National Gazetteer (1868) - Uphill

"UPHILL, a parish in the hundred of Winterstoke, county Somerset, 2 miles W. of Weston-super-Mare, its post town, and 7 N.W. of Axbridge. The village is situated on Uphill Bay, in the Bristol Channel, at the mouth of the river Axe. The soil consists of loam and clay, with a subsoil of clay. Building stone is quarried. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Bath and Wells, value £300. The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, was erected in 1843; a memorial window has been inserted to the poet Bowles. The old church stands on the summit of a hill a little to the S. of the village. There are a parochial school for both sexes, and a Sunday-school. Uphill House and Uphill Castle are the principal residences. T. T. Knyfton, Esq., is lord of the manor."

"STEEP-HOLM, an island in the parish of Uphill, hundred of Winterstoke, county Somerset, 2 miles N.W. of Uphill. This rock, which is about a mile and a half in circumference, rises perpendicularly out of the Bristol Channel to the height of 400 feet above the sea. It is uninhabited, but swarms with rabbits and sea fowl. It is said to have been the spot to which Gildas retired whilst composing his history, and where Githa, the mother of Harold II., died."