About Chilton Trinity

Chilton Trinity is small parish just to the north of Bridgwater. You actually enter the parish immediately north of Chilton Trinity School where the road crosses the Reedmoor Rhyne. On your right, Chilton Park is just within the parish but most of the village is a bit over half a mile off, and reached by a rather narrow and winding road. Indeed, there is only one road though the parish, though there are side roads and droves that give access to farm fields and outlying houses and a good network of public footpaths and bridleways.

The tidal River Parrett forms our boundary to the east and north, separating us from the huge industrial units on the other bank, which still carries the pillboxes built in 1940 as part of the “Stop-Line” against a possible invasion landing in the west. Once the Parrett was a busy river and Bridgwater a busy port but now only one ship, the Arco Dart, still regularly comes up the river and just enters the parish before docking at Dunball Wharf to unload sand for building.

There are four active farms in the parish and most of the land around us is still farmed, largely as pasture grazed by cattle and sheep. Some is also cut for silage and there are some productive arable fields. Horses and ponies are very much a part of the village too.

Historically the village was home to a large brick and tile works, utilising the alluvial clay on which the village stands. Clay extraction resulted in flooded pits, some of which have been infilled while others now hold angling lakes, holiday cabins and a small Wildlife Trust reserve, Sutton’s Pond.  Saltlands holds a pleasant area of public open space planted with trees on a capped landfill site.

When the brickworks closed, the site held a variety of industrial uses and has now become a smart residential development adding 65 dwellings.

The revised Local Plan envisages no further housing development in the parish except possibly for small-scale infill or redevelopment where there is clear local support.

However, the Environment Agency is in the process of building the Parrett Tidal Barrier right between the edge of the village and Express Park and also raising tidal banks downstream. Though the primary purpose is the protect Bridgwater from flooding we are incidental beneficiaries. Even in what we like to hope is a quiet backwater, life is never dull!

And now a bit of history….

This is largely summarised from British History Online, which was originally published as The Victoria County History – Somerset in 1992.

Prehistory

Iron-age and Roman pottery have been found at Chilton village. There was a Roman port at Crandon Bridge, a site no longer on the river but to the east of the M5, and another at Combwich. The modern landscape of the locality reflects a long history of land reclamation from tidal marshes and drainage to enable farming and settlement.

The Parish

The ancient parish of Chilton, the name of which implies a settlement for younger sons, was known by 1329 as Chilton Trinity. It had several parts, some quite widely separated.  The largest area of the parish lay north of Bridgwater on alluvial land both sides of the River Parrett, though Chilton church and Chilton Farm, like the rest of Chilton village, occupied an area of slightly higher ground composed of Keuper marl.

Numerous changes over time resulted in losses of parts of Chilton parish to other parishes and some gains, in part by reclamation of formerly inter-tidal ground, so that by 1971 Chilton Trinity Parish had reached it current extent of around 800 acres (324ha).

Farming

The 11th-century settlement at Pignes which was sited on the west side of the river to the north of Chilton village appears in Domesday, compiled in 1086, when it was held by Beorhtric, having two plough teams, a 5 acre meadow, 33 sheep, 16 pigs and 14 ‘beasts’. There was also a church. The settlement was apparently abandoned, probably because of flooding, before 1723.  It is believed to have been sited about midway between the present village and the bend of the river opposite Dunball Wharf, on land now protected by the tidal floodbank of the river. However, the river was straightened here in 1677-8, cutting off a large area of land that extended eastwards in a loop of the river and would originally have been part of the Pignes holding.

By the 17th century the greater part of the parish was under grass.  From his will, we know that John Hill, who died in 1669, grew wheat, barley and beans besides hay and his livestock included 67 sheep, 7 bullocks, 7 cows, and 6 yearlings, all grazing in the marsh, and there were 142 cheeses in his house.

Chilton farmers had rights in Chilton Common, formerly Wildmarsh, north and northwest of Chilton village. The rhyne crossed by the Straight Drove is still known as Wildmarsh Rhyne but the commonland was enclosed in 1802.

About 1840 grassland accounted for about two thirds of the parish. The principal landowner was Margaretta Michel of Chilton Farm with 587 acres.

The Church of Holy Trinity.

The church  comprises a chancel, nave, south porch and west tower. There is uncertainty about its age, probably in part due to its simplicity of construction and style. The tall, round-headed rear arch to the south doorway may indicate a later 11th-century origin, confirmed by the proportions of chancel and nave; such a date would fall around the time of the Norman Conquest and might just justify speculation or wishful-thinking about a Saxon origin. The chancel was extended eastwards, the chancel arch evidently enlarged and the windows replaced in the later 15th or the earlier 16th century.

In 1606 seven households were accused of attendance at church only three times a year. In 1749 only four families went to the Sunday afternoon services, formerly held monthly but by that time fortnightly, and in 1788 there were insufficient communicants for a service to be held. In 1815 one service a month was held in winter and two in summer, but in 1827 there was an evening service each Sunday conducted by the curate. By 1870 two Sunday services were normally held.

Chilton remained a sole rectory until 1749 when it was united with Bridgwater. From 1976 it was also held with Durleigh, and the united benefice of Bridgwater and Chilton Trinity and Durleigh was created in 1984.

The School

There was no school in the parish in 1835, but in 1840 a Sunday school was occasionally held in the church. In 1857 a regular Sunday school was attended by 13 boys and 7 girls. A room was built in the churchyard in 1868 for the vestry and Sunday school by Joseph Smith, the mayor of Bridgwater.  By 1883 Chilton’s children attended the day school at Wembdon. The school room continued to be used by the Sunday school until 1963 and still stands, adjacent to the church itself.

The Brickworks

By 1902 the Somerset Trading Co. had begun the manufacture of bricks in the parish using the Keuper marl and by 1909 Major & Co. Ltd. were involved in clay extraction. In 1923 Majors still rented a clay pit and the Somerset Trading Co. had a brickyard producing bricks, tiles, and field drainpipes which occupied over 35 acres. By 1926 the area had increased to 55 acres.

The firm built a large tile factory east of the village in 1930, and by 1939 was the only business there. The factory closed in 1968 and was subsequently occupied by various small manufacturers. Its use in this way continued until its demolition and replacement by housing in 2015-16. Some of the brick pits were infilled but others remain and most are now angling lakes.