and broadly corresponds to the administrative district of Sedgemoor but also includes the south west of Mendip district. Approximately 70% of the area is grassland and 30% is arable. [62] Somerset Levels". BBC Radio 4– Open Country. Archived from the original on 25 August 2006 . Retrieved 10 June 2007. Battle of Langport". UK Battlefields Resource Centre. Archived from the original on 12 December 2010 . Retrieved 10 January 2011. a b Dunning, Robert (1983). A History of Somerset. Chichester, UK: Phillimore & Co. ISBN 0-85033-461-6.

Brean is a coastal town with some epic hikes. Make sure that you enjoy Brean Down and its headland! Somerton took over from Ilchester as the county town in the late thirteenth century, [50] but it declined in importance and the status of county town transferred to Taunton about 1366. [51] The county has two cities, Bath and Wells, and 30 towns (including the county town of Taunton, which has no town council but instead is the chief settlement of the county's only extant borough). The largest urban areas in terms of population are Bath, Weston-super-Mare, Taunton, Yeovil and Bridgwater. [52] Wales and West ITV". Ofcom. Archived from the original on 19 January 2012 . Retrieved 10 July 2011. Exeter Airport is the only airport in the county offering commercial passenger flights. Interactive Map Use controls to get a detailed road map of Somerset and get handy town centre maps for its popular places.

Devon Satellite Map

Brunning, Richard (February 2001). "The Somerset Levels". Current Archaeology. Wetlands Special Issue. XV (No. 4) (172): 139–143. ISSN 0011-3212.

BDZ at the heart of two academic libraries". Bibliographic Data Services. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015 . Retrieved 18 October 2015.

History

Somerset's name derives from Old English Sumorsǣte, short for Sumortūnsǣte, meaning "the people living at or dependent on Sumortūn ( Somerton)". [3] The first known use of Somersæte is in the law code of King Ine who was the Saxon King of Wessex from 688 to 726CE, making Somerset along with Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset one of the oldest extant units of local government in the world. [4] An alternative suggestion is the name derives from Seo-mere-saetan meaning "settlers by the sea lakes". [5] There are also plenty of historical places to visit to learn about the industrial history of the area. First up, hike up Glastonbury Tor and wow at the amazing view of the surrounding countryside from the top.

Aston, Michael (1988). Aspects of the Medieval Landscape of Somerset & Contributions to the landscape history of the county. Somerset: Somerset County Council. ISBN 0-86183-129-2.The usefulness of the canals was short-lived, though some have now been restored for recreation. The 19th century also saw the construction of railways to and through Somerset. The county was served by five pre-1923 Grouping railway companies: the Great Western Railway (GWR); [144] [145] a branch of the Midland Railway (MR) to Bath Green Park (and another one to Bristol); [146] the S&DJR, [145] [147] [148] and the London & South Western Railway (L&SWR). [145] [149] The Chew Magna decoy town was hit by half a dozen bombs on 2December 1940, and over a thousand incendiaries on 3January 1941. [47] The following night the Uphill decoy town, protecting the airfield at Weston-super-Mare, was bombed; a herd of dairy cows was hit, killing some and severely injuring others. [47] Geography [ edit ] Boundaries [ edit ] The Avon Gorge, the historic boundary between Gloucestershire and Somerset, and also Mercia and Wessex; Somerset is to the left The Industrial Revolution in the Midlands and Northern England spelled the end for most of Somerset's cottage industries. Farming continued to flourish, and the Bath and West of England Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture, Arts, Manufactures and Commerce was founded in 1777 to improve farming methods. Despite this, two decades later agriculturist John Billingsley conducted a survey of the county's agriculture in 1795 and found that agricultural methods could still be improved. [41] Note: Volumes I to IX published so far ** "Link to on-line version (not all volumes)". Archived from the original on 3 May 2015. Stansfield-Cudworth, R. E. (2009). Political Elites in South-West England, 1450–1500: Politics, Governance, and the Wars of the Roses. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. pp.191–225, 306–17. ISBN 978-0-77344-714-1.

Tourism in Somerset A Destination Management Plan 2015 - 2020". Visit Somerset . Retrieved 13 April 2021. From 1994 to 1999, Somerset was represented by Liberal Democrat Graham Watson as part of the Somerset and North Devon constituency for elections to the European Parliament. There are so many places to go in Somerset – we bet that you’ll love this country! Was this post helpful?On 1 April 2023 the non-metropolitan county was reorganised by abolishing the four districts and their councils and reconstituting Somerset County Council as a unitary authority for the non-metropolitan county, with the powers of both a district and county council, renamed 'Somerset Council'. [82] The two existing unitary authorities were not altered. [83] A previous attempt to reorganise the county as a unitary authority 2007 was rejected following local opposition. [84] The nature of the relations between the Britons and the Saxons in Somerset is not entirely clear. Ine's laws demonstrate that the Britons were considered to be a significant enough population in Wessex to merit provisions; however, the laws also suggest that Britons could not attain the same social standing as the Saxons, and that many were slaves. [29] In light of such policies, many Britons might have chosen to emigrate to places such as Brittany [30] while those who remained would have had incentives to adopt Anglo-Saxon culture. [31]