Everything about Somerset totally explained
Somerset (; /ˈsʌmɚˌsɛt/) is a
county in
South West England. The
county town is
Taunton, which is in the south of the county. The
ceremonial county of Somerset borders the counties of
Bristol and
Gloucestershire to the north,
Wiltshire to the east,
Dorset to the south-east, and
Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the coast of the
Bristol Channel and the
estuary of the
River Severn. The traditional northern border of the county is the
River Avon, but the administrative boundary has crept southwards, with the creation and expansion of the
City of Bristol, and latterly the county of
Avon and its successor
Unitary Authorities in the north. The first known use of the name
Somersæte was in 845, after the region fell to the Saxons.
Sumortūn is modern
Somerton and may mean "summer settlement", a
farmstead occupied during the summer but abandoned in the winter. However, Somerton isn't down on the levels—lower ground, where only summer occupation was possible because of flooding—but on a hill where winter occupation would have been feasible. An alternative suggestion is that the name derives from
Seo-mere-saetan meaning "settlers by the sea lakes".
The people of Somerset were first mentioned in the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry 845 as "Somersæte", but the county itself (as opposed to its people) is first mentioned in the ASC entry for 1015 using the same name. The archaic
Somersetshire version of the county name was first mentioned in the ASC in 878. Although Somersetshire was in common usage as an alternative name for the county it went out of fashion in the late 19th century. This was possibly due to the official recognition of Somerset as the proper name with the establishment of the County Council in 1889, although as with other counties not ending in shire the
shire suffix was superfluous as there was no need to differentiate between the county and a town within it. Either way Somersetshire isn't the correct name for the county.
The Old English name continues to be used in the
motto of the county,
Sumorsaete ealle, meaning "all the people of Somerset". It was adopted in 1911, taken from the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Somerset was a part of the
Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and the phrase refers to the wholehearted support the people of Somerset gave to
King Alfred in his struggle to save Wessex from the
Viking invaders.
Somerset is
Gwlad yr Haf in Welsh,
Gwlas an Hav in Cornish and
Bro an Hañv in Breton, which all mean 'Land of Summer'.
Somerset settlement names are mostly Anglo-Saxon in origin, but a few hill names include
Celtic elements. For example, an Anglo-Saxon charter of 682 concerning Creechborough Hill defines it as "the hill the British call
Cructan and we call
Crychbeorh". Some modern names are
Brythonic in origin, such as
Tarnock, while others have both Saxon and Brythonic elements, such as
Pen Hill.
Human occupation
The caves of the
Mendip Hills were settled during the
Palaeolithic period onward and contain extensive archaeological sites such as those at
Cheddar Gorge. Bones from
Gough's Cave have been dated to 12,000 BC while a complete skeleton, known as Cheddar man, dates from
7150 BC. Examples of cave art have been found in caves such as
Aveline's Hole. Occupation of some caves continued until modern times, including
Wookey Hole.
The
Somerset Levels—specifically the
dry points such as
Glastonbury and
Brent Knoll— also have a long history of settlement, and are known to have been settled by
Mesolithic hunters. Travel in the area was helped by the construction of the world's oldest known engineered roadway, the
Sweet Track, which dates from
3807 BC or
3806 BC.
There are numerous
Iron Age Hill Forts, some of which, like
Cadbury Castle
and
Ham Hill, were later reoccupied in the
Early Middle Ages. The exact age of the
henge monument at
Stanton Drew stone circles is unknown, but it's believed to be
Neolithic.
On the authority of the future emperor
Vespasian, as part of the ongoing expansion of the Roman presence in Britain, the
Second Legion Augusta invaded Somerset from the south-east in AD 47. The county remained part of the
Roman Empire until around AD 409, when the Roman occupation of Britain came to an end.
A variety of Roman remains have been found, including
Pagans Hill Roman Temple in
Chew Stoke,
Low Ham Roman Villa and the
Roman Baths which gave their name to the city of
Bath.
