Somerton - History

History

The earliest reference to the town is in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which records that in 733 the King of Wessex, Æthelheard lost control of Somerton to Ethelbald, King of Mercia. A local legend has it that Ine of Wessex (688–728), who ruled Wessex for 37 years, was originally a farmer in Somerton. Somerton was reputedly the capital of the Kingdom of Wessex from 871 to 901 AD, and though this is not supported by modern research, it was the site of the 949 meeting of the witan, a form of Anglo-Saxon parliament. The town returned to West Saxon royal control in the ninth century, and it was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Sumertone". The name may come from Old English for "sea-lake enclosure", "summer town" or "summer farmstead". The Somerton name was extended to the people in the area it controlled, and this area became known as Somerset, although Somerton soon ceased to be the most important settlement and never grew into a large town. The parish was the largest in the Hundred of Somerton. It was, briefly, the county town of Somerset from the late thirteenth century into the early fourteenth century. A building referred to as "Somerset castle" is believed to have been built around 1280 as a county gaol, with a visitor in 1579 describing the remaining portion as "an old tower embattled about castle-like". It was owned by Sir Ralph Cromwell between 1423 and 1433. Details are vague and visible remains have vanished, so its status as a castle and its very existence is in doubt, with one writer, D.J.C. King, feeling that people were confusing it with Somerton Castle in Lincolnshire.

The Abbots of Muchelney Abbey held the Rectorship of the parish church of Somerton during the Middle Ages. They built a tithe barn, to house the tithes of crops and produce paid by the parish to the town's Rector. The Abbey was dissolved in 1539 during the English Reformation, and the tithes and the tithe barn passed into the ownership of Bristol Cathedral. In the 20th century the barn was converted into private housing.

Glove making was a major industry in the town in the early nineteenth century, along with the production of rope and twine. The Somerton Brewery, owned by a local landowner named Thomas Templeman, was first recorded under the Tithe Apportionment Act of 1841. The brewery became a large producer in Somerset until its final closure around 1935. Before the National Insurance and the Health Service was introduced, Somerton Men's Club acted as a local Provident Society within the area. Gypsum was extracted by hand at the Hurcott open-cast mine from the Victorian era up until it closed down in 1953. In 1906, a railway station opened on the Castle Cary Cut-Off which was built by the Great Western Railway. Whilst the line still remains in use, the station was closed in 1962. When the Marconi Company built the radio stations known as the Imperial Wireless Chain for the Post Office during 1925–26, they also established their own transmitting station at Dorchester with a receiving station 30 miles (48 km) away at Somerton.

Somerton was hit by four Luftwaffe bombs on the morning of 29 September 1942 during the Second World War. The bombs were aimed at the Cow and Gate milk factory and it was largely destroyed. Ten nearby houses were badly damaged. Nine people were killed and thirty seven injured. A memorial at the dairy site commemorates those killed. The factory later became a district council depot, and was recently bought by the town council for possible use as the site of a new town hall.