Uphill | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Location within Somerset | |
OS grid reference | ST31915873 |
Civil parish | |
Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | WESTON-SUPER-MARE |
Postcode district | BS23 |
Dialling code | 01934 |
Police | Avon and Somerset |
Fire | Avon |
Ambulance | South Western |
UK Parliament | |
Uphill is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Weston-super-Mare, in the North Somerset district, in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England, at the southern edge of the town, on the Bristol Channel coast.
Bone and stone tools found in caves at Uphill provide evidence of human activity in the Upper Palaeolithic period, and a radiocarbon date of around 28,000 Before Present, which came from a bone point, was the first scientifically derived direct date from the entire British Isles for an artefact of that period (the Aurignacian). [1]
The River Axe enters the Bristol Channel at Uphill where it is sheltered by Brean Down and it is possible that there was a port at Uphill in Roman times but no archaeological evidence has been found for this. [2] [3] [Note 1] [Note 2]
At the time of Domesday Book (1086) the manor of Opopille was in the possession of four knights. 1 serf, 7 villeins and 4 bordars lived and worked here. [4] Ships coming into Uphill fell under the limited jurisdiction of the Port of Bristol, however it was a free port as it did not have the customs officers to collect revenues which were present at larger ports. In 1591 the captured French ship the Gray Honde from Bayonne was brought into Uphill, however; the normal trade from the 16th century was in livestock, brought from South Wales to be fattened on the local rich grassland. [5] During the English Civil War the port was used to bring two regiments, about 1,500 men, of the Royalist Army from South Wales before the Battle of Langport. [6] It continued as a small landing stage for many centuries including the import of coal and iron and the export of local produce. [7] After the Enclosure Act of 1813 a public wharf was constructed for trade and was also used occasionally by passenger excursion ships. [5]
In the late eighteenth century visitors started to come to the area for health reasons. The philanthropist Hannah More convalesced at uphill in 1773 and a few years later Jane Biss was advertising summer accommodation in the village while the landlord of the Ship Inn had a bathing machine for hire. A 'Sea Bathing infirmary' was in operation from 1826 for a short while. [8]
The Bristol to Exeter railway line runs through a deep cutting between Uphill and nearby Bleadon. This cutting is spanned by a high brick bridge known as "Devil's Bridge" and designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. [9] The former Bleadon and Uphill railway station served the village from 1871 until 1964. [10]
Uphill was an ancient ecclesiastical parish, and had almost certainly been established as such before the Norman Conquest. It was a member of Winterstoke Hundred, [11] again from probably before 1066. It became a civil parish in 1866, but on 1 April 1933 the civil parish was abolished and absorbed into Weston-super-Mare. [12] In 1931 the parish had a population of 839. [13]
The manor is recorded in Domesday Book as Opopille which derives from the Old English Uppan Pylle meaning "above the creek". [14] The Pill is a tidal creek which joins the River Axe near where the river flows into Weston Bay to the north of Brean Down. The Pill is connected to the Great Uphill Rhyne which drains the moors to the east of the village. [15]
The village is dominated on its southern side by a large hill, the southern slope of which and the quarry at its western end form the Uphill Cliff Site of Special Scientific Interest, notable for its species-rich calcareous grassland. It consists of species-rich calcareous grassland and rock-face situated on Carboniferous Limestone. Steeper banks and knolls in the grassland have a flora which includes orchids, Somerset Hair Grass ( Koeleria vallesiana ), and Honewort ( Trinia glauca ), and the Goldilocks Aster ( Galatella linosyris ) along with several species of butterfly and Weevil (Curculionoidea). [16] The hill and Walborough common, which are adjacent to each other, are local nature reserves making a total area of 38.14 hectares (94.2 acres). There are a range of flowers including cowslip, primrose and green-winged orchid. [17] The Salt marsh has sea barley, slender hare's-ear and sea clover and limestone grassland with Somerset hair-grass, honewort, green-winged and early purple orchids. These attract redshank, dunlin, shelduck, black-tailed godwit, skylark, linnet, rock and meadow pipit. [18]
The Old Church of St Nicholas is situated on the hill and used to serve as a landmark for ships on the Bristol Channel. [15] Also on the hill is a tower, the remains of a windmill. Although sometimes claimed to be medieval its construction date is unknown. [19] It is most likely to be of the 18th century [20] although map evidence suggests that it had gone out of use by 1782. [21]
Links Road, which runs along below the hill, links the village with the beach to the west. Weston General Hospital is at the west end of the village adjacent to the A370 road. The old road to Weston-super-Mare runs northwards past Uphill Manor (which is known locally as Uphill Castle). [15] The Mendip Way long-distance footpath has its western trailhead at Uphill near the wharf.
On top of the hill stands the unroofed Norman Old Church of St Nicholas. It is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. [22]
The present day Church of St Nicholas is situated on lower ground towards the north end of the village. [23]
In addition, a separate Methodist Church is present in the village, located on Uphill Road South.
Uphill is home to Weston General Hospital. Weston Hospicecare, a hospice providing palliative care to patients from the surrounding area with terminal illnesses, is also based here.
The Mendip Hills is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running from Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel in the west to the Frome valley in the east, the hills overlook the Somerset Levels to the south and the Chew Valley and other tributaries of the Avon to the north. The hills gave their name to the former local government district of Mendip, which administered most of the local area until April 2023. The higher, western part of the hills, covering 198 km2 (76 sq mi) has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), which gives it a level of protection comparable to a national park.