After the Romans left, Britain was invaded by Anglo-Saxon peoples, who had established control over much of what is now England by A.D. 600 but Somerset was still in British hands. The native British held back Saxon advance in the southwest for some time longer, but by the early eighth century King
Ine of Wessex had pushed the boundaries of the West Saxon kingdom far enough west to include Somerset. The Saxon royal palace in
Cheddar was used several times in the 10th century to host the
Witenagemot. After the
Norman Conquest, the county was divided into 700
fiefs, and large areas were owned by the crown, In the
English Civil War Somerset was largely
Parliamentarian. In 1685 the
Monmouth Rebellion was played out in Somerset and neighbouring Dorset. The rebels landed at
Lyme Regis and travelled north, hoping to capture
Bristol and
Bath, but they were defeated in the
Battle of Sedgemoor at
Westonzoyland, the last
pitched battle fought in
England.
Arthur Wellesley took his title,
Duke of Wellington from the town of
Wellington; he's commemorated on a nearby hill by a large, spotlit
obelisk, known as the
Wellington Monument.
The 18th century was largely one of peace in Somerset, but the
Industrial Revolution in the Midlands and Northern England spelled the end for most of Somerset's cottage industries. Farming continued to flourish, however, and the
Bath and West of England Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture, Arts, Manufactures and Commerce was founded in 1777 to improve farming methods. Despite this, 20 years later John Billingsley conducted a survey of the county's agriculture in 1795 and found that agricultural methods could still be improved.
Coal mining was an important industry in north Somerset during the 18th and 19th centuries, and by 1800 it was based around
Radstock. The
Somerset coalfield reached its peak production by the 1920s, but all the pits have now been closed, the last in 1973. Most of the surface buildings have been removed, and apart from a winding wheel outside
Radstock Museum, little evidence of their former existence remains. Further west, the
Brendon Hills were mined for iron ore in the late 19th century; this was taken by rail to Watchet Harbour for shipment to the furnaces at
Ebbw Vale
Many Somerset soldiers died during the
First World War, with the
Somerset Light Infantry suffering nearly 5,000 casualties. War memorials were put up in most of the county's towns and villages; only seven, described as the
Thankful Villages, had none of their residents killed. During the
Second World War the county was a base for troops preparing for the
D-Day landings. Some of the hospitals which were built for the casualties of the war remain in use. The
Taunton Stop Line was set up to repel a potential German invasion. The remains of its
pill boxes can still be seen along the coast, and south through
Ilminster and
Chard.
A number of decoy towns were constructed in Somerset in World War II to protect Bristol and other towns, at night. They were designed to mimic the geometry of "blacked out" streets, railway lines, and
Bristol Temple Meads railway station, to encourage bombers away from these targets. One, on the
radio beam flight path to
Bristol, was constructed on
Black Down. It was laid out by
Shepperton Film Studios, based on
aerial photographs of the city's railway
marshalling yards. but it declined in importance and the status of county town transferred to Taunton about 1366. The county has two cities,
Bath and
Wells, and only a small number of towns. In many cases there are villages which are larger than their neighbouring towns; the village of
Cheddar, for example, has three times the population of the nearby town of
Axbridge. Many settlements developed because of their strategic importance in relation to geographical features, such as river crossings or valleys in ranges of hills. Examples include Axbridge on the
River Axe, Castle Cary on the
River Cary,
North Petherton on the
River Parrett, and
Ilminster, where there was a crossing point on the
River Isle. Midsomer Norton lies on the
River Somer; while the
Wellow Brook and the
Fosseway Roman road run through Radstock, which, along with Midsomer Norton, is now designated as apart of
Norton Radstock.
Chard is the most southerly town in Somerset, and at an altitude of it's also the highest.
Physical geography
Geology
Much of the landscape of Somerset falls into types determined by the underlying
geology. These landscapes are the
limestone karst and
lias of the north, the
clay vales and
wetlands of the centre, the
oolites of the east and south, and the
Devonian sandstone of the west.
