If you want me to look-up
one of your ancestors who were born/married/buried in the town please feel
free to contact me.
The
largest settlement in the western area of Taunton Deane is Wiveliscombe
( pronounced Wivvel-is-cum, but usually shortened to Wivey locally ) It
is a market town serving an extensive agricultural community.
Its
position has been of some importance for many generations, as remains of
pre-Roman, Roman and Saxon times have been traced, including fortifications.
Castle Hill to the east of the town was the site of an Iron Age encampment,
and still gives commanding views of the neighbourhood.
The
bottom, or old end of town, gains enormously in significance when the existence
of one or two water mills is taken into consideration as this hints at
the community being in the business of agricultural processing, grinding
corn and manufacturing cloth. In the Court Rolls of the Manor, preserved
in the Lambeth Palace Library, is mention in A.D. 1465 of Corn mills, of
which one is called Cottescombe mylle and the other is called Crofordysmylle.
Earlier, in the 1434-45 roll, is mention of a payment of 12 1/2 d being
to a carpenter for two and a half days repair work to the coggewhele on
the mill at Crofford.
The
town was created a borough in 1301.
Modern
day Wiveliscombe has an agreeably diverse character as evidenced by narrow
streets and some interesting old buildings. The architecture is varied,
with the Georgian houses of Church Street giving way to the small vernacular
buildings along Russells and Rotten Row, which in many ways are similar
to the buildings in Silver Street and Golden Hill.
However
it is Church Street that contains the best buildings with the Church of
St Andrews, East & West Braynes and the Bournes. There is an unusual
red tile-hung building in the Square, known as the Court House, which is
now the home of the public library. This building was constructed in 1881
and is notable for the carved grotesque corbels and carved wooden panels
depicting styalised fruit, human figures and mythical animals in the style
of the Norwegian slave church carvings.
Abbotsfield,
a country house half a mile to the west of Wiveliscombe, was designed for
Lacey Collard, the piano manufacturer, by Owen Jones around 1872. To the
east of Wiveliscombe is a small settlement called Croford. Croford House
was built for the owner of Slape's Brick Works which once stood behind
it. The farm buildings nearby are made of mis-shaped reject bricks from
the brickworks. The good bricks were once used in most of the Victorian
development in Wiveliscombe and nearby Milverton.
If you have
any comments please e-mail me.