| Wellow | |
Wellow village including the church |
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Wellow
Wellow shown within Somerset |
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| Population | 511 [1] |
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| OS grid reference | ST740583 |
| Unitary authority | Bath and North East Somerset |
| Ceremonial county | Somerset |
| Region | South West |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | BATH |
| Postcode district | BA2 |
| Police | Avon and Somerset |
| Fire | Avon |
| Ambulance | Great Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | North East Somerset |
| List of places: UK • England • Somerset | |
Wellow is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, about 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Bath. The parish, which includes the hamlet of Twinhoe has a population of 511.[1] It falls within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is recognised as having special architectural and historic interest, which led to it being designated as a Conservation Area in 1983.[2]
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There is a low water crossing (Irish Bridge) and late mediaeval packhorse bridge over Wellow Brook.[3]
A little further south is the Neolithic chambered tomb known as Stoney Littleton Long Barrow. The Long Barrow, which is also known as Bath Tumulus and the Wellow Tumulus, is a Neolithic chambered tomb with multiple burial chambers.[4] The barrow is about 30 metres (98 ft) in length and 15 metres (49 ft) wide at the south-east end, it stands nearly 3 metres (10 ft) high.[5] Internally it consists of a 12.8 metres (42 ft) long gallery with three pairs of side chambers and an end chamber. There is a fossil ammonite decorating the left-hand door jamb. The site was excavated by John Skinner in 1816-17 who gained the entry through a hole originally made about 1760. The excavation revealed the bones (some burned) of several individuals.[6]
The parish gave its name to the Wellow Hundred.[7]
In the 1880s and 1890s a small mine extracting and drying Fuller's earth was situated between Wellow and Stoney Littleton and also on Hassage Hill.[8]
Wellow Station, on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, closed in 1966. The station building was converted into a house by the artist Peter Blake and his then wife Jann Haworth, in the mid 1970s. The Radstock arm of the Somerset Coal Canal is now part of the route of NCR 24, the Colliers Way, with a tunnel at Wellow.
The parish council has responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept (local rate) to cover the council’s operating costs and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The parish council evaluates local planning applications and works with the local police, district council officers, and neighbourhood watch groups on matters of crime, security, and traffic. The parish council's role also includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, such as the village hall or community centre, playing fields and playgrounds, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning. Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also of interest to the council.
The parish falls within the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset which was created in 1996, as established by the Local Government Act 1992. It provides a single tier of local government with responsibility for almost all local government functions within its area including local planning and building control, local roads, council housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection, recycling, cemeteries, crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism. It is also responsible for education, social services, libraries, main roads, public transport, trading standards, waste disposal and strategic planning, although fire, police and ambulance services are provided jointly with other authorities through the Avon Fire and Rescue Service, Avon and Somerset Constabulary and the Great Western Ambulance Service.
Bath and North East Somerset's area covers part of the ceremonial county of Somerset but it is administered independently of the non-metropolitan county. Its administrative headquarters are in Bath. Between 1 April 1974 and 1 April 1996, it was the Wansdyke district and the City of Bath of the county of Avon.[9] Before 1974 that the parish was part of the Bathavon Rural District.[10]
The parish is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom as part of North East Somerset. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It is also part of the South West England constituency of the European Parliament which elects seven MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.
Nearby are the Hinton Hill and Cleaves Wood sites of Special Scientific Interest.
Wellow Brook rises near Ston Easton Park in the village of Ston Easton and flows east to Midsomer Norton. West of Radstock, it is joined by the River Somer and a tributary from Kilmersdon to the south. It then flows through Wellow before joining the Cam Brook at Midford to form Midford Brook before joining the River Avon close to the Dundas Aqueduct.
Hinton Hill is of importance to studies of the stratigraphy of the Middle Jurassic of the Bath district, and the British Bathonian as a whole.[11]
Cleaves Wood is an ancient, semi-natural deciduous woodland on Oolitic Limestone. It has a high diversity of tree and shrub species and a large population of the nationally scarce plant Spiked Star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum pyrenaicum). There are also areas of grassland which is lightly grazed by rabbits and is a mosaic of close grazed and rough swards, and wetter areas.[12] The scarce plants found here include the Fly Orchid[13] and Wild Daffodil.[14] The habitat diversity of the site has resulted in a rich invertebrate fauna, including two nationally rare insects: the beetle Osphya bipunctata and the hoverfly Cheilosia nigripes. Twenty-seven butterflies have been recorded from the site including the nationally scarce species, Duke of Burgundy Fritillary (Hamearis lucina). The nationally scarce moth, blomers rivulet (Discoloxia blomeri) has also been recorded on the site. Other nationally scarce species include the snail Ena montana , the hoverfly Xanthogramma citrotasciatum, and a number of beetle species.[12]
The parish Church of St Julian, Wellow at Wellow has origins before the 12th century although the present building dates from 1372. The west tower has three stages, set back buttresses with off-sets which turn into diagonal pinnacles in upper stages. There is an embattled parapet with pinnacles. The square stair turret on the south-east corner terminates as an octagon. There is a three-light window to the bell chamber with cusped heads and a similar but larger window with transom to west. It is a Grade I listed building.[15]