Clevedon St Andrew, Somerset Family History Guide

Clevedon St Andrew is an Ancient Parish in the county of Somerset.

Alternative names: Clevedon

Parish church:

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1727
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1607

Nonconformists include: Independent/Congregational, Plymouth Brethren, and Protestant Dissenters.

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

CLEVEDON, a village and a parish in Bedminster district, Somerset. The village stands on the coast, under a rocky height called Dial-Hill, at the terminus of a branch railway, 12½ miles by road WSW of Bristol. It dates from remote times; but now consists chiefly of a collection of villas built since 1828. It enjoys a moist mild air; is a favourite summer resort for sea-bathing; and has a head post-office, a railway station with telegraph, two chief inns, marine baths, and a pier 800 feet long, constructed at a cost of £12, 000, and completed in 1869.

Dial-Hill commands a magnificent view; and fine walks and rides are in the neighbourhood. Myrtle Cottage here was for some time the residence of the poet S. T. Coleridge; and Clevedon Court, in the vicinity, a noble Tudor mansion amid beautiful grounds, now the seat of Sir Arthur H. Elton, Bart., is associated with the memory of the historian Hallam, whose wife was a daughter of Sir Abraham Elton. Coleridge sang the praises of his cottage in his “Sibylline Leaves;” and the poet Tennyson, in his “In Memoriam” on Arthur Henry Hallam, sings as follows the praises of the village, –

There twice a-day the Severn fills;
The salt sea-water passes by,
And brushes half the babbling Wye,
And makes a silence in the hills.

The parish comprises 2,987 acres of land and 1,080 of water. Real property, £16,674. Pop., 2,941. Houses, 463. The property is subdivided. Much of the surface is picturesque. Lead ore was formerly mined. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells; and there are also the p. curacy of Christchurch and the vicarage of East Clevedon. Value of Clevedon, £420; of Christchurch, not reported; of East Clevedon, £127. Patron of Clevedon, the Bishop of Worcester; of Christchurch, Trustees; of East Clevedon, Sir A. H. Elton, Bart. The old church belonged to St. Augustine abbey in Bristol; is partly Norman, and partly decorated and perpendicular English; and contains the ancient burying-place of the Clevedons, once lords of the manor, and monuments of the Wakes and the Hallams. Christ-church church is a modern edifice in the early English style; and East Clevedon church is in the decorated English style. There are a handsome Independent chapel, Quakers’ and Brethren’s chapels, national and British schools, and charities £21.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].