To the north east of the
Somerset Levels, the
Mendip Hills are moderately high limestone hills. The central and western Mendip Hills was designated an
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1972 which covers . The main
habitat on these hills is
calcareous grassland, with some
arable agriculture. The
Somerset coalfield is part of a larger coalfield which stretches into
Gloucestershire. To the north of the Mendip hills is the
Chew Valley and to the south, on the clay substrate, are broad valleys which support dairy farming and drain into the Somerset Levels.
Caves and rivers
There is an extensive network of
caves, including
Wookey Hole, underground rivers, and
gorges, including
Cheddar Gorge and
Ebbor Gorge. The county has many rivers, including the
Axe,
Brue,
Cary,
Parrett, Sheppey,
Tone and
Yeo. These both feed and drain the flat levels and moors of mid and west Somerset. At the same site during the reign of
King Charles I, river tolls were levied on boats to pay for the maintenance of the bridge.
and broadly corresponds to the administrative
district of
Sedgemoor but also includes the south west of
Mendip district. Approximately 70% of the area is grassland and 30% is arable.
The
North Somerset Levels basin, north of the Mendips, covers a smaller geographical area than the Somerset Levels; and forms a coastal area around
Avonmouth. It too was reclaimed by draining. It is mirrored, across the
Severn Estuary, in Wales, by a similar low-lying area: the
Caldicot and Wentloog Levels.
The highest point in Somerset is
Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor, with an altitude of . Over 100 sites in Somerset have been designated as
Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
Coastline
The 40 mile (64 km) coastline of the
Bristol Channel and
Severn Estuary forms part of the northern border of Somerset.
Proposals for the construction of a
Severn Barrage aim to harness this energy. The main coastal towns are, from the west to the north east,
Minehead,
Watchet,
Burnham-on-Sea,
Weston-super-Mare,
Clevedon and
Portishead. The coastal area between Minehead and the eastern extreme of the administrative county’s coastline at
Brean Down is known as
Bridgwater Bay, and is a
National Nature Reserve.
North of that, the coast forms
Weston Bay and
Sand Bay whose northern tip,
Sand Point, marks the lower limit of the Severn Estuary. In the mid and north of the county the coastline is low as the level wetlands of the levels meet the sea. In the west, the coastline is high and dramatic where the
plateau of Exmoor meets the sea, with high cliffs and waterfalls.
Economy and industry
Somerset has few industrial centres, but it does have a variety of light industry and high technology businesses, along with traditional agriculture and an increasingly important tourism sector, resulting in an unemployment rate of 2.5%.
Bridgwater was developed during the
Industrial Revolution as the West Country's leading port. The
River Parrett was navigable by large ships as far as Bridgwater. Cargoes were then loaded onto smaller boats at Langport Quay, next to the Bridgwater Bridge, to be carried further up river to
Langport; or they could turn off at
Burrowbridge and then travel via the
River Tone to Taunton. and
Normalair Garratt, builder of aircraft oxygen systems, is also based in the town. Many towns have encouraged small-scale
light industries, such as
Crewkerne's
Ariel Motor Company, one of the UK's smallest car manufacturers.
Somerset is an important supplier of defence equipment and technology. A
Royal Ordnance Factory,
ROF Bridgwater was built at the start of the
Second World War, between the villages of
Puriton and
Woolavington, to manufacture explosives.
As of April 2008 the site is being decommissioned and is due to close in July 2008.
Templecombe has
Thales Underwater Systems, and Taunton presently has the
United Kingdom Hydrographic Office and Avimo, which became part of Thales Optics. It has been announced twice, in 2006 and 2007, that manufacturing is to end at Thales Optics' Taunton site, but the
Trade Unions and Taunton Deane District Council are working to reverse or mitigate these decisions. Other high-technology companies include the optics company Gooch and Housego, at
Ilminster. There are
Ministry of Defence offices in
Bath, and
Norton Fitzwarren is the home of
40 Commando Royal Marines. The
Royal Naval Air Station in Yeovilton, is one of Britain's two active Fleet Air Arm bases and is home to the Royal Navy's Lynx helicopters and the Royal Marines Commando Westland Sea Kings. Around 1675 service and 2000 civilian personnel are stationed at Yeovilton and key activities include training of aircrew and engineers and the Royal Navy's Fighter Controllers and surface based aircraft controllers.
