Worle

"WORLE, a parish in the hundred of Winterstoke, county Somerset, 8 miles N.W. of Axbridge, and 3 E. of Weston-super-Mare railway station. The village is situated near the Bristol Channel, on the road from Bristol to Weston-super-Mare, and on the line of the Bristol and Exeter railway, which skirts the parish on the S. The surface is undulating, and the soil clayey upon limestone and clay. There are mines of lead and calamine, but they are no longer wrought. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Bath and Wells, value £312, in the patronage of the lord chancellor. The church, dedicated to St. Martin, contains a carved pulpit of stone, sedilia, and fragments of shrine work. The register commences in 1600. The Wesleyans have two chapels, and the Free Church Methodists and Bible Christians each one. There are National and Sunday schools. The charities produce about £1 per annum. J. Stephens, Esq., is lord of the manor." From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson © 2003