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National Gazetteer (1868) - Wellington

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The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - 1868

"WELLINGTON, a parish and market town in the hundred of Kingsbury, county Somerset, 13 miles S.W. of Bridgwater, and 148 from London. It is a station on the Bristol and Exeter railway, which runs through the parish. The town of Wells, situated on the road from Bath to Exeter, given by King Alfred to Bishop Asser, afterwards came to the see of Wells, and later to the families of Somerset and Popham. It is written Walintone in the Domesday survey. The town is well built and contains several streets, the chief of which is half a mile in length. It is lighted with gas, well supplied with water, has a townhall, corn and provision market, market-house, police station, and union workhouse. The inhabitants are for the most part employed in the woollen, brick, tile, and agricultural implement manufactories. Coal mines and lime quarries in the vicinity afford some employment.

The government of the town is vested in a bailiff and other officers chosen annually at the manorial court. Petty sessions are held weekly, and the county court monthly. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells, value with the curacies of West Buckland and Trinity annexed, £1,050, with house of residence. The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, contains several monuments, the chief being that of Sir John Popham, Lord Chief Justice of England in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. The earliest date of the register is 1538. Trinity church is a modern structure at the W. side of the town. The Baptists, Independents, Wesleyans, Bible Christians, and Plymouth Brethren have chapels. There are schools, both British and National, for boys and girls; and almshouses for 6 men and 6 women, founded by Sir John Popham in 1604, and rebuilt in 1833. Thursday is market day, chiefly for corn, and fairs are held the Thursdays before Easter and Whitsuntide. The Wellington News and the Wellington Times, penny newspapers, are published here weekly. The population of the parish was 6,006 in 1861. The first Duke of Wellington took his title from this place, and the present Duke is lord of the manor. On the summit of Blackdown Hill, not far from the town, is a pillar in commemoration of the battle of Waterloo."

"FARTHING PITTS, a hamlet in the parish of Wellington, hundred of West Kingsbury, county Somerset, 13 miles S.W. of Bridgwater. It is situated near the Western canal and the river Tone."

"HOLYWELL LAKE, a hamlet in the parish of Wellington, county Somerset, 2 miles from Wellington."

"ROCKWELL GREEN, a hamlet in the parish of Wellington, county Somerset, near Wellington."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]