X-Nico

69 unusual facts about Somerset


Alfred Fuller

Fuller died in Hartford, Connecticut and is buried at Pleasant Valley Cemetery in Somerset, Nova Scotia.

Ann Street Barry

Ann Street Barry (1734 – 29 November 1801), second wife of Spranger Barry, was born in Bath, England in 1734, the daughter of an apothecary.

Anthony Dominic Fahy

Between 1834 to 1836 he lived and worked with his Dominican brothers in the Saint Joseph Convent, in Somerset, Ohio.

Barnstaple Priory

Juhel endowed it with part of the demesne land of Barnstaple Castle as well as with the manors of Pilton and Pilland, members of the barony, which were contiguous and situated immediately to the north across the River Yeo.

Bartholomew Clerke

He was grandson of Richard Clerke, gentleman, of Livermere in Suffolk, and son of John Clerke of Wells, Somerset, by Anne, daughter and heiress of Henry Grantoft of Huntingdonshire.

Bath and District Saturday Football League

The B&DFL operates within a 12 mile radius of Bath and whilst the majority of its clubs are based in Bath there are teams from Keynsham and outer suburbs of Bristol as well as some of the smaller outlying villages around Bath.

Bath Preservation Trust

The Bath Preservation Trust is an independent charity based in Bath, Somerset, England which exists to safeguard the historic character of the city of Bath, the only complete city in the UK that (along with its environs) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and to champion its sustainable future.

Battle of Lansdowne

On 3 July, skirmishes took place at Claverton and at Waller's positions south and east of Bath.

Brislington Brook

Brislington Brook rises in twin tributaries fed by springs on the northern slopes of Maes Knoll, at the eastern end of Dundry Hill, just north of the boundary between Somerset and Bristol.

Cambridge Colts

The team are now in the Fifth Round (the last 16) where they have been drawn at home to Weston-Super-Mare from Somerset.

Cannington Court

Cannington Court in the village of Cannington, Somerset, England was built around 1138 as the lay wing of a Benedictine nunnery, founded by Robert de Courcy.

Cannington Nunnery

Cannington Nunnery was established around 1138 and dissolved in 1536 in Cannington, Somerset, England.

Cephalanthera rubra

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the species was recorded from single sites in Somerset, Sussex and Kent, and a second Hampshire site (in the upper Test Valley).

Church of St Andrew, Chew Magna

The Church of St Andrew in Chew Magna, Somerset, England dates from the 12th century with a large 15th-century pinnacled sandstone tower, a Norman font and a rood screen that is the full width of the church.

Church of St John the Baptist, Churchill

The Church of St John the Baptist in Churchill, Somerset, England, was largely built around 1360 and is a Grade I listed building.

Church of St John the Baptist, Hinton Charterhouse

The parish is part of the benefice of Freshford, Limpley Stoke and Hinton Charterhouse within the archdeaconry of Bath.

Cranmore chase

The winner of the race Benjamin was made a freeman of Batcombe and granted an annual stipend.

DeForest Soaries

Additionally, he is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, New Jersey, a position he has held since November 1990.

Dianthus

Dianthus gratianopolitanus - the Cheddar Pink - was chosen as the County flower of Somerset in 2002 following a poll by the wild flora conservation charity Plantlife.

Down Ampney

Down Ampney was notable in medieval times as one of the principal seats of the powerful Hungerford family (their principal seat was at Farleigh Hungerford, Somerset) and a number of elaborate family monuments survive in the village church.

Drepanopterus

The only other fully described valid species is Drepanopterus abonensis, from the Upper Devonian of Portishead, Somerset.

Easton Cowboys and Cowgirls

The club celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2012 with an international tournament at Berrow, Somerset, and hopes to have its own home ground in the future.

Eliza Maria Gillespie

Eliza Maria first attended the school of the Dominican Sisters at Somerset, Ohio, and completed her studies at the Visitation Convent at Georgetown, D.C., in 1844.

