Priddy

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Priddy






Statistics
Population:	679^[1]
Ordnance Survey
OS grid reference:	ST527508
Administration
District:	Mendip
Shire county:	Somerset
Region:	South West England
Constituent country:	England
Sovereign state:	United Kingdom
Other
Ceremonial county:	Somerset
Historic county:	Somerset
Services
Police force:	Avon and Somerset
Fire and rescue:	Somerset
Ambulance:	South Western
Post office and telephone
Post town:
Postal district:
Dialling code:
Politics
UK Parliament:
European Parliament:	South West England

If looking for other uses for Priddy see the Priddy_(disambiguation) page.

Priddy Green

Priddy is a village in Somerset, England in the Mendip Hills, close to East Harptree and 5 miles north west of Wells. It is in the local government district of Mendip.

The village, lies in a small hollow near the summit of the Mendip range of hills, at an elevation of nearly 1,000 feet above sea-level.

Hurdles at Priddy stacked up ready for the sheep fair

It is the venue for the annual Folk Festival and Sheep Fair which has been held here since 1348, a pile of sheep hurdles can be seen on the village green.

1 Etymology
2 History
3 SSSIs
4 Church
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Etymology

Priddy, with medieval variations of spellings such as Predy, Priddie, Pridi, Pridia, Pridie and Prydde, is a name that has been ascribed to the Welsh influence that pre-dated the arrival of the Saxon English. It has been particularly attributed to pridd (= "earth"). This might be suggestive of the Iron Age mining activities. The Latin words pratum (= a meadow) and praedium (= a farm) have given rise to such Alpine names as Preda and Prada and it has been suggested that they are also the root for the cymric word's prydd, pryddion meaning "production", as with a fertile meadow. "Priddy" could just mean "meadow land".^[2]

[edit] History

Nearby are the Priddy Circles a Stone circle or Henge monument, which appears to be contemporary with Stonehenge, i.e. Neolithic circa 2180 BC.^[3] The North Hill location of two round barrow cemeteries, Ashen Hill and Priddy Nine-Barrows which are neighbours of the Circles, would seem to imply that the area to the northeast of Priddy held ritual significance into the Bronze Age.^[4] Lead was being worked as far back as 300 to 200 BC. The area to the east and to the north west of the village shows extensive patches of "gruffy ground". The word "gruffy" derives from the grooves that were formed where the lead ore was extracted from veins near the surface. The relatively easy opencast extraction of lead was a strong attraction for the Romans. Lead ingots found in the neighbourhood have been dated to AD49.^[5]^[6]

Although the village is not mentioned in the Domesday Book it appears to be the subject of a lost Saxon charter of the late 7th or 8th century.^[7]

South of the village at Deer Leap is a Bronze age burial mound and the remains of a medieval settlement of Ramspit.

[edit] SSSIs

Priddy Pools, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) which were originally formed when the Romans started mining lead from the area. Priddy Caves are also an SSSI with the entrance to Swildon's Hole just outside the village. Priddy Mineries is a Nature Reserve.

[edit] Church

St Lawrence Church at Priddy

The church, dedicated to St. Lawrence, dates from the 13th century, was restored in 1881-88, and is a grade I listed building.^[8] The three bells in the church were augmented to five in 1997.