Seavington St Mary 1939
SEAVINGTON ST. MARY is a parish and village, on the London and Exeter road, 4 miles east from Ilminster station on the Chard branch of the Great Western railway and 5 north-west from Crewkerne, in the Yeovil division of the county, hundred of South Petherton, petty sessional division of Ilminster, rural district of Chard, county court district of Yeovil, rural deanery of Crewkerne (Crewkerne district), archdeaconry of Taunton, and diocese of Bath and Wells.
Electricity is available. Water is supplied by the Chard Rural District Council.
The church of St. Mary is an ancient edifice of stone in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and a tower containing 6 bells, and was restored in 1880 at the expense of V.H. Vaughan-Lee esq. J. And T. Naish esqrs. and the vicar: the tower and belfry were restored in 1896, towards which Capt. A.V.H. Vaughan-Lee contributed: there are sittings for 128 persons. The register dates from the year 1716. The living is a perpetual curacy, united to the rectory of Seavington St. Mary, joint net yearly value £300, with residence, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Bristol and Earl Poulett alternately and held since 1939 by Rev.
The hamlet of Hurcott, about 1 mile north-west, which was formerly in the parish of Ilton, was formed into an ecclesiastical district and added to the parish of Seavington St. Mary, May 14, 1875; the Ecclesiastical Commissioners augmented the benefice by a grant of the rectorial tithes formerly belonging to the prebend of Ilton in Wells Cathedral and amounting to about £33 a year.
There is a Methodist chapel, built in 1885.
Mrs Vaughan-Lee is lady of the manor and chief landowner. The soil is chiefly light sandy loam and arable land. The crops are wheat, barley, oats and beans. The acreage is 1106; the population in 1931 was 219.
Seavington Abbot is a tithing in this parish half a mile north-east.
By Local Government Board Order 16.420, March 25, 1885, a detached part of Ilton known as Boxstone Hill was added to Seavington St. Mary.
Letters should have Somerset added. Shepton Beauchamp nearest M.O. office.
COMMERCIAL
Marked thus ° farm 150 acres or over.
°Doble, Hubert Mark, Farmer, Hurcott Farm. South Petherton 75.
Gillingham, Thomas Market gardener. T N South Petherton 9
°Jacobs, Samuel Rt. & Son, Farmers, Manor Farm. South Petherton 72
°Jacobs, William Wheadon, Farmer, Mead Farm. South Petherton 76
Jeffery, Frank, Farmer, West. Street. South Petherton 110
Melhuish, Cecil R., Garage. T N South Petherton 28
Rowswell, Frederick Farmer
Singleton, Frederick Gamekeeper to Mrs. Vaughan-Lee, Boxstone
Tucker, Fred, Oil Merchant