Francis Hawley, 2nd Baron Hawley

He instead stood for election to the English House of Commons for Somerset in 1705 but was unsuccessful.

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He succeeded his grandfather Lord Hawley in the barony in 1684, also inheriting large estates in Berkshire, Devon, Dorset and Somerset.

Geoffrey Ashe

Ashe has also helped demonstrate, through acting as secretary to a dig undertaken by Dr. Ralegh Radford in 1966-70, that Cadbury Castle in Somerset, identified as Camelot by the sixteenth-century antiquary John Leland, was actually refortified in the latter part of the fifth century, in works as yet unparalleled elsewhere in Britain at the time.

German hospital ship Ophelia

The British renamed the ship SS Huntley and used it for transporting fuel from Portishead to Boulogne.

Gerry Sweeney

Subsequently Sweeney left football and worked as a postman in Portishead, Somerset.

Goldcliff Priory

In 1334 the prior Phillip Gopillarius ("Philip de Gopylers") was charged—along with a monk, some clergy and fifty other persons from Newport, Nash, Goldcliff, Clevedon and Portishead—with stealing wine and other merchandise from a vessel wrecked at Goldcliff.

Guild of St George

(A generous benefactor, Mrs Greg, who became a companion in the 1930s, gifted to the Guild her own nature diaries and other precious items, and Green Pastures bungalow in Holcombe, near Bath (sold in 1962-3)).

Guildford Cathedral

Inside, the cathedral appears to be filled with light, with pale Somerset limestone pillars and white Italian marble floors.

Hendrick Fisher

His homestead and grave are currently located near St. Andrew Memorial Church on Easton Avenue west of Davidson Avenue in the Somerset section of Franklin Township.

Henry Kiddle

Henry Kiddle (15 January 1824 Bath, England - 1891) was a United States educator and had an interest in spiritualism.

Hugh Clifford, 2nd Baron Clifford of Chudleigh

Hugh Clifford, 2nd Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1663–1730) was baptized on 21 December 1663 in Ugbrooke and died on 12 October 1730 in Cannington, Somerset, England.

Hundred of Taunton Deane

The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by a merger of the Municipal Borough of Taunton, Wellington Urban District, Taunton Rural District, and Wellington Rural District.

Jack Whicher

Detective Inspector Jonathan 'Jack' Whicher's fame had spread, and he was at the height of his powers when in July 1860 he was sent by Scotland Yard to assist the local police in the small village of Rode (then in Wiltshire) in investigating the murder of 3-year-old Francis Saville Kent.

James Lorimer Ilsley

He was born in Somerset, Nova Scotia, the son of Randel Ilsley and Catherine Caldwell.

Jenny Hansen

Jenny Hansen is an American gymnast from Somerset, Wisconsin.

Johnstone Street, Bath

Johnstone Street in the Bathwick area of Bath, Somerset, England was designed in 1788 by Thomas Baldwin, with some of the buildings being completed around 1805-1810 by John Pinch the elder.

Jordan James

Jordan James (born 24 May 1980 in Bath, Somerset, England) is a Welsh rugby league international Captain and player, who currently plays for Wales and for Salford of Super League, he has previously played for Crusaders, South Wales Scorpions, Swinton, Widnes, Castleford, Sheffield Eagles and Wigan.

KZJK

Although they were licensed to the west Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park, the tower was located far east of the Twin Cities, in Somerset, Wisconsin.

Laura Place, Bath

Laura Place Bathwick, Bath, Somerset, England, consists of four blocks of houses around an irregular quadrangle at the end of Pulteney Bridge.

New Brunswick Marconi Station

New Brunswick Marconi Station (40.51529° N 74.48895° W) was located at JFK Boulevard and Easton Avenue just a few minutes from the New Brunswick border in Somerset, New Jersey.

North Somerset Council election, 2011

The 2011 North Somerset Council election took place on 5 May 2011 to elect members of North Somerset Unitary Council in Somerset, England.

