South Petherton in 1841
South Petherton is in the hundred of South Petherton, 131 miles west by south of London through Andover, Amesbury, and Ilchester, and 17 miles south-east of Taunton through Ilminster. Considerable Roman remains have been found at Wigborough in this parish, which is supposed to have been the site of a Roman town. The Anglo-Saxon kings had a palace at South Petherton. The town is called in Domesday Sudperet. It is about a mile west from Petherton bridge (a stone bridge of three arches, adorned with the figures, in stone, of two children who were drowned in the river, and by whose parents the bridge was built) over the Parret : and consists of several streets or lanes irregularly laid out. The church is cruciform, and consists of nave and chancel, with side aisles and transept ; and a plain octangular tower at the intersection. There are meeting-houses for Independents and Wesleyan Methodists.
The area of the parish is 3,410 acres ; the population in 1831 was 2,294 ; some stone is quarried in the parish ; there are two small weekly markets, and one yearly fair.
The living is a vicarage, of the clear yearly value of £475, with a glebe-house ; in the archdeaconry of Taunton, in the diocese of Bath and Wells.
There were, in 1833, one endowed day-school with 20 boys ; four other day-schools, with 42 boys and 49 girls ; and four Sunday-schools, with 150 boys and 174 girls. |