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Today, on the Britsh Newspaper Archives site, it has been announced that the

• Weston-super-Mare Gazette, and General Advertiser now covers the following issues February 15, 1845  -  December 31, 1904.  They plan to cover 1845-1909
• Weston Mercury has these issues available January 3, 1874   - December 25, 1909.  They plan to cover 1855-1911 so watch this site!

So if you are researching this area (the Gazette also covers the Clevedon Journal) you should find these very helpful. 

I find Sussex Family History Group have extensive coverage of births and deaths on their website. They also produce a CD of Sussex marriages.

 I must admit I don't belong to Somerset and Dorset simply because I have no ancestors in their area.

If it is some time since you checked the original records then it might be useful to look at transcriptions where someone else had deciphered the writing - Of course at the early dates your family might have been Catholic before becoming members of the Church of England which would account for them not being in C of E records or perhaps they were non-conformist.  These records are more difficult to access but not impossible.

At the Dissolution there was in Clevedon the Chantry or Free Chapel of Hydall - which might have referred to Highdale  - the lands belonging to Hydall were eventually let or leased to a John Bulbecke during the reign of Henry VIII

Highdale is mentioned in the History of Clevedon on the Clevedon Town Council site.

Well I have been able to find a Will of William & Edith Hedges in 1590 and a lease to his son John & wife Elizabeth in 1594. It has allowed me to connect up a few dots and give me the basis of a line back to the marragie of William and Edith in 1554. I am putting the most likley family tree together and then either proving it or disproving it with whatever I can find. I am surprised at how much never made it into the parish records/ I may have missed certain records as they were in latin I remember and faded in places.

I believe Charles Hedges senior was buried in Tickenham in 1710 - (a record exists anyway). The family next appear in the Walton in Gordano records. A headstone exists in Tickenham for Joan the wife of Charles buried in 1715 although I took this to be the wife of Charles Junior who married Joan Stanford in Walton in Gordano in 1703 recorded as Hodges. I am examining the sources you have recommended - I didnt know they existed :) 

I have a copy of that book and as you probably know there is no mention in it of HEDGES being connected with Highdale Farm but  it does seem that it was part of the Manor of Clevedon owned by the Earl of Bristol.  In 1652 Thomas KNIGHT (Mayor of Bristol and later a M.P. for that town) began renting the farm along with other property in the Clevedon area.  In 1692 Thomas KNIGHT was still the agent for the property and reported to the Earl of Bristol that he was having difficulty getting anyone else to take it on - so the HEDGES lease must have ceased before that date.  Do you know when Charles HEDGES senior died?