Agriculture and food and drink production continue to be major industries in the county, employing over 15,000 people. Apple orchards were once plentiful, and Somerset is still a major producer of
cider. The towns of Taunton and
Shepton Mallet are involved with the production of cider, especially
Blackthorn Cider, which is sold nationwide, and there are specialist producers such as
Burrow Hill Cider Farm and
Thatchers Cider.
Gerber Products Company in Bridgwater is the largest producer of fruit juices in
Europe, producing brands such as '
Sunny Delight' and 'Ocean Spray'. Development of the milk-based industries, such as
Ilchester Cheese Company and
Yeo Valley Organic, have resulted in the production of ranges of desserts,
yoghurts and cheeses,
including
Cheddar cheese – some of which has the
West Country Farmhouse Cheddar PDO.
Traditional
willow growing and weaving isn't as extensive as it used to be but is still carried out on the
Somerset Levels and is commemorated at the
Willows and Wetlands visitor centre. Fragments of willow basket were found near the Glastonbury Lake Village, and it was also used in the construction of several
Iron Age causeways. The willow was harvested using a traditional method of
coppicing, where a tree would be cut back to the main stem. During the 1930s over of willow were being grown commercially on the Levels. Largely due to the displacement of baskets with plastic bags and cardboard boxes, the industry has severely declined since the 1950s. By the end of the 20th century only around were grown commercially, near the villages of
Burrowbridge,
Westonzoyland and
North Curry. Instead, in 1993, redundant factory buildings were converted to form
Clarks Village, the first purpose-built
factory outlet in the
UK. C&J Clark also had shoe factories, at one time at Bridgwater and
Minehead, to provide employment outside the main summer tourist season, but those satellite sites were closed in the late 1980s, before the main site at Street.
Dr. Martens shoes were also made in Somerset, by the Northampton-based R. Griggs Group, using redundant skilled shoemakers from C&J Clark; that work has also been transferred to Asia.
The county has a long tradition of supplying
freestone and . Quarries at
Doulting supplied freestone used in the construction of
Wells Cathedral.
Bath stone is also widely used.
Ralph Allen promoted its use in the early 18th century, as did
Hans Price in the 19th century, but it was used long before then. It was mined underground at
Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines, and as a result of cutting the
Box Tunnel, at locations in
Wiltshire such as
Box. Bath stone is still used on a reduced scale today, but more often as a
cladding rather than a structural material. Since the 1920s, the county has supplied
aggregates.
Foster Yeoman is Europe's large supplier of
limestone aggregates, with quarries at
Merehead Quarry. It has a dedicated railway operation,
Mendip Rail, which is used to transport aggregates by rail from a group of
Mendip quarries.
Tourism is a major industry, estimated in 2001 to support around 23,000 people.
Attractions include the coastal towns, part of the
Exmoor National Park, the
West Somerset Railway (a
heritage railway), and the museum of the
Fleet Air Arm at
RNAS Yeovilton. The town of
Glastonbury has mythical associations, including legends of a visit by the young
Jesus of Nazareth and
Joseph of Arimathea, with links to the
Holy Grail,
King Arthur, and
Camelot, identified by some as
Cadbury Castle, an
Iron age hill fort. Glastonbury also gives its name to an annual open-air
rock festival held in nearby
Pilton. There are
show caves open to visitors in the Cheddar Gorge, as well as its locally produced cheese, although there's now only one remaining cheese maker in the village of
Cheddar.
