Blackford, Somerset
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Blackford is a village in the civil parish of Compton Pauncefoot, in the county of Somerset, England, beside the A303 road, 4 miles (6.4 km) south west of Wincanton. There are two other places called Blackford in Somerset: one is a village near Wedmore, the other a tiny hamlet in Selworthy parish between Porlock and Minehead.
In 1931, the civil parish had a population of 80.[1] On the 1 April 1933, the civil parish was merged with Compton Pauncefoot.[2] Compton Pauncefoot holds a Parish Meeting twice a year and has no Parish Council. The combined parish has approximately 130 residents and around 35 houses in each village. The civil parish is in the Blackmore Vale ward of the Somerset Council area.
Blackford is designated as a Conservation Area.
In the Domesday Book of 1086 the manor is recorded as held by Turstin FitzRolf.[3] The parish of Blackford was part of the Whitley Hundred.[4]
The village has a Reading Room which was given to the church in 1912 by Miss Emily Senior, who sold the land it stands on to the Fidelity Trust Ltd for £25. It is now leased to the Blackford Reading Room Trust to be used as a village hall. Following a programme of works in the 1990s and as part of a millennium project with the aid of lottery and other grants the hall has been completely refurbished.
Baron Blackford, of Compton Pauncefoot in the County of Somerset, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1935 for the barrister William James Peake Mason. He had already been created a Baronet, of Compton Pauncefoot in the County of Somerset, in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom in 1918. The titles became extinct in 1988 on the death of his great-grandson, the fourth Baron.
Geography
The stream through Blackford is a tributary of the River Cam (Somerset) and benefitted from works in 1982 to the riverbanks in Blackford to help keep the water moving. Flooding is therefore rarer than previously in Blackford as a result. It travels from Blackford to Compton Pauncefoot and then travels under the A303 to join the Yarlington headwaters. The River Cam flows onto the Royal Naval Station where it joins the River Yeo and the Yeo in turn flows west to the south of Yeovilton and through the town of Ilchester. The river course continues to the west and at Langport becomes the River Parrett.
The stream has its headwaters in the hills around Blackford & Compton Pauncefoot together with a number of springs. The main waters come from 3 primary sources: 1. Maperton, 2. Quarry Hill, 3. Sigwells Hill. The first 2 combine in Blackford around the Crossroads/Hollow and further springs contribute at a number of points all the way through both villages.
The A303 is nearby and during construction major drainage pipes were laid at intervals that bring significant quantities of water into the stream. This contributes to the rapid rise in the stream during rainfall.
Blackford is fortunate that it is relatively high in the watercourse and consequently only local rainfall and runoff comes through the villages.
Landmarks
The village has a number of notable buildings including: East Hall Farm,[5] West Hall Farm, The Old Rectory, Manor Farm, Belstone Cottage, Chapel Cottage,[6] Old Beams.[7] The telephone box is the iconic K6 Telephone Kiosk and was listed Grade II by English Heritage in July 2008 following a local campaign. There are approximately 2,500 listed telephone boxes in the country.
