yeovil currently return Liberal Democrats. Only Wansdyke, which will become North East Somerset at the next election, returns a Labour politician. Residents of Somerset also form part of the electrate for the South West England constituency for elections to the European Parliament.

The ceremonial county of Somerset consists of a non-metropolitan county and two unitary authorities. The districts of Somerset are West Somerset, South Somerset, Taunton Deane, Mendip and Sedgemoor. The two administratively independent unitary authorities, which were established on 1 April 1996 following the break up of the county of Avon, are North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset. These unitary authorities include areas that were once part of Somerset before the creation of Avon in 1974.

The Department for Communities and Local Government was considering a proposal by Somerset County Council to change Somerset's administrative structure by abolishing the five districts to create a Somerset unitary authority. The changes were planned to be implemented no later than 1 April 2009. However, support for the county council's bid was not guaranteed and opposition among the district council and local population was strong, with 82% of people responding to a referendum organized by the five district councils rejecting the proposals. It has now been confirmed that the Government has rejected the proposals for unitary authorities in Somerset, and that the present two-tier arrangements of Somerset County Council and the District councils will remain.

Culture

The west front of Wells Cathedral

Somerset has traditions of art, music and literature. Wordsworth and Coleridge wrote while staying in Nether Stowey, Alfoxton and Porlock in the west of the county. The writer Evelyn Waugh spent his last years in the village of Combe Florey. Traditional folk music, both song and dance, was important in the agricultural communities. Somerset songs were collected by Cecil Sharp and incorporated into a number of works including Holst's A Somerset Rhapsody. Halsway Manor near Williton is an international centre for folk music. The tradition continues today with groups such as The Wurzels, who are known nationally for their Scrumpy and Western music.

The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts takes place most years in Pilton, near Shepton Mallet, attracting over 170,000 music and culture lovers from around the world, and world-famous entertainers. The Big Green Gathering which grew out of the Green fields at the Glastonbury Festival is held in the Mendip Hills above Compton Martin each summer. The annual Bath Literature Festival is one of several local festivals in the county which include the Frome Festival and the Trowbridge Village Pump Festival, which despite its name is held at Farleigh Hungerford in Somerset. The annual circuit of West Country Carnivals is held in a variety of Somerset towns during the autumn, forming a major regional festival, and the largest light festival in Europe.

Glastonbury Tor

In Arthurian legend, Avalon had became associated with Glastonbury Tor, when monks at Glastonbury Abbey claimed to have discovered the bones of King Arthur and his queen. What is more certain is that Glastonbury was an important religious centre by 700 and claims to be " the oldest above-ground Christian church in the World" situated "in the mystical land of Avalon" by dating the founding of the community of monks at AD 63, the legendary visit of Joseph of Arimathea, who was supposed to have brought the Holy Grail. During the middle ages there were also important religious sites at Woodspring Priory and Muchelney Abbey. The present Diocese of Bath and Wells covers Somerset and a small area of Dorset. The Episcopal seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells is located in the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew in the city of Wells. Prior to the English Reformation, it was a Roman Catholic diocese. There is also a Benedictine monastery Saint Gregory's Abbey, commonly known as Downside Abbey at Stratton-on-the-Fosse.

There are several museums in the county including several in Bath including; the American Museum in Britain, the Building of Bath Museum, the Herschel Museum of Astronomy, the Jane Austen Centre, and the Roman Baths. Several other visitor attractions reflect the cultural heritage of the county including; Claverton Pumping Station, Dunster Working Watermill, the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton, Nunney Castle, The Helicopter Museum in Weston super Mare, King John's Hunting Lodge in Axbridge, Radstock Museum, Somerset County Museum in Taunton, the Somerset Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury, and Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum.

Bath Rugby play at the Recreation Ground in Bath, while the Somerset County Cricket Club are based at the County Ground in Taunton. Yeovil Town F.C. are the highest placed Football (soccer) team. There are horse racing courses at Taunton and Wincanton

See also:

• Music of Somerset

Settlements and communications

Palladian Pulteney Bridge and the weir at Bath

The original county town of Somerset was Somerton, but in recent years that role has been transferred to Taunton. The county has two cities, Bath and Wells.

Somerset has some 6,531km of roads. The main arterial routes, which include the M5 motorway, A303, A37 and A38 give fairly good access across the county but many areas can only be accessed through narrow lanes. Rail services are provided by the West of England Main Line through Yeovil, the Bristol to Taunton Line and the Reading to Plymouth Line. Bristol International Airport provides national and international air services.

Main settlements

Axbridge Bath Bishops Hull Bishops Lydeard Bridgwater Brympton Bruton Burnham-on-Sea Castle Cary Chard Cheddar Comeytrowe Crewkerne Frome Glastonbury Ilminster

Martock Meare Minehead North Petherton Norton Radstock Shepton Mallet Somerton South Petherton Street Taunton Watchet Wellington Wells Weston-super-Mare Wincanton Yeovil

For the complete list of settlements see List of places in Somerset

Places of interest

Barrington Court Bath Abbey Blagdon Lake Bridgwater and Taunton Canal Bristol Channel Burrow Hill Cider Farm Cadbury Castle Cheddar Gorge Chew Valley Lake Clatworthy Reservoir Cleeve Abbey English Heritage Clevedon Court Clifton Suspension Bridge Coleridge Cottage Netherstowey County Cricket Ground, Taunton Dunster Castle East Somerset Railway Ebbor Gorge Exmoor Fleet Air Arm Museum, RNAS Yeovilton Folly Farm, Stowey Fussell Iron Works[1] Fyne Court Gartell Light Railway Georgian Bath Glastonbury Abbey Glastonbury Tor The Grand Pier Weston-super-Mare Hadspen House Halswell House, Temple of Harmony & Robin Hoods Hut, Goathurst Ham Hill Haynes International Motor Museum [2]

Helicopter Museum, Weston-super-Mare Holnicote Estate Kennet and Avon Canal King John's Hunting Lodge Axbridge Lytes Cary Manor [3] Mendip Hills AONB Montacute House Muchelney Abbey English Heritage Priest's House Muchelney [4] Prior Park Bath Quantock Hills AONB Radstock museum River Avon River Chew Roman Baths Bath Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway Somerset Coal Canal Somerset County Museum, Somerset Levels Somerset Rural Life Museum Stanton Drew stone circles English Heritage Stembridge Tower Mill Taunton Stop Line Tintinhull Garden Treasurer's House Martock [5] Tyntesfield Wells Cathedral West Somerset Railway Wimbleball Reservoir Wookey Hole Caves

For the complete list of places of interest see Visitor Attractions in Somerset

See also

• West Country dialects
• Music of Somerset
• BBC Somerset Sound
• List of places in Somerset
• Villages in Somerset
• Visitor attractions in Somerset
• West Country Carnival
• List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Somerset
• Somerset County Cricket Club

Further reading

• Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911, "Somersetshire".

External links

• Somerset County Council
• BBC Somerset
• Template:Dmoz
• Somerset at Project Gutenberg