Yatton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also: Yatton, Herefordshire

Coordinates: 51°23′08″N 2°49′32″W / 51.3855°N 2.8256°W / 51.3855; -2.8256

Yatton
Church of St Mary, Yatton
Yatton  Yatton shown within Somerset
Population	9,176 [1]
OS grid reference	ST425655
Unitary authority	North Somerset
Ceremonial county	Somerset
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BRISTOL
Postcode district	BS49
Dialling code	01934
Police	Avon and Somerset
Fire	Avon
Ambulance	Great Western
EU Parliament	South West England
UK Parliament	Woodspring to become North Somerset at next general election
List of places: UK • England • Somerset

Yatton is a village and civil parish in North Somerset, England, located 11 miles (18 km) south-west of Bristol. Its population in 2001 was 9,176.^[1]

The parish includes Claverham a small village which was originally a farming hamlet, the village now acts as a home to many commuters.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Toponymy 1.2 Pre-history 1.3 Railway 2 20th century 3 Governance 4 Geography 5 Demography 6 Economy 7 Education 8 Religious sites 9 Sports 10 Public services 11 References 12 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Toponymy

The origin of the name Yatton is uncertain. It may come from the Anglo-Saxon 'gatton' meaning 'village on the track'; the track in question is a path of limestone leading from Cadbury Hill. It may also mean 'gateway to the hills' or the city or may be derived from the Old English words ea and tun meaning 'The water enclosure', relating to its location near the Congresbury Yeo. The village has at one time or another been called Jatune, Eaton and Yatton Blewitt, and is recorded as Lature in the Domesday Book.^[2]

[edit] Pre-history

Situated on an area of slightly higher, drained ground surrounded by moorland (locally called a 'batch'), Yatton was a well-established village by Norman times. The remains of an Iron Age hill fort at Cadbury Hill have been discovered,^[3] as well as a Roman villa, temple and hoard of coins. Older Christian burial grounds have also been discovered on Cadbury Hill.

[edit] Railway

In the 19th century, Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western Railway was constructed through Yatton; lines branched off from Yatton to Cheddar, Clevedon and Blagdon. Although the branch line to Blagdon (Wrington Vale Light Railway) was closed to passengers in 1932, and the Clevedon and Cheddar/Wells lines were closed during the 1960s, the classically Victorian station designed by Brunel is still in use.^[4] It is now possible to walk or cycle along the former route of the Strawberry Line (so called because of the trade in Cheddar's strawberries) from Yatton to Cheddar and all of it is easily passable.

[edit] 20th century

In 1922 the site formerly known as 'The Pound' was purchased and the Yatton Parish War Memorial was erected. The memorial is located at Top Scaur, at the Congresbury end of the High Street, and is inscribed with the names of Yatton villagers who died in the First World War and Second World War. Each year on Remembrance Sunday a march is held from St Mary's Church to the memorial, where wreaths are laid by villagers and local organisations.

The village has continued to increase in size with several new developments planned or currently being constructed north of the railway station near North End Road and Arnold's Way. Development to the south and east of the village has made the villages of Yatton, Claverham and Cleeve almost continuous as far as the A370. Cadbury House Country Club is being developed to become a high quality 60-room hotel and state-of-the-art leisure centre.

The hamlet of North End lies to the north of the Arnold's Way roundabout, just before the junction for Kingston Seymour, and contains between 15 and 20 properties, including a number of farms and the Bridge Inn hotel.

[edit] Governance

The parish council has responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept (local rate) to cover the council’s operating costs and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The parish council evaluates local planning applications and works with the local police, district council officers, and neighbourhood watch groups on matters of crime, security, and traffic. The parish council's role also includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, such as the village hall or community centre, playing fields and playgrounds, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning. Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also of interest to the council.

The parish falls within the unitary authority of North Somerset which was created in 1996, as established by the Local Government Act 1992. It provides a single tier of local government with responsibility for almost all local government functions within its area including local planning and building control, local roads, council housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection, recycling, cemeteries, crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism. It is also responsible for education, social services, libraries, main roads, public transport, trading standards, waste disposal and strategic planning, although fire, police and ambulance services are provided jointly with other authorities through the Avon Fire and Rescue Service, Avon and Somerset Constabulary and the Great Western Ambulance Service.

North Somerset's area covers part of the ceremonial county of Somerset but it is administered independently of the non-metropolitan county. Its administrative headquarters is in the town hall in Weston-super-Mare. Between April 1 1974 and April 1 1996, it was the Woodspring district of the county of Avon.^[5] Before 1974 that the parish was part of the Long Ashton Rural District.^[6]

The parish is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom as part of the Woodspring county constituency which is to become North Somerset at next general election. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It is also part of the South West England constituency of the European Parliament which elects seven MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.

