Chew Valley - Population and Demographics

Population and Demographics

Many of the large houses in the valley have been built or bought by wealthy merchants from Bristol and Bath with local people working for their households. Bess of Hardwick (1527–1606) is known to have lived in Sutton Court, Stowey for a few years in the sixteenth century, after the death of her first husband Sir William Cavendish, when she married Sir William St. Loe (or Sentloe or St. Lowe), captain of the guard to Queen Elizabeth, Chief Butler of England, and owner of several manors within the valley and surrounding areas. Around this period a close neighbour was Sir John Popham (1533–1607) who was judge and the Speaker of Parliament. In the seventeenth century John Locke (1632–1704) an eminent philosopher lived in Belluton and his house is still known as John Locke's cottage. In the eighteenth century the poet John Langhorne (1735–1779) became the curate at Blagdon around the time that Augustus Montague Toplady (1740–1778) was the priest, and William Smith moved to the valley to make a valuation survey of the Sutton Court estate and later for the Somersetshire Coal Canal Company.

During the nineteenth century aristocrat George Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton (1817–1876) was a resident. His seat was at Chew Magna, where John Sanger, the circus proprietor, was born in 1816. William Rees-Mogg, former editor of The Times, took the title Baron Rees-Mogg, of Hinton Blewitt, but no longer lives in the village. Jazz clarinetist Acker Bilk lives in Pensford. Richard Brock the natural history film producer, Liam Fox a Conservative politician and Dr Phil Hammond a GP and comedian also live in the valley. Robert Hunter of the Grateful Dead lived in Pensford from 1979–1981.

In the past part of the population worked in coal mining, although there are no working mines in the area now. There is still a fairly large agricultural workforce and in light industry or service industries, although many people commute to surrounding cities for work. According to the 2001 Census the valley has a population of approximately 5000, largely living in one of the dozen or so villages and in isolated farms and hamlets. The average age of the population is 42 years, with unemployment rates of 1–4% of all economically active people aged 16–74, however these figures are approximations because the ward areas covered and described in the census statistics do not relate exactly to the area of the valley. In the Indices of deprivation 2004 all of the areas within the valley were considered to be in the most affluent third in England.