Demography
| Somerset Compared |
| UK Census 2001 |
Somerset C.C. |
North Somerset UA |
BANES UA |
South West Englandwith 169,040 in Bath and North East Somerset,
and 188,564 in North Somerset
giving a total for the historic county of 855,697. This was estimated to have risen to 895,700 in 2006.
Population growth is higher than the national average, with a 6.4% increase, in the Somerset County Council area, since 1991, and a 17% increase since 1981. The population density is 1.4 persons per hectare, which can be compared to 2.07 persons per hectare for the South West region. Within the county, population density ranges 0.5 in West Somerset to 2.2 persons per hectare in Taunton Deane. The percentage of the population who are economically active is higher than the regional and national average, and the unemployment rate is lower than the regional and national average.
The black minority ethnic proportion of the total population is 2.9% in Somerset. Chinese is the largest ethnic group, and although there's no official recording, it's believed that Romany Gypsies are a significant ethnic minority. Over 25% of Somerset's population is concentrated in Taunton, Bridgwater and Yeovil. The rest of the county is rural and sparsely populated. Over 9 million tourist nights are spent in Somerset each year, which significantly increases the population at peak times.
| 187,266 |
276,684 |
277,563 |
280,215 |
282,411 |
284,740 |
305,244 |
327,505 |
355,292 |
385,698 |
417,450 |
468,395 |
498,093
|
| BANES | 57,188 |
96,992 |
107,637 |
113,732 |
113,351 |
112,972 |
123,185 |
134,346 |
144,950 |
156,421 |
154,083 |
164,737 |
169,045
|
| North Somerset | 16,670 |
33,774 |
60,066 |
68,410 |
75,276 |
82,833 |
91,967 |
102,119 |
119,509 |
139,924 |
160,353 |
179,865 |
188,556
|
| Total | 261,124 |
407,450 |
445,266 |
462,357 |
471,038 |
479,758 |
520,396 |
563,970 |
619,751 |
682,043 |
731,886 |
812,997 |
855,694
|
Politics
The county is divided into nine constituencies for the election of
Members of Parliament (MPs) to the
House of Commons. As of November 2007, the constituencies of
Bridgwater,
Wells,
Weston-super-Mare and
Woodspring elect
Conservative MPs, while
Bath,
Somerton and Frome,
Taunton and
Yeovil return
Liberal Democrats. Only
Wansdyke, which will become
North East Somerset at the next election, returns a
Labour politician. Residents of Somerset also form part of the electorate for the
South West England constituency for elections to the
European Parliament.
The
ceremonial county of Somerset consists of a
non-metropolitan county and two
unitary authorities. The
districts of Somerset are
West Somerset,
South Somerset,
Taunton Deane,
Mendip and
Sedgemoor. The two administratively independent unitary authorities, which were established on
1 April 1996 following the break up of the
county of Avon, are
North Somerset and
Bath and North East Somerset. These unitary authorities include areas that were once part of Somerset before the creation of Avon in 1974. In 2007, proposals to abolish the district councils in favour of a single Somerset unitary authority were rejected following local opposition.
Culture
Somerset has traditions of art, music and literature.
Wordsworth and
Coleridge wrote while staying in
Coleridge Cottage,
Nether Stowey.
The writer
Evelyn Waugh spent his last years in the village of
Combe Florey.
Traditional folk music, both song and dance, was important in the agricultural communities. Somerset songs were collected by
Cecil Sharp and incorporated into works such as
Holst's A Somerset Rhapsody.
Halsway Manor near
Williton is an international centre for folk music. The tradition continues today with groups such as
The Wurzels specialising in
Scrumpy and Western music.
The
Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts takes place most years in
Pilton, near
Shepton Mallet, attracting over 170,000 music and culture lovers from around the world, and world-famous entertainers.
The
Big Green Gathering which grew out of the Green fields at the Glastonbury Festival is held in the Mendip Hills between
Charterhouse and
Compton Martin each summer.
