Bleadon

BLEADON -  information extracted from Kelly’s 1914 Directory of Somerset

BLEADON is a parish and village, on the road from Weston-super-Mare to Bridgwater, 1¼ miles east from Bleadon Uphill Station on the main line of the Great Western Railway, 4 miles south east from Weston-super-Mare and 139 miles from London.   The River Axe, which is navigable up to this place bounds the parish on the south and west. 

Oldmixon, a hamlet, lying to the north, is partly in this parish and partly in that of Hutton. 

Shiplett, 1 mile east, is a hamlet in this parish.  On the side of Bleadon Hill, which is 438 feet in height, are the traces of an encampment.

The Ecclesiastical Commissioners are the lords of the manor and principal landowners.  The soil is loam and clay, and the subsoil clay and limestone.  The land is chiefly in pasture.  The area is 2,952 acres of land, 10 of water, 3 of tidal water and 26 of foreshore; rateable value, £6,887; Population in 1911 was 603.

BLEADON is part of the

·         Wells division of the County [Somerset],

·         Hundred of Winterstoke,

·         Axbridge Petty Sessional Division,

·         Axbridge  Union,

·         County Court District of Weston-super-Mare,

·         Rural deanery of Burnham,

·         Archdeaconry of Wells,

·         Diocese of Bath & Wells.

THE Church

The Church of St Peter is a building of stone in the decorated and perpendicular styles, consisting of a chancel (dedicated in 1317), nave, south porch, and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing 5 bells.  There are several memorial windows and a font of Transitional Norman date.  On the south side of the chancel is a canopied tomb.  The pulpit of stone is octagonal and has five disengaged sides, ornamented with perpendicular carving.  On one side of the porch, within a sunken panel, is a group in relief of the Virgin and Child, with kneeling figures of a nun and an ecclesiastic, which may have once formed the head of a cross. 

In 1832 the tower was struck by lightning and injured.  The interior of the building was thoroughly restored in 1859 and 1901, and in 1897 a new organ was provided at a cost of £200.  There are sittings for 240 persons.  The register dates from the year 1706.  Near the church stands an ancient stone cross, rising from a stepped base and restored in 1899 by private subscription.

The living is a rectory, net yearly value £470, including 19 acres of glebe with residence, in the gift of Mrs Zara Powys-David, and has been held since 1911 by the Rev Lionel Thomas Powys-David B.A. of St David’s College Lampeter. 

• Parish Clerk and Sexton – Ernest Parker

Non-Conformist

There is a United Methodist Chapel built in 1846 and seating 110 persons; and a preaching room for the Plymouth Brethren.

THE School

A Public Elementary School (mixed) was erected in 1854 and enlarged in 1874 for 90 children average attendance, 81. 

• School Master – Charles Watson

Post

Telegraph and Money Order Office.   Letters from Weston-super-Mare arrive at 6.15am and 4. 15pm; dispatched 6.30am and 12.30 & 7.45pm. Sundays 10.50am .  Wall letterboxes Shiplett cleared 8.50am and 5.50pm Sundays 9.00am  Purn cleared 12.40 and 7.55 pm Sundays 11.00am. 

• Sub-postmaster - Walter Henry Godden