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THE PARISH OF WOOKEY – IN A NUTSHELL
© Joan Hasler and Brian Luker, 2006 

For most people Wookey conjures up the cave of Wookey Hole and possibly a Witch.  In fact Wookey Hole west of the river Axe is historically a minor part of the ancient parish centred on the manor and village of Wookey.  A settlement north west of the cave, Aebbeworth, was also part of the parish, but by the 16^th century it had ceased to exist while, largely through the influence of the paper mill and the Hodgkinson family, Wookey Hole grew into a village in the 19^th century.

In the Middle Ages then, Wookey village was the hub of the parish with subsidiary settlements at Worth, Yarley, Henton (where there was a chapel of ease) and Bleadney, site of the manorial mill.  The manor of Wookey was held by the bishops of Bath and Wells who built one of their palaces, now Court Farm, in the centre of Wookey village, part of extensive estates in Somerset including the demesne and leasehold lands in the parish.  Other landholders in the parish included the subdeans of Wells who were rectors of St Matthew’s church; Wells Old Almshouses who held cottages in the High Street including those amalgamated into the main village pub, the “Ring of Bells”, by 1769; and the Wayfer lands in Wookey Hole.

In 1549 the cash-strapped Bishop Barlow sold the manor to the Duke of Somerset and after his disgrace it was sold to first the Dunch family of Wiltshire and then the Rolles of Devon.  The former bishops’ palace or manor house was leased out and gradually decayed, becoming little more than a farm house, but still set in its old central demesne land and remaining the manorial court house.

Wookey finally shook off the medieval manorial traditions in 1769 when the Rolles auctioned off the manor at a sale in Wells.  Over 1400 acres throughout the parish, some 120 holdings, were sold.  Over 50 people bought one or more lots, most being existing tenants.  The result was the emergence of a sizeable group of yeomen farmers who celebrated their new status with modernisation or re-building of their houses.  Increased prosperity was reinforced by the enclosure of the remaining moors and commons in the mid-1780s, with automatic allotment of land to those old tenements of the manor with grazing rights.  At this time the most influential families in the parish were the Montague Berties in the rectory (known soon as Mellifont Abbey) and the Tudways of Wells who leased out much of the old demesne and the manor house.  Local families like the Salmons who had built East Court on former rectory land, and the Bands, papermakers of Wookey Hole, joined yeoman farmers in a notable dispute with the vicar about tithes, involving over 70 parishioners and leading to 12 of them being summoned to the Quarter sessions in 1780!

Industries developed along the Axe and its leats – milling, iron making, edge tool making and, most importantly for the future, paper making, the earliest mill conversion known in Somerset being before 1610 at Wookey Hole mill, then and for another 250 years, still owned by Wells Old Almshouses.  By the end of the 18^th century paper making was well established not only at Wookey Hole but down the Axe where there were six paper mills in operation at various times.  Even the old mill at Bleadney was bought by John Band of Wookey Hole and used for papermaking for a while, while predecessors of what was to become St Cuthbert’s mill were established at Lower Wookey.  Papermakers like the Coles and the Snelgroves and their successors like W.S.Hodgkinson, whose son built and lived at Glencot, encouraged the development of Wookey Hole into a village which by the 1870s had a school and a church linked with St Cuthbert’s Out parish of Wells.

By the beginning of the 19^th century the population of the parish had risen to over 700, with half the population farmers or employed in farming.  Numbers continued to rise to a mid 19^th century peak of 1200.  By this time Wookey and Henton villages had become the centres of parish activity.  Wookey school at Worth was founded to serve the parish in 1844, and there was an infants’ school at Henton from 1878 until 1960.  Christ Church was built at Henton on the former chapel site in 1847 and Wookey St Matthew was given a typical but not over-aggressive Victorian restoration.  Friendly Societies flourished in the two villages based at the “Ring of Bells” in Wookey and the “Punch Bowl” at Henton.  These Clubs became the social centres of the villages with annual Club days, and their records from 1797 until after the Second World War survive.  They also gave relief to members who fell on hard times.  In Wookey village the Perkins family at Eastcourt were not only landowners but virtual ‘squires’ until well into the 20^th century.  Colonel Perkins owned much property, rebuilt cottages in the High Street and built St Matthew’s Terrace, and the family took a leading part in Church and social activities including the Clubs, May Day Festivals and the Scouts.  The Burnett-Stuarts bought Mellifont Abbey and Court Farm, but the latter was sold to the County Council as a starter farm in the early 20^th century and was rented out until the council sold it in 1995 into private ownership.     

The rise of industrial Britain and depression and changes in agriculture led to emigration, either to industrial towns or abroad, and by 1900 the population was in decline, heading for a minimum of 800 in the 1930s, by which time farming accounted for about 15% - the share now is well below 5%.  In the parish many long-established organisations vanished under the impact of Victorian reform.  The Parish Council was established in 1894, and the parish came under Wells Rural District Council.

Almost half the male population of the parish, 210 men, served in the First World War, of whom 30 died and more were scarred for life.  The end of the war was marked by celebrations but also by the erection of memorials in St Matthew’s and Christ Church.  Changes brought about by the war show through, for example in the increased numbers of women working outside the home.  The parish was reduced in area in 1933 when the line of the railway, completed in 1870, became the north boundary.  The same year saw the hut, built on Preywater Road for Wookey village men, transported to Henton where it became the well-known ‘Henton Hut’.  The first council houses, in Knowle Lane, Wookey were built in 1938 and improvement of the B3139, since 1970 the source of concern over speeding, was carried out in 1939 just before the Second World War.  In that conflict some 110 men and women from the parish served in the Forces and six were killed. 

Even as the war ended the RDC were planning action in response to surveys showing many unfit dwellings.  The council housing that followed, with private building as soon as permitted, transformed Wookey village, and provided new houses and converted farm buildings throughout the parish. The third Wookey vicarage was completed in 1969 and Henton and Wookey combined benefice created in 1974.  Modern services – sewage, piped water, telephones, street lighting – arrived and the population began to rise to over 1300.  However the railway closed in 1969 and several pubs and shops in the parish were closed.  The closure of the post office at Henton and its removal from Wookey High Street further reduced facilities.  Mechanisation of agriculture reduced numbers in farming yet further and there are few working farm houses left.  At the same time mills have continued to close and the largest source of employment within the parish is now care of the elderly.  Well-supported public appeals have saved Christ Church (threatened with closure) and restored St Matthew’s.  Parishioners have also helped to buy a playing field and to build a splendid successor to Henton Hut as a village hall.  It remains to be seen what the future will bring