Portal:Somerset

Somerset County Cricket Club are an English cricket club based in Taunton, Somerset. The club was founded in 1875 after a match between "Gentlemen of Somerset" and "Gentlemen of Devon" in Sidmouth, Devon. Somerset played their first undisputed first-class cricket match in 1882 against Lancashire. After missing the first season of the official County Championship, Somerset was admitted for the second in 1891, and have participated in the competition ever since. Brian Langford holds the record for the greatest number of first-class appearances for Somerset having played 504 times for the club. Only three other players have made more than 400 appearances for Somerset, and no-one has reached the milestone since Langford. Jack White, one of the three, is the club's leading wicket-taker in first-class cricket. Harold Gimblett's tally of 21,142 first-class runs is the most by a Somerset cricketer.

Despite Peter Denning and Graham Rose, both Englishmen, jointly holding the record for most List A appearances for Somerset, it is West Indians that top both the batting and bowling charts. Viv Richards, named by Wisden as the greatest One Day International batsman of all time, holds the record for the most runs in one-day cricket for Somerset. Barbadian Hallam Moseley ranks as the top wicket-taker, claiming 309 wickets in one-day cricket, nine more than England Test cricketer Ian Botham. (Full article...)

John of Tours or John de Villula (died 1122) was a medieval Bishop of Wells in England who moved the diocese seat to Bath. He was a native of Tours and was King William I of England's doctor before becoming a bishop. After his consecration as bishop, he was either given or purchased Bath Abbey, a rich monastery, and then moved the headquarters of the diocese from Wells, to the abbey. He rebuilt the church at Bath, building a large cathedral that no longer survives. He gave a large library to his cathedral and received the right to hold a fair in Bath. Not noted for his scholarship, he died suddenly in 1122. (Full article...)

1. South Somerset
2. Taunton Deane
3. West Somerset
4. Sedgemoor
5. Mendip
6. Bath and North East Somerset (Unitary)
7. North Somerset (Unitary)

Chard
Co-ordinates 50.8728°N 2.9587°W / 50.8728; -2.9587

Chard is a town and civil parish. It lies on the A30 road near the Devon border, 15 miles (24 km) south west of Yeovil. The parish has a population of approximately 12,000 and, at an elevation of 121 metres (397 ft), it is the southernmost and highest town in Somerset. Administratively Chard forms part of the district of South Somerset.

The name of the town was Cerden in 1065 and Cerdre in the Domesday Book of 1086. Before the Norman Conquest, Chard was held by the Bishop of Wells. The town's first charter was from King John in 1234. Most of the town was destroyed by fire in 1577, and it was further damaged during the English Civil War. A 1663 will by Richard Harvey of Exeter established Almshouses known as Harvey's Hospital. In 1685 Chard was one of the towns in which Judge Jeffreys held some of the Bloody Assizes after the failure of the Monmouth Rebellion. textile manufacture was important in the Middle Ages. Chard claims to be the birthplace of powered flight and the development of articulated artificial limbs. Chard is a key point on the Taunton Stop Line, a World War II defensive line. The Chard Canal was a tub boat canal built between 1835 and 1842. Chard Branch Line was created in 1860 to connect the two London and South Western Railway and Bristol and Exeter Railway main lines and ran through Chard until 1965.

Local folklore claims that the town has a very unusual and unique feature, a stream running along either side of Fore Street, one stream eventually flows into the Bristol Channel and the other eventually reaches the English Channel. Chard reservoir, approximately a mile north east of the town, is a Local Nature Reserve, and Snowdon Hill Quarry a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest. Major employers in the town include Numatic International Limited and the Oscar Mayer food processing plant.There are a range of sporting and cultural facilities, with secondary education being provided at Holyrood Academy and religious sites including the Church of St Mary the Virgin which dates from the late 11th century. (Full article...)

From Wikipedia's "Did You Know" archives:

• ... that Brent Knoll Camp (pictured) on the Somerset Levels was used for military purposes in the Iron Age and again in World War II?
• ... that Burnham-on-Sea's lifeboat used to be pulled by horses along a railway line from its lifeboat station to the beach where it could be launched?
• ... that the Old Priory Barn, which now houses the Somerset Cricket Museum, is the only surviving building of the Augustinian Taunton Priory?
• ... that Burnett, a village in Somerset, had a civil parish of 608 acres until it was merged into the neighbouring village of Compton Dando?
• ... that Stokeleigh Camp is one of three Iron Age fortifications overlooking the Avon Gorge near Bristol?

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Main project: WikiProject Somerset Parent projects: WikiProject UK geography, WikiProject England

Nearby projects: WikiProject Bristol, WikiProject Devon, WikiProject Dorset, WikiProject Wiltshire