Blagdon

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Blagdon

Coordinates: 51.3269° N 2.7169° W
Population	1,172
OS grid reference	ST500589
Unitary authority	North Somerset
Ceremonial county	Somerset
Region	South West
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BRISTOL
Postcode district	BS40
Dial code	01761
Police	Avon and Somerset
Fire	Avon
Ambulance	Great Western
UK Parliament	Weston-super-Mare
European Parliament	South West England
List of places: UK • England • Somerset

Blagdon is a village and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary authority in England. According to the 2001 census it has a population of 1,172. The village is about 12 miles east of Weston-super-Mare within the Chew Valley.

According to Robinson it was called Blachedon in the 1086 Domesday Book and that the name comes from the Old English bloec and dun meaning 'the black or bleak down'.^[1]

When describing Blagdon the names of the three former separate settlements that merged together to form Blagdon are usually used: West End, East End, and Street End.

The village is located on the northern edge of the Mendip Hills on the A368, overlooking Blagdon Lake. The headquarters of organic dairy company Yeo Valley Organic are located in the village.

Blagdon and Churchill Ward is represented by one councillor on the North Somerset Unitary Authority which has responsibilities for services such as education, refuse, tourism etc. The village is a part of the Weston-super-Mare constituency which elects one MP to the Westminster Parliament and part of the South West England constituency which elects seven members to the European Parliament.

According to the 2001 Census the Blagdon and Churchill Ward, had 1,423 residents, living in 594 households, with an average age of 41.9 years. Of these 75% of residents describing their health as 'good', 19% of 16-74 year olds had no qualifications; and the area had an unemployment rate of 1.2% of all economically active people aged 16-74. In the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004, it was ranked at 24,228 out of 32,482 wards in England, where 1 was the most deprived LSOA and 32,482 the least deprived.^[2]

The West End has much of the facilities and services of Blagdon, including its Fire station, Village Shop and Post Office, Butcher's, Body & Soul Beauty Salon, Doll's House Shop(Cobblers Collectables), The Mead and Children's Play area, tennis courts and football and rugby pitches. In the East End there is Blagdon Primary School and Blagdon Police Station.

Blagdon has four Pubs currently, the Seymour Arms & Queen Adelaide (West End) and the New Inn and the Live and Let Live (East End). Additionally, the Village Club has a bar and is a social centre. The New Inn is a Grade II listed building (The New Inn at Images of England)

Blagdon Church

St Andrew's Church (Church of England) has a 116 foot high tower with pinnacles and a cusped lozenge pattern parapet, with a stair turret spirelet in the north east corner.^[3]. The tower was built in 1907–1909 by Lord Winterstoke (of the Wills tobacco family)^[4] It is a Grade II* listed building (Church of St. Andrew at Images of England) The lychgate to the east of the church is also a Grade II listed building in its own right. (Lychgate at Images of England) Above the door are four primitive Norman carvings which survived three rebuildings.^[5]

Methodist Church and Baptist Chapel.

The closest doctors are in the nearby villages of Wrington and Churchill.

Blagdon has frequent visits from the mobile library, and a mobile fishmonger serves Blagdon.

Blagdon is served by several bus services going to Bristol, Bath, Wells and Weston-super-Mare.

A Blagdon Minibus is available for groups to use at a small charge.

The A368 to Bath goes through Blagdon.

The nearest railway station is Yatton.

Blagdon has many clubs and organisations including:

The local History Group
W.I
Luncheon Club
J-Team (for children)
Scouts and Guides
Tennis, football, cricket and rugby clubs

The name "Blagdon" is probably from the Saxon 'Blac' and 'Down' meaning 'cold' or 'bleak'.

There was a Roman presence in Blagdon from about A.D. 49 until the end of the Roman occupation of Britain. Several Roman coins and bits of Roman pottery have been found in the village. There were lead and silver workings in Charterhouse, about a mile and a half to the south, up the hill, so it is likely that the wealthier supervisors had their houses away from the toxic smoke in the village.

Wade and Wade in their 1929 book "Somerset" suggest traces of Roman mines (such as tools and pigs of lead) have been found at Blagdon.^[6]

In the Domesday Book, Blagdon is recorded as being held by Serlo de Burci in 1086. Also mentioned in the Domesday Book is that the land in Blagdon was over 2,000 acres (8 km²), including 200 acres (0.8 km²) of woodland.

After this period Blagdon passed to Serlo's grandson, Robert fitz Martin. In 1154, Robert gave St Andrews Church and other land from around the East End of the village to the monks of Stanley in Wiltshire. It was common for wealthy landowners to donate land to monasteries to prove their wealth. It is unlikely the monks spent much time in the village, they probably just rented out the land and took the income from it until the dissolution of the monasteries, at which point ownership of these lands would revert back to the village. The senior branch of the FitzMartin's would retain ownership of lands in Blagdon till the 1340s, after which it passed to their heir, James, Baron Audley.

Little is known about Blagdon's history past this point into Medieval times. There are several houses in the village dating from medieval times and earlier. The houses facing on to Bell Square (in the North corner of the West End) date from the fourteenth century.

The shape of some of the existing fields suggest they are of medieval origin.^[7]

In 1901 the Wrington Vale Light Railway reached Blagdon. It closed to passengers just 31 years later in 1932. Part of the line remained for freight only, but this closed in 1962.

Augustus Montague Toplady

John Langhorne (1735–1779)
Augustus Montague Toplady (1740–1778)

There are several Grade II listed buildings:

^ Robinson, Stephen (1992). Somerset Place Names. Wimbourne: The Dovecote Press Ltd. ISBN 1874336032.
^ Neighbourhood Statistics LSOA North Somerset 024D Blagdon and Churchill. Office of National Statistics 2001 Census. Retrieved on 2006-04-25.
^ Pevsner, Nikolaus (1958). The Buildings of England : North Somerset and Bristol. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-071013-2.
^ Mason, Edmund J. & Mason, Doreen. Avon Villages. Robert Hale Ltd. ISBN 0-7091-9585-0.
^ Atthill, Robin (1976). Mendip: A new study. Newton Abbott: David & Charles. ISBN 0715372971.
^ Somerset by Wade, G.W. & Wade, J.H., available at Project Gutenberg.
^ Mendip Hills An Archaeological Survey of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Somerset County Council Archeological Projects. Retrieved on 2006-10-28.