The annual
Bath Literature Festival is one of several local festivals in the county; others include the
Frome Festival and the
Trowbridge Village Pump Festival, which, despite its name, is held at
Farleigh Hungerford in Somerset. The annual circuit of
West Country Carnivals is held in a variety of Somerset towns during the autumn, forming a major regional festival, and the largest
Festival of Lights in Europe.
In
Arthurian legend,
Avalon became associated with
Glastonbury Tor when monks at
Glastonbury Abbey claimed to have discovered the bones of
King Arthur and his queen. What is more certain is that Glastonbury was an important religious centre by 700 and claims to be "the oldest above-ground Christian church in the World" situated "in the mystical land of Avalon". The claim is based on dating the founding of the community of monks at AD 63, the year of the legendary visit of
Joseph of Arimathea, who was supposed to have brought the
Holy Grail. 41 parks and gardens including those at
Barrington Court,
Holnicote Estate,
Prior Park Landscape Garden and
Tintinhull Garden, 36
English Heritage sites and 19
National Trust sites,
Bath Rugby play at the
Recreation Ground in Bath, and the
Somerset County Cricket Club are based at the
County Ground in Taunton. The county gained its first
Football League club in 2003, when
Yeovil Town won promotion to
Division Three as
Football Conference champions. They had achieved numerous
FA Cup victories over
Football League sides in the past 50 years, and since joining the elite they've won promotion again – as
League Two champions in 2005. They came close to yet another promotion in 2007, when they reached the
League One playoff final, but lost to
Blackpool at the newly reopened
Wembley Stadium.
Horse racing courses are at
Taunton and
Wincanton.
In addition to
English national newspapers the county is served by the regional
Western Daily Press and local newspapers including;
the Weston & Somerset Mercury, the
Bath Chronicle,
Chew Valley Gazette,
Clevedon Mercury and the
Mendip Times. Television and radio are provided by
BBC Somerset,
GWR FM Bristol,
Orchard FM Taunton,
Ivel FM Yeovil, and
HTV, now known as ITV Wales & West Ltd, but still commonly referred to as HTV.
Transport
Somerset has 4,058 miles (6,531 km) of roads. The main arterial routes, which include the
M5 motorway,
A303,
A37,
A38 and
A39, give good access across the county, but many areas can only be accessed via narrow lanes. and operated until the 1950s.
The 19th century saw improvements to Somerset's roads with the introduction of
turnpikes, and the building of canals and railways. Nineteenth-century canals included the
Bridgwater and Taunton Canal,
Westport Canal,
Glastonbury Canal and
Chard Canal. a branch of the
Midland Railway (MR) to
Bath Green Park (and another one to Bristol); the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, as has the branch of the Midland Railway to Bath Green Park (and to
Bristol St Philips); however, the L&SWR survived as a part of the present
West of England Main Line. None of these lines, in Somerset, are
electrified. Two branch lines, the
West and
East Somerset Railways, were rescued and transferred back to private ownership as "
heritage" lines. The fifth railway was a short-lived light railway The
Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway. The
West Somerset Mineral Railway carried the iron ore from the
Brendon Hills to
Watchet.
Until the 1960s the piers at
Weston-super-mare,
Clevedon,
Portishead and
Minehead were served by the
paddle steamers of
P and A Campbell who ran regular services to
Barry and
Cardiff as well as
Ilfracombe and
Lundy Island. The pier at
Burnham-on-Sea was used for commercial goods, one of the reasons for the
Somerset and Dorset Railway was to provide a link between the
Bristol Channel and the
English Channel. The pier at Burnham on Sea is the shortest pier in the UK. In the 1970s the
Royal Portbury Dock was constructed to provide extra capacity for the
Port of Bristol.
For long-distance holiday traffic travelling through the county to and from Devon and Cornwall, Somerset is often regarded as a marker on the journey. North–south traffic moves though the county via the
M5 Motorway. Traffic to and from the east travels either via the
A303 road, or the
M4 Motorway, which runs east–west, crossing the M5 just beyond the northern limits of the county.
