Brent Knoll

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Brent Knoll
Vicarage
Vicarage
St. Michael
St. Michael
Coordinates 51 ° 15 ′  N , 2 ° 57 ′  W Coordinates: 51 ° 15 ′  N , 2 ° 57 ′  W
Brent Knoll (England)
Brent Knoll
Brent Knoll
Residents 1264
administration
Post town HIGHBRIDGE
ZIP code section TA9
prefix 01278
Part of the country England
region South West England
Shire county Somerset
Ceremonial county Somerset
District Sedgemoor
British Parliament Wells

Brent Knoll is a village in the English county of Somerset with about 1250 inhabitants. It lies at the foot of a hill of the same name, which towers over the entire area at 137 m.

The place was called South Brent until at least 1875 but was renamed due to the construction of the Bristol and Exeter Railway and the resulting train station to avoid confusion. The railroad stopped operating in 1971.

Due to the occurrence of clay and limestone , the first settlements in the area around the hill took place in the Bronze Age . A hill fort was built in the Iron Age . The area was later populated by Romans who built a temple and fortifications there. They also gave the hill the name "Mountain of Frogs". In 875, the eastern slopes of the hill were the scene of a battle between Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, which ended victorious for the locals. In the Domesday Book of 1086 a population of about 250 was given. The next recorded census is given for 1327 in the context of the Subsidy Rolls about 180 inhabitants, whereby the census for tax collection at that time mainly covered wealthier households.

Despite two major floods in 1607 and 1703, the settlement conditions could be continuously improved. Better drainage techniques in particular contributed to this. In the middle of the 19th century, around 1000 people lived in Brent Knoll, which was closely related to the construction of the railway line. At the turn of the century, the population reached a new low with 688 people in 1901. After only a small influx into the second half of the 20th century, the completion of the M5 motorway in 1974 saw a further increase in population, so again in the early 1980s over 1000 people lived in the village.

In the local church of St. Michael there is a bell from 1777 from the workshop of the Bilbie family . The nave was built in 1290, the pulpit dates from the 17th century.

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