Worle ( ) is a village in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Weston-Super-Mare Weston-super-Mare ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary district, in the county of Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. Its population ...

, in the

North Somerset North Somerset is a unitary authorities of England, unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The council is based in Weston-super-Mare, the area's largest town. The district also contains the towns of Clevedon, Nailsea ...

district, in the ceremonial county of

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England. It is joined to the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare on its western edge. It, however, maintains a very separate identity, and may now be bigger than its more famous neighbour. Worle pre-dates Weston and was mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086. In the book, it is said that Worle was owned by Walter of Douai, and consisted of and valued at 6.5 hides. "Walter of Douai holds of the King, Worle. Edgar held it in the time of King Edward, and gelded for six hides and a half." The parish church of St Martin's sits on the side of Worlebury Hill and overlooks the village.

History

The name was possibly formed from the Old English ''Wor + leah'' meaning 'wood or clearing frequented by

grouse Grouse are a group of birds from the order (biology), order Galliformes, in the family (biology), family Phasianidae. Grouse are presently assigned to the Tribe (biology), tribe Tetraonini (formerly the subfamily Tetraoninae and the family Tetr ...

', or perhaps 'moor

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable con ...

'. The parish was part of the Winterstoke

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

. Worle has grown dramatically in the last 50 years. That initial development in the 1970s and 1980s included a large number of houses, a Sainsburys supermarket, a secondary school and an ecumenical church (St Marks). However, in recent years a larger range of facilities and amenities have opened up, including large stores, shops, a medical centre, a railway station and additional churches. Weston-super-Mare's Magistrates Court has relocated to Worle. It also has a number of active groups and societies including a

Lions club Lions Clubs International, is an international service organization, currently headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois. , it had over 46,000 local clubs and more than 1.4 million members (including the youth wing Leo clubs, Leo) in more than 200 ge ...

. St Martin's Church was built in 1125 and rebuilt during the 14th and 15th centuries, with major restoration and extension work in 1870. The Church is now ecumenical, with

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

as well as

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

ministers. It is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The ancient parish of Worle became a

in 1866. The civil parish was abolished on 1 April 1933, when most of the parish was absorbed into Weston super Mare. Smaller areas of the parish joined Kewstoke and Locking. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1995. The '' Weston & Somerset Mercury'' is the local newspaper.

Transport

Worle is located close to junction 21 of the

M5 motorway The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...

. Bristol is approximately away and can be accessed by the M5 or A370 road. There have been four different stations serving Worle since the Bristol and Exeter Railway opened on 14 June 1841. For most of this time, the station generally known as Puxton and Worle railway station has served, despite being situated in St Georges. From 1 March 1884 until 2 January 1922 a more convenient Worle station was provided on the Loop Line. Puxton and Worle closed on 6 April 1964. There was also a Worle Town station situated much closer to the High Street but only served by the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway from 1897 to 1940. The present-day Worle railway station is situated midway between the two former sites and was opened on 24 September 1990. Since 2008 longer express trains have been allowed to stop at Worle's short platform with the express train opening the doors of up to 4 coaches. This has enabled passengers from Worle to travel to London and all the stops in-between. Before most people had to change at either Weston-super-Mare railway station or Bristol Temple Meads railway station. Worle has bus connections running every ten minutes into the centre of Weston-super-Mare and bus routes to Bristol and other locations, which is adjacent to the local McDonalds and Sainsburys supermarket, the buses that serve this are: X1, X5, A3, 6, 7, 9 & 611.

Education

Worle includes two secondary schools, Worle Community School Academy and Priory Community School Academy, and several primary schools, including Becket Primary School, Mendip Green First School, Worle Village Primary, St Martin's Primary, Mead Vale Primary School, Herons' Moor Academy, Castle Batch Primary School and St Mark's Primary School. Mendip Green Primary School is one of the largest primary schools in the area, with 407 children of 4 – 8 years of age (2008). Mendip Green was one of the first schools in North Somerset achieving Healthy School Status, also it has Leading aspect Award, and a hearing and language resource base.

References

External links

*{{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040419222318/http://www.mary.mason.btinternet.co.uk/westonworle.htm , date=19 April 2004 , title=Weston-super-Mare and the village of Worle
Website of Worle Bellringers, St Martin's Church
Villages in North Somerset Weston-super-Mare Former civil parishes in Somerset