Education
State schools in Somerset are provided by three
Local Education Authorities: Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, and the larger Somerset County Council. All state schools are comprehensive. In some areas
primary,
infant and
junior schools cater for ages four to eleven, after which the pupils move on to
secondary schools. There is a three-tier system of
first,
middle and
upper schools in West Somerset, while most other schools in the county use the two-tier system. Somerset has 30 state and 17 independent secondary schools; Bath and North East Somerset has 13 state and 5 independent secondary schools; and North Somerset has 10 state and 2 independent secondary schools, excluding
sixth form colleges.
| % of pupils gaining 5 grades A-C including English and Maths in 2006 (average for England is 45.8%) |
| Education Authority |
% |
| Bath and North East Somerset (Unitary Authority) |
52.0% |
| West Somerset |
51.0% |
| Taunton Deane |
49.5% |
| Mendip |
47.7% |
| North Somerset (Unitary Authority) |
47.4% |
| South Somerset |
42.3% |
| Sedgemoor |
41.4% |
Some of the county's secondary schools have
specialist school status. Some schools have sixth forms and others transfer their sixth formers to colleges. Several schools can trace their origins back many years, such as
The Blue School in Wells,
Richard Huish College in Taunton and
Oldfield School in Bath. Others have changed their names over the years such as
Beechen Cliff School which was started in 1905 as the City of Bath Boys' School and changed to its present name in 1972 when the
grammar school was amalgamated with a local
secondary modern school, to form a
comprehensive school. Many others were established and built since the Second World War. In 2006, 5,900 pupils in Somerset sat
GCSE examinations, with 44.5% achieving 5 grades A-C including English and Maths (compared to 45.8% for England).
Sexey's School is a state
boarding school in
Bruton that also takes day pupils from the surrounding area. The Somerset LEA also provides
special schools such as
Farleigh College, which caters for children aged between 10 and 17 with
special educational needs. Provision for pupils with special educational needs is also made by the mainstream schools.
There is also a range of
independent or
public schools. Many of these are for pupils between 11 and 18 years, such as
King's College, Taunton and
Taunton School.
King's School, Bruton was founded in 1519 and received royal foundation status around 30 years later in the reign of
Edward VI.
Millfield is the largest
co-educational boarding school, and the largest co-educational independent school in the country, catering for 1,260 pupils, of which 910 are boarders. There are also
preparatory schools for younger children, such as
All Hallows, and
Hazlegrove Preparatory School. Other schools provide education for children from the age of 3 or 4 years through to 18, such as
King Edward's School, Bath,
Queen's College, Taunton and
Wells Cathedral School which is one of the five established musical schools for school-age children in
Britain. Some of these schools have religious affiliations, such as
Monkton Combe School,
Prior Park College,
Sidcot School which is associated with the
Religious Society of Friends,
Downside School which is a
Roman Catholic public school in
Stratton-on-the-Fosse, situated next to the
Benedictine Downside Abbey, and
Kingswood School, which was founded by
John Wesley in 1748 in Kingswood near Bristol, originally for the education of the sons of the itinerant ministers (clergy) of the
Methodist Church.
Further and higher education
A wide range of
adult education and
further education courses is available in Somerset, in schools, colleges and other community venues. The colleges include
Bridgwater College,
Frome Community College,
Richard Huish College,
Somerset College of Arts and Technology,
Strode College and
Yeovil College.
Bath University and
Bath Spa University are higher education establishments in the north-east corner of the county. Bath University gained its Royal Charter in 1966, although its origins go back to Bristol Trade School (founded 1856) and Bath School of Pharmacy (founded 1907). It has a purpose-built campus at
Claverton on the outskirts of Bath, and has 12,000 students). Bath Spa University, which is based at
Newton St Loe, achieved university status in 2005, and has origins including the Bath Academy of Art (founded 1898), Bath Teacher Training College, and the Bath College of Higher Education. It has several campuses and 5,500 students.
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