History
The estate was known as Orceard and was given by King Æthelwulf of Wessex to Taunton's minster church in 854.
The parish of Thurlbear was part of the North Curry Hundred, while Orchard Portman was part of the Taunton Deane Hundred.
By 1135 the manor had passed to Elfric de Orchard and his descendants one of whom, Christina de Orchard, married Walter Portman. The village takes the second part of its name from the Portman family one of the earliest prominent members of which was Sir William Portman (died 1557), Chief Justice of the King’s Bench and lord of the manor. The estate was sold to the Crown Commissioners in 1944.
Read more about this topic: Orchard Portman
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“Tell me of the height of the mountains of the moon, or of the diameter of space, and I may believe you, but of the secret history of the Almighty, and I shall pronounce thee mad.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The history is always the same the product is always different and the history interests more than the product. More, that is, more. Yes. But if the product was not different the history which is the same would not be more interesting.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)