- Odcombe
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Coordinates: 50°56′10″N 2°42′18″W / 50.936°N 2.705°W
Odcombe 
Church of St Peter and St Paul
Odcombe
Odcombe shown within SomersetPopulation 730 [1] OS grid reference ST505155 District South Somerset Shire county Somerset Region South West Country England Sovereign state United Kingdom Post town YEOVIL Postcode district BA22 Dialling code 01935 Police Avon and Somerset Fire Devon and Somerset Ambulance South Western EU Parliament South West England UK Parliament Yeovil List of places: UK • England • Somerset Odcombe is a village and civil parish in south Somerset, England, 3 miles (4.8 km) west of the town of Yeovil, with a population of 730 in 2002.[1]
The upper part of the village, Higher Odcombe, sits on the crest of the hill, while the lower part, Lower Odcombe, is built on its northern slopes. Odcombe falls within the Yeovil Parliamentary constituency and is covered by the Non-metropolitan district of South Somerset, which was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, having previously been part of Yeovil Rural District.[2] There is a parish council which has responsibility for local issues,
Contents
History
The village is mentioned in the Domesday book when it was owned by Robert, Count of Mortain. In the 1860s the village church was redeveloped, during which the preserved shoes of Thomas Coryat were lost. The village is built predominantly out of the local hamstone still quarried on Ham Hill, two miles to the west.
The parish was part of the hundred of Houndsborough.[3]
Religious sites
The Ham stone Church of St Peter and St Paul has 13th century origins. In 1874 transepts were added and the church restored. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.[4]
Notable residents
Notable residents of the village include Humphrey Hody, a 17th-century monk and theologian, George Strong, a 19th century soldier awarded the Victoria Cross in the Crimean war, and Thomas Coryat, a 17th-century traveller and writer; author of Coryat's Crudities. Coryate described his "...love of Odcombe in Somersetshire, which is so deare unto me that I preferre the very smoke thereof before the fire of all other places under the Sunne"[5]
References
- ^ a b "South Somerset population estimates for 2002". Somerset County Council. http://www.webcitation.org/5lRyCVNCk. Retrieved 27 December 2009.
- ^ A Vision of Britain Through Time : Yeovil Rural District
- ^ "Somerset Hundreds". GENUKI. http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SOM/Miscellaneous/. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
- ^ "Church of St Peter and St Paul". Images of England. English Heritage. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=440381. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
- ^ Coryat's Crudities (1611),p120
External links
Media related to Odcombe at Wikimedia CommonsCategories:- Villages in South Somerset
- Civil parishes in Somerset
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