Octagon Chapel, Bath

The Octagon Chapel in Milsom Street, Bath, Somerset, England was built in 1767 and has been designated as a Grade II* listed building.

Purnell and Sons

Purnell and Sons was a small family printer based in Somerset which merged with other printers to become a large national publisher.

River Otter

The River Otter rises in the Blackdown Hills just inside the county of Somerset, England near Otterford, then flows south for some 32 km through East Devon to the English Channel at the western end of Lyme Bay, part of the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Permian and Triassic sandstone aquifer in the Otter Valley is one of Devon's largest groundwater sources, supplying drinking water to 200,000 people.

River Pitt

The River Pitt, also known as the Piddy, is a short tributary of the River Brue in Somerset, England.

Saint Mary's Abbey, Colwich

When released in 1795, they settled in England, first in Dorset and then at Cannington in Somerset.

Soda fountain

Many civilizations believed that drinking and/or bathing in these mineral waters cured diseases, and large industries often sprang up around hot springs, such as Bath in England or the many onsen of Japan.

Somerset, Massachusetts

Stephen Rebello, writer and screenwriter known for such books as Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho and for the screenplay of Hitchcock (film) based on that book.

Somerset, Ohio

The village of Somerset was established in 1810 by settlers from Somerset, Pennsylvania at the spot on Zane's Trace located midway between Lancaster and Zanesville.

Somerset, Tasmania

The school follows the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum and is for students from kinder to grade 12.

Somerton Tunnel

Not far from the west end of the tunnel, in Long Sutton, there is an old derelict building which is said to have been used as an explosives store for the GWR engineers at the time of construction.

Strides Arcolab

USA - The company has a soft gelatin capsule plant at Somerset, New Jersey, USA.

Taunton Tramway

Despite plans to build a network to neighbouring towns including Wiveliscombe, Wellington and North Petherton it started small with a route from Taunton railway station to the town centre.

The Abbey, Beckington

The Abbey, Beckington in Somerset, UK was built as a monastic grange and also used as a college for priests; the building was begun in 1502, but after the Dissolution of the Monasteries it became a private house.

The RiverBank

Locations have since been added in MarketPlace Foods and Somerset, Wisconsin and in Chisago City and Wyoming, Minnesota.

The Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners' Royal Benevolent Society

It was founded at the instigation of Mr John Rye, a philanthropic retired medical man of Bath, Somerset and his servant Mr Charles Gee Jones, a former Bristol Pilot and Landlord of the Pulteney Arms in Bath, following the tragic loss of life from the Clovelly fishing fleet in a severe storm in November 1838.

Thomas Linley the elder

Thomas Linley (17 January 1733 – 19 November 1795), English musician, was born in Badminton, Gloucestershire, and studied music in Bath, where he settled as a singing-master and conductor of the concerts.

Tolland, Connecticut

Alternatively, its name could have been taken after Tolland in Somerset, England.

Tone Dale House

Tone Dale House, also known as House of Fox, offers views of Somerset with the Quantock hills to the North, and Blackdown Hills to the south, upon which sits the Wellington monument, built in commemoration of the Duke of Wellington.

UWE Stadium

Having left their long term home at Eastville Stadium in 1986, Bristol Rovers spent ten years in exile at Twerton Park in Bath.

Viscount Bridport

The 2nd Viscount represented West Somerset in Parliament as a Conservative.

Wells, Maine

In 1653, Wells was incorporated, the third town in Maine to do so, and named after Wells, England, a small cathedral city in the county of Somerset.

West Somerset Council election, 2007

The 2007 West Somerset Council election took place on 3 May 2007 to elect members of West Somerset District Council in Somerset, England.

West Somerset Council election, 2011

The 2011 West Somerset Council election took place on 5 May 2011 to elect members of West Somerset District Council in Somerset, England.