North Somerset is a unitary district in Somerset, South West England. Whilst its area covers part of the ceremonial county of Somerset, it is administered independently of the non-metropolitan county. Its administrative headquarters is in the town hall in Weston-super-Mare.
The River Axe is a river in South West England. The river is formed by water entering swallets in the limestone and rises from the ground at Wookey Hole Caves in the Mendip Hills in Somerset, and runs through a V-shaped valley. The geology of the area is limestone and the water reaches Wookey Hole in a series of underground channels that have eroded through the soluble limestone. The river mouth is in Weston Bay on the Bristol Channel.
Brean Down is a promontory off the coast of Somerset, England, standing 318 feet (97 m) high and extending 1+1⁄2 miles into the Bristol Channel at the eastern end of Bridgwater Bay between Weston-super-Mare and Burnham-on-Sea.
Bleadon is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is about 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Weston-super-Mare and, according to the 2021 census, has a population of 1,149.
Blagdon is a village and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Somerset, within the unitary authority of North Somerset, in England. It is located in the Mendip Hills, a recognised Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. According to the 2011 census it has a population of 1,116. The village is about 12 miles (19 km) east of Weston-super-Mare on the A368 between Churchill and Compton Martin.
Somerset is a rural county in the southwest of England, covering 4,171 square kilometres (1,610 sq mi). It is bounded on the north-west by the Bristol Channel, on the north by Bristol and Gloucestershire, on the north-east by Wiltshire, on the south-east by Dorset, and on the south west and west by Devon. It has broad central plains with several ranges of low hills. The landscape divides into four main geological sections from the Silurian through the Devonian and Carboniferous to the Permian which influence the landscape, together with water-related features.
Churchill is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, part of the ceremonial county of Somerset. It is located on the western edge of the Mendip Hills, about 8 miles (12.9 km) east of Weston-super-Mare, and about 15 miles (24.1 km) south-west of Bristol. The parish, which includes the village of Lower Langford and the hamlet of Upper Langford, has a population of 2,250.
Ubley is a small village and civil parish within the Chew Valley in Bath and North East Somerset about 9 miles (14.5 km) south of Bristol. It is just south-east of Blagdon Lake, just off the A368 between Compton Martin and Blagdon.
Burrington is a small village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is situated in the unitary authority of North Somerset, 5 miles (8.0 km) north east of Axbridge and about 10 miles (16 km) east of Weston-super-Mare. The parish includes the hamlets of Bourne and Rickford and has a population of 464.
Charterhouse, also known as Charterhouse-on-Mendip, is a hamlet and former civil parish, now in the parish of Priddy, in the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in the Somerset district, in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The area between Charterhouse and Cheddar Gorge including Velvet Bottom and Ubley Warren is covered by the Cheddar Complex Site of Special Scientific Interest. In 1931 the parish had a population of 68.
Hutton is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England. The parish, which has a population of 2,582, is within the unitary authority of North Somerset and located on the western edge of the Mendip Hills, close to Weston-super-Mare.
Charterhouse was a town in the Roman province of Britannia. Its site is located just to the west of the village of Charterhouse-on-Mendip in the English county of Somerset.
The Mendip Way is an 80-kilometre (50 mi) long-distance footpath across the Mendip Hills from Weston-super-Mare to Frome. It is divided into two sections.
Banwell is a village and civil parish on the River Banwell in the North Somerset district of Somerset, England. Its population was 3,251 according to the 2021 census.
The earliest known infrastructure for transport in Somerset is a series of wooden trackways laid across the Somerset Levels, an area of low-lying marshy ground. To the west of this district lies the Bristol Channel, while the other boundaries of the county of Somerset are along chains of hills that were once exploited for their mineral deposits. These natural features have all influenced the evolution of the transport network. Roads and railways either followed the hills, or needed causeways to cross the Levels. Harbours were developed, rivers improved, and linked to sources of traffic by canals. Railways were constructed throughout the area, influenced by the needs of the city of Bristol, which lies just to the north of Somerset, and to link the ports of the far south-west with the rest of England.
Worlebury Camp is the site of an Iron Age hillfort on Worlebury Hill, north of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, England. The fort was well defended with numerous walls, embankments and ditches around the site. Several large triangular platforms have been uncovered around the sides of the fort, lower down on the hillside. Nearly one hundred storage pits of various sizes were cut into the bedrock, and many of these contained human remains, coins, and other artefacts. During the 19th and 20th centuries the fort suffered damage and was threatened with complete destruction on multiple occasions. Now, the site is a designated Scheduled monument. It falls within the Weston Woods Local Nature Reserve which was declared to Natural England by the North Somerset Council in 2005.
The Bristol to Exeter line is a major branch of the Great Western Main Line in the West of England and runs from Bristol, to Exeter, from where it continues as the Exeter to Plymouth line. It was one of the principal routes of the pre-1948 Great Western Railway which were subsequently taken over by the Western Region of British Railways and are now part of the Network Rail system.
The Hundred of Winterstoke is one of the 40 historical Hundreds in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England, dating from before the Norman conquest during the Anglo-Saxon era although exact dates are unknown. By far the most important and authoritative source for the structure, history and development of Winterstoke Hundred is a seminal paper by Dr Frank Thorn. Each hundred had a 'fyrd', which acted as the local defence force and a court which was responsible for the maintenance of the frankpledge system. They also formed a unit for the collection of taxes. The role of the hundred court was described in the Dooms (laws) of King Edgar. The name of the hundred was normally that of its meeting-place.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)These works provide more detailed information discussed in the notes section.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)