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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
in
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
, England, within the north-eastern boundary of
Exmoor
Exmoor is loosely defined as an area of hilly open moorland in west Somerset and north Devon in South West England. It is named after the River Exe, the source of which is situated in the centre of the area, two miles north-west of Simonsbath ...
Taunton
Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...
. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 817.
There are
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
hillforts
A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Rom ...
in the area. Saxon Dunster was a parish in the Hundred of Carhampton. In the Domesday book there are four manors within the parish: Aucome (Alcombe), Avena (Avill), Stantune (Stanton) and Torre. Torre is now the site of the village of Dunster. Torre, including the castle and two watermills, was valued at 15 shillings and Aucome 20 shillings. The village grew up around
Dunster Castle
Dunster Castle is a former motte and bailey castle, now a English country house, country house, in the village of Dunster, Somerset, England. The castle lies on the top of a steep hill called the Tor, and has been fortified since the late Anglo- ...
which was built at Torre by the Norman warrior William I de Moyon (d. post 1090) shortly after the
Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...
of 1066. The castle is 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 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
of 1086. From that time it was the ''
caput
Latin words and phrases
{{Short pages monitor , last=Hancock, first=Frederick, Rev., title=Dunster Church and Priory: Their History and Architectural Features, place=Taunton, publisher=Barnicott & Pearce, Athænum Press, year=1905, url=https://archive.org/details/dunsterchurchan00hancgoog/page/n94/mode/2up
*{{cite book, last1=Mackenzie, first1=James D., title=The Castles of England, Their Story and Structure, url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.282070, date=1897, publisher=W. Heinemann, oclc=504892038
*{{cite book, last1=Poulton-Smith, first1=Anthony, title=Somerset Place Names, date=2010, publisher=Amberley, isbn=9781848687820
*{{cite book , last= Poyntz Wfirst= Peter, title= The Parish Church Towers of Somerset, Their construction, craftsmanship and chronology 1350–1550, year= 1981, publisher= Avebury Publishing Company, isbn= 0-86127-502-0
*{{cite book, last1=Prior, first1=Stuart, title=The Norman Art of War: A Few Well-Positioned Castles, date=2006, publisher=Tempus Publishing, isbn=9780752436517
*{{cite book , last=Robinson , first=Stephen , title=Somerset Place Names , year=1992 , publisher=Dovecote Press , isbn=978-1874336037
*{{cite book, last1=Woodger, first1=Bev, title=A History of Dunster, date=2014, publisher=Matador, isbn=9781783064441