Who I Was Born to Be

In August 2013 Boyle performed the song during the opening ceremonies of the 2013 Special Olympics held at the Royal Crescent in Bath.

William Savery

At Bath, he met the English religious writer and philanthropist, Hannah More, and was introduced by her to the preeminent abolitionist of the time, William Wilberforce.


Arthur Bartholomew

Arthur Bartholomew (3 December 1833 Bruton, Somerset – 19 August 1909 Melbourne) was an English-born Australian engraver, lithographer and natural history illustrator.

Banks Creek, Queensland

It is now part of Somerset Region and lies adjacent to the Brisbane River to the west of Lake Manchester.

Barbastelle

In Britain, only a few breeding roosts are known; Paston Great Barn in Norfolk, parts of Exmoor and the Quantock Hills in Devon and Somerset (see Tarr Steps), the Mottisfont woodland in Hampshire and Ebernoe Common in West Sussex.

Battle of Peonnum

The Saxons were victorious, and Cenwalh advanced west through the Polden Hills to the River Parrett, annexing eastern and central Somerset.

Bertie Bolton

Cowie played four more matches for Hampshire, with his final first-class match coming against Somerset in 1922.

Bessie Blount

Elizabeth Blount, mistress of Henry VIII of England and mother of his son, Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset

Broadcloth

Around 1500, broadcloth was made in a number of districts of England, including Essex and Suffolk in southern East Anglia, the West Country Clothing District (Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, east Somerset - sometimes with adjacent areas), at Worcester, Coventry, Cranbrook in Kent and some other places.

Bruton Abbey

It was subsequently refounded as a house of Augustinian canons in 1135, by William de Mohun, who later became the Earl of Somerset.

Bruton Parish Church

The name of the parish comes from the town of Bruton, in the English county of Somerset, which was the ancestral home to several leading colonial figures, notably Virginia's colonial secretary Thomas Ludwell and the Ludwell family, as well as that of the Royal Governor, Sir William Berkeley.

Church of All Saints, Sutton Bingham

The Church of All Saints in Sutton Bingham in the civil parish of Closworth, Somerset, England dates from the 12th and 13th centuries and has been designated as a Grade I listed building.

Church of St Peter, Englishcombe

The Church of St Peter in Englishcombe, Somerset, England was probably built by Robert de Gournay in the 12th century.

Coal Measures Group

In those coalfields to the south of the former Wales-Brabant High i.e. the South Wales, Bristol, Somerset, Forest of Dean and concealed Oxfordshire and Kent coalfields, the corresponding group is the South Wales Coal Measures Group.

Drayton, Queensland

Thomas Alford, an early settler in the area who built a house, general store, and post office in the area, named the town after his home village in Somerset.

East Somerset Railway

At this stage, the main traffic became the through trains from Yatton to Witham and the East Somerset Railway station in Wells closed, with Wells (Tucker Street) becoming the station for the city on the line.

Edward Somerset

Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester (1601?–1667), styled Lord Herbert of Ragland, English nobleman, son of Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester

Fiddleford

In the hamlet there is also the beautiful mill and weir and the Fiddleford Manor, one of the oldest buildings in Dorset, probably dating from around 1370 and built by William Latimer, Royal Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset.

Fred Wheldon

1901 was worse still, as he did not pass 51 in 26 innings, and 1902 was little better, but he returned to form at last in 1903 with 969 runs – the most of his career – including 112 against Somerset.

Gazebo

Examples of such structures are the garden houses at Montacute House in Somerset, England.

George Hunt

George E. Hunt (1896–1959), medium-pace bowler who made over 200 appearances for Somerset

Harvest jug

They are traditional in the south-west of England, especially the ports of Barnstaple and Bideford in north Devon and Donyatt in Somerset.

Jacob Rees-Mogg

In his long speech on the Sustainable Livestock Bill, he recited poetry; spoke of the superior quality of Somerset eggs, and mentioned the fictional pig, the Empress of Blandings, who won silver at the Shropshire Show three years in a row, before moving on to talk about the sewerage system and the Battle of Agincourt.