[edit] Geography

Biddle Street, Yatton has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest where management practices and the variation in the soils has resulted in the watercourses supporting a wide range of aquatic plant communities. Where open water occurs plants such as Common Water-starwort (Callitriche stagnalis), European Frogbit (Hydrocharis morsusranae), Fan-leaved Water-crowfoot (Ranunculus circinatus). The calcareous influence of the underlying Compton soils also encourages Whorled Water-milfoil (Myriophyllum verticillatum) and Stonewort (Chara sp). Also present are the nationally scarce Rootless Duckweed (Wolffia arrhiza) and Hairlike Pondweed (Potamogeton trichoides).^[7]

[edit] Demography

After the Second World War the size and population of Yatton expanded dramatically. With a railway providing good access to Weston-super-Mare, Bristol and London, and similarly good access by road, the village saw large amounts of new housing development. Today the number of pre-war buildings is much smaller than the number of more recent residential and commercial constructions. According to the 2001 census, Yatton's population was 9,176.^[1]

[edit] Economy

Today Yatton is a large village. Page's Court — the village's shopping precinct containing a bank, supermarket and several local shops — could now be thought of as Yatton's focal point, rather than St Mary's Church.

There are a number of thriving local businesses, including Simulation Systems Ltd, Stowell Concrete, Smart Systems, Oxford Instruments, Titan Ladders and Bob Martin Petcare. Farming remains an important activity in the area, although the number of farms is now much lower than it was before World War II.

[edit] Education

Yatton has infant and junior schools. Secondary education is not available in the village, and so many of Yatton's children commute daily to the nearby village of Backwell in order to attend Backwell School.

[edit] Religious sites

St Mary's Church, in central Yatton, is often called the 'Cathedral of the Moors' due to its size and grandeur in relation to the village. While the current church was constructed in the fourteenth century, it is likely that a previous Christian church was located on the same site. The tower has three stages with diagonal weathered buttresses with crocketed pinnacles. There is a south-east hexagonal stair turret rising above the parapet with panelled sides to the top, and an open cusped parapet. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building.^[8]

The Old Rectory was a Prebendary house, built in the 15th century and has been designated as a Grade I listed building.^[9]

As well as St Mary's (Church of England), Yatton has Methodist, Catholic and independent places of worship. Yatton Methodist Church is situated on the High Street, opposite the main shopping precinct.^[10] Horsecastle Chapel, an independent evangelical church, is on Horsecastle Farm Road. River of Life Church, (was YCF) affiliated to the Assemblies of God, meets in Yatton Infant School.^[11] St Dunstan's Roman Catholic church is on Claverham Road.

The Church of St. Barnabas in Claverham, dates from 1879 and is a grade II listed building.^[12]

[edit] Sports

There are active football and rugby clubs, two parks (Hangstones and Rock Road), a number of public houses, and many other leisure and sporting activities.^[13]

Yatton Rugby Club was founded in 1968 and plays in Tribute South West 2 West League. They run three senior sides and have an extensive junior set-up.^[14]

[edit] Public services

Yatton fire station opened in 1947, after the Fire Services Act 1947, when fire service responsibility transferred from national government to local authority control after World War II. The fire station is still at the original site in Rock Road, which pre-1947 was a roller skating rink.

The original station was demolished in 1972 and replaced with a new more modern station by Somerset County Council. In 1974, when Avon County Council was formed, Yatton went from Somerset 'A' Division to Avon 'C' Division.

In 1994, a serious fire within the fire station itself destroyed the roof and the majority of the furnishings within. The fire was started by an electrical fault on the appliance, confirmed by the current Station Manager, Gary Carr-Smith. The refurbishment of the station was completed in September 1995 and the station was re-opened by former fire fighter and local councillor, Mr Les Fido. However, the fire crews had been operational again and responding within 24 hours of the fire, operating from a temporary structure in the fire station's drill yard.

Today, Yatton fire station, which is part of Avon Fire and Rescue Service, runs with 16 retained firefighters and two appliances, a water tender ladder and a specialist hose-laying vehicle. Its firefighters respond to emergencies in a 40 square miles (104 km²) area covering, Yatton, Cleeve, Kingston Seymour, Congresbury and Wrington, with an average of 130-150 callouts per year. Calls vary from small grass fires to full major alerts and road traffic accidents on the busy A370 main road.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Yatton

• Yatton at the Open Directory Project
• Yatton Parish Council
• Yatton Moor Team Ministry
• Yatton Athletic Senior Football Club
• St Mary's Church Pre-school
• Yatton Infant School
• Strawberry Line Cafe Project
• The Village of Claverham

The North Somerset Levels
The towns and villages: Congresbury | Kenn | Kingston Seymour | Puxton | Yatton
SSSIs: Biddle Street, Yatton | Puxton Moor | Tickenham, Nailsea and Kenn Moors | Yanal Bog