South Brent / Brent Knoll

"SOUTH BRENT, a parish in the hundred of Brent-cum-Wrington, in the county of Somerset, 6 miles to the S.W. of Axbridge. Weston-super-Mare is its post town. It lies near the coast of the Bristol Channel, on the Bristol and Exeter railway, and contains the hamlet of Week, or Wick. Brent Knoll [see East Brent] rises to the N. of the village The manor was formerly held by the Abbot of Glastonbury. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Bath and Wells, of the annual value of £548, in the patronage of the Archdeacon of Wells. The church, which is dedicated to St. Michael, stands on a pleasant hill, and contains some Norman traces and a monument to one of the Somersets, to whom Henry VIII. gave the manor. Some of the ancient benches are adorned with curious carvings. There is a chapel for Wesleyan Methodists, and some charitable endowments, producing £8 a year. Part of the parish consists of fine pasture land." From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson © 2003