[WED]Puzzling.

[Tim Curtin]

A tentative reply to your puzzle is that Wedmore was always an important
centre, since Alfred if not before, because of its elevation above the
moors. Domesday Book documents the relative wealth of Wedmore in 1070s. The
size of the church, almost a small cathedral, is another indication. When
John Locke's friend John Strachey married Jane Hodges about 1660 the village
was described as "Great Wedmore". The 1841 census (see Stan Mapstone's
contribution earlier this month and www.alpha4.iso.port.ac.uk) lists 701
houses. 170 of the occupiers employed labourers, who would have accounted
for most of the balance of 531, apart from the 131 engaged in trade etc.,
and the 13 "capitalists, bankers, professionals, and other educated men"
(including no doubt the vicar, magistrate (Barrow and then Wollen who lived
in the manor house) and the doctor, usually a Glanville living in Elmsett
Hall). The 1851 census also shows enough farmers working holdings of 50
acres and more to explain many of the biggish houses..


Tim


----- Original Message -----
From: <Marfield66@aol.com>
To: <Wedmore@lists.tutton.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 11:13 AM
Subject: [WED]Puzzling.


> One thing that I have noticed is the relatively high number of large homes
on
> a good sized plott of land in and around Wedmore.
> I have always been puzzled by this as I have always been under the
impression
> that Wedmore was in the midst of farming country and the majority of folk
> would have been farm labourers or otherwise poor.
> Many of these homes would have been built when the village was more
isolated
> and away from the hub of industry and the port of Bristol.
> So why were so many larger homes built in this area ?
> What was the attraction ?
> Or was there really money to be made in some profession in Wedmore ?
> Regards
> Martin Field.
>
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