Kewstoke

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

KEWSTOKE is a parish on the Bristol Channel, 2 miles north-east from Weston-super-Mare station on the Great Western Railway. The road from Kewstoke to Weston-super-Mare through the woods, is one of the most delightful that can be imagined, and the occasional breaks in the foliage afford pleasant glimpses of the Bristol Channel; the view of the surrounding country from Worlebury Hill is also very extensive.  The soil is loam; sub soil mixed. The land is chiefly pasture, with some market gardens. The area is 1,779 acres of land, 3 of water and 850 of foreshore; rateable value, £4,123; the population in 1911 was 401 in the civil and 1,296 in the ecclesiastical parish (which includes parts of Congresbury, Puxton, Weston-super-Mare and Worle civil parishes)

In the parish are the remains of Woodspring Priory, founded in 1210 by William de Courtney, for canons of the Augustinian order translated here from Dodelinch and dedicated to the Holy Trinity, St Mary the Virgin and St Thomas the Martyr.

NORTON BEAUCHAMP is also a hamlet half a mile east

By Local Government Board Order – March 25^th1885 Milton Batch was transferred from Weston-super-Mare to Kewstoke and part of Longworthy to Worle, a detached part of Kewstoke near Hole Bridge Rhine, to Congresbury and Puxton and a detached part of Worle added to Kewstoke.

By Local Government Board Order – April 1^st1902 Milton, containing 90 inhabited houses, and a population of 369 was transferred to Weston-super-Mare civil parish and Urban District.

KEWSTOKE is in the

·         Wells division of the county [Somerset]

·         Winterstoke Hundred,

·         Axbridge petty sessions division

·         Axbridge Poor Law Union

·         Weston-super-Mare County Court District

·         Rural Deanery of Locking

·         Archdeaconry of Wells

·         Diocese of Bath and Wells

THE CHURCH

The Church of St Paul is a building of stone in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, with some early remains, and consists of chancel, nave, south porch, and a western tower with pierced trefoiled parapet, small pinnacles and an octagonal spired turret at the south-east angle; it contains 6 bells. There is a 15^th century stone pulpit and a curious stone font. The upper and lower doors of the rood loft also remain. There are sittings for 220 persons and the registers date from 1667.

In the north wall of the nave is a reliquary discovered in 1850, on the front of which is a carved figure of a lady, and at the back an arched recess in which was found a wooden cup with traces of having contained blood, said to be of St Thomas à Becket, and removed from Woodspring Priory.  The reliquary is now in the Museum at Taunton

The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £168 including 28 acres of glebe with residence, in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, and held since 1905 by the Rev John Henry Haydon Doorbar of University College, Durham. 

·         Parish Clerk & Sexton George Fox

 NON-CONFORMIST CHURCH

There is a Chapel for the Plymouth Brethren

POST

Letters delivered by foot post from Weston-super-Mare at 7 a.m. & 4.50 p.m.; dispatched at 7 a.m. & 4.50 & 7.45 p.m.   No delivery nor dispatch on Sundays. Worle is the nearest money order & telegraph office

Wall Letter Box, Ewart Road cleared at 12.15 & 8 p.m.; Sundays 5 p.m.

·         Sub-Postmistress:  Mrs Florence Causon

PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Public Elementary School (mixed), erected in 1875, for 110 children; a new class-room was added in 1894; average attendance 93

·         School Mistress: Mrs Annie Snelgrove

Public Elementary School (mixed), erected in 1909 for 72 children; average attendance, 57

·         School Mistress: Mrs Henrietta J Clothier-Pinton

PRIVATE RESIDENTS – KEWSTOKE

Allen, Miss Allenville

Doorbar, Rev. John Henry Haydon (Vicar) Vicarage

Goulden, Capt. Frederick Charles Rockmount

Horder, Albert, Holme View

Jasper, Edward, The Bridge

Norville, Wadham John

Ruddell, Hepburne, Atlantic House

Townsend, John, Home Leigh

COMMERCIAL RESIDENTS – KEWSTOKE

Beacham, John, market gardener

Beard, John, farmer, Culm

Bryant, Abraham, jobbing gardener, Cardiff House

Causon, Florence, (Mrs) grocer & Post Office

Chapman, Willie, C., farmer, Newton

Court, James, farmer, Norton

Court, Reuben Harold, farmer

Cox, Frederick, laundry

Dove, Lucinda (Mrs) apartments, Beach Cottage

Dowden, Louis, carrier

Dunston, Alma (Miss), collector Kewstoke Toll Gate

Ellis, Elizabeth, (Mrs), laundry

Farler, Henry, nurseryman

Griffin, Alfred, farmer, Woodspring

Hazel, Robert, farmer, Myrtle Tree farm

Hoskins, Thomas. Blacksmith

Keedwell, John, farmer, Sand

Quick. Thomas, farmer, Culm

Scribbings, Charles, farmer, Norton

Seager, Prudence (Miss) apartments

Seager, Thomas, market gardener

Shapland, Richard, market gardener

Smith, Charles, market gardener, Sand

Smith, William, farmer

Spratt, Kate, Harriet & Alice (Misses), farmers, Sand

Stabbins, Richard, farmer, Norton

Stabbins, Sidney, cattle dealer

Tutt, George farmer, Sand

Urch, Ada (Mrs) apartments, Kew Cottage

Wallace, Charles, market gardener

Wallis, James, farmer, Norton

Watts, Jasper, farmer, Ardenave

Weadon, George, market gardener

Weakley, Ann (Mrs) laundress, Norton

Weakley, John sen., wheelwright

Weakley, John jun., wheelwright

Weaver, William, farmer

Williams, John R., New Inn

Woodspring Golf Club, Club House

·         Secretary, Sidney Lysaght