Over Stowey

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Over Stowey
Over Stowey shown within Somerset
OS grid reference	ST194398
District	Sedgemoor
Shire county	Somerset
Region	South West
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BRIDGWATER
Postcode district	TA5
Dialling code	01278
Police	Avon and Somerset
Fire	Devon and Somerset
Ambulance	South Western
European Parliament	South West England
UK Parliament	Bridgwater
List of places: UK • England • Somerset

Coordinates: 51°09′08″N 3°09′13″W / 51.1521, -3.1537

Over Stowey is a small village and civil parish in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, South West England. It sits in the foothills of the Quantock Hills, just below Nether Stowey and 8 miles (13 km) north west of Bridgwater. The parish includes the hamlets of Plainsfield, Aley, Adscombe, Friarn and Bincombe.^[1]

Nearby is Dowsborough Camp (or Danesborough or Dawesbury), an Iron Age hill fort.

It is possible that a Roman road ran from there to the Quantocks, because the names Nether Stowey and Over Stowey come from the Old English stan wey, meaning stone way. By the 12th century the parish had both a church and the 'old castle precinct' on the Stowey 'herpath'. The castle may have been the caput of the estate of Alfred d'Epaignes at Stowey. It survives as a large, flat mound to the north of Over Stowey village.^[2]

Church of St Peter and St Paul

William Holland kept a diary of his life as the vicar of the Church of St Peter and St Paul in the village from 1799 to 1818. The first recorded incumbent was in 1144. The 14th or 15th century tower was largely rebuilt by Richard Carver in 1840. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II* listed building.^[3]

Quantock Lodge was the home of Henry Labouchere, 1st Baron Taunton and later became a school.

The village was the retirement home of historian James William Corder.