John Cowper Powys

Powys was born in Shirley, Derbyshire, in 1872, the son of the Reverend Charles Francis Powys (1843–1923), who was vicar of Montacute, Somerset, for thirty-two years, and Mary Cowper Johnson, a descendent of the poet William Cowper.

Jon Callard

Callard taught physical education classes and sports classes at Downside School (Somerset) in the early to mid-1990s.

Leigh House

Leigh House is 16th- or 17th-century house in Winsham, Somerset, England.

Liber Exoniensis

It contains a variety of administrative materials concerning the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire.

Maiden Castle, Dorset

This was a characteristic of Vespasian's campaign in the region; there was military occupation at Cadbury Castle in Somerset, Hembury in Devon, and Hodd Hill in Dorset.

Margaret Beaufort

Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Stafford (c. 1427–1474), the daughter of Edmund Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset (second creation) and the mother of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham.

Netherlands national cricket team

Several Dutch cricketers have also played at first-class level elsewhere, the most successful of these probably being Roland Lefebvre who played for Somerset and Glamorgan in English county cricket as well as for Canterbury in New Zealand.

RAF Northleach

Glider Training School left RAF Stoke Orchard and RAF Northleach for good relocating to RAF Exeter, Devon and its satellite of RAF Culmhead, Somerset.

Raritan

Raritan Inc., a provider of KVM Switches and IT infrastructure management solutions, in Somerset, New Jersey

Ron Davenport

Ronald Donovan Davenport (born December 22, 1962 in Somerset, Bermuda) is a former professional American football fullback in the National Football League.

Seymour Clark

Clark, a local club cricketer in Weston and a locomotive driver with the Great Western Railway, was called into the Somerset side for five matches when regular wicketkeeper Wally Luckes was ill.

Somerset Holmes

Both Jones and Campbell feel strongly that the 1996 Geena Davis movie The Long Kiss Goodnight was an unauthorized, and unpaid for, theft of the Somerset Holmes idea.

South West Water

South West Water provides drinking water and waste water services throughout Cornwall and Devon and in small areas of Dorset and Somerset.

St George's Road Cricket Ground, Harrogate

Two double centuries were scored at the ground, 277* by Percy Holmes against Northamptonshire in 1921, as part of that 548, and 217* by Viv Richards for Somerset in 1975.

Stokeleigh Camp

It has been suggested that Stokeleigh was connected with the Wansdyke, a series of defensive linear earthworks, consisting of a ditch and an embankment running at least from Maes Knoll in Somerset, to the Savernake Forest near Marlborough in Wiltshire, however there is little evidence for this.

Ted Tyler

Tyler will always be remembered for the share he had in securing Somerset's promotion to first-class rank in 1891, and his effective bowling in the seasons that immediately followed, when Somerset, with Sammy Woods and Lionel Palairet at their best, had such a strong and attractive team.

The Sparagus Garden

Tom and his servant Coulter are from "Zumerzetshire," and inject into the play the kind of dialect humour typical of Brome's drama (Yorkshire dialect in The Northern Lass, Lancashire dialect in The Late Lancashire Witches).

Wassailing

The West Country is the most famous and largest cider producing region of the country and some of the most important wassails are held annually in Carhampton and Dunster (Somerset) and Whimple (Devon), both on 17 January (old Twelfth Night).

Westhay Heath

This is the only site in Somerset where the nationally rare Marsh Harrier (Circus areuginosus) breeds.

WNTW

WLLI, a radio station (990 AM) licensed to serve Somerset, Pennsylvania, United States, which held the call sign WNTW from 2004 to 2013

World Horse Welfare

Horses needing attention are taken into one of charities four Recovery and Rehabilitation Centres, based in Norfolk, Somerset, Lancashire and Aberdeenshire.