Temple Cloud () is a village in the

Chew Valley The Chew Valley is an affluent area in North Somerset, England, named after the River Chew, which rises at Chewton Mendip, and joins the River Avon at Keynsham. Technically, the area of the valley is bounded by the water catchment area of ...

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_ ...

on the

A37 road The A37 is a major road in south west England. It runs north from the A35 at Dorchester in Dorset into Somerset through Yeovil and Shepton Mallet before terminating at the Three Lamps junction with the A4 in central Bristol. The road is e ...

. It is in the civil parish of Temple Cloud with Cameley and in the council area of

Bath and North East Somerset Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority district in England. Bath and North East Somerset Council was created on 1 April 1996 following the abolition of the county of Avon. It is part of the Cer ...

. It is from

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

and from the town of Midsomer Norton. The villages of

Cameley Cameley is a village in the civil parish of Temple Cloud with Cameley, within the Chew Valley in Somerset, and on the northern slopes of the Mendip Hills, in the Bath and North East Somerset Council area just off the A37 road. It is located fr ...

and Clutton are nearby. The Temple in the place name possibly relates to the Knights Templar who held the manors of Cameley and Cloud around 1200.This is not confirmed and there are several theories about the derivation of the name. it has been suggested that there may have been a Roman temple in the area. Cloud is thought to come from the personal name Cloda. It has been suggested that Cloud derives from the Old English ‘clud’ meaning rocky outcrop (the neighbouring village Clutton has the same derivation). There were several

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

mines in and around the village as a part of the Somerset coalfield, but these have all since closed.

Government and politics

Temple Cloud is part of the Mendip Ward, which is represented by one councillor on the

Unitary Authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

, which has responsibilities for services such as education, refuse, tourism etc. Mendip ward stretches from ''Temple Cloud'' to

East Harptree East Harptree is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is situated north of Wells and south of Bristol, on the northern slope of the Mendip Hills overlooking the Chew Valley. The parish has a population of 644. The parish include ...

. The total population of the ward taken at the 2011 census was 2,683. The village is a part of the North East Somerset constituency. Prior to

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

in 2020, it was a part of the South West England constituency of the European Parliament.

Demographics

According to the 2001 Census, the Mendip Ward (which includes West Harptree and Hinton Blewett), had 1,465 residents, living in 548 households, with an average age of 39.0 years. Of these 79% of residents describing their health as 'good', 22% of 16- to 74-year-olds had no qualifications; and the area had an unemployment rate of 1.5% of all economically active people aged 16–74. In the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004, it was ranked at 25,387 out of 32,482 wards in England, where 1 was the most deprived LSOA and 32,482 the least deprived.

Church

Temple Cloud is included in the Anglican

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

of Clutton with

.
Its church is located in the centre of the village; built in the 1920s, it was dedicated to

St Barnabas Barnabas (; arc, ܒܪܢܒܐ; grc, Βαρνάβας), born Joseph () or Joses (), was according to tradition an early Christian, one of the prominent Christian disciples in Jerusalem. According to Acts 4:36, Barnabas was a Cypriot Jew. Name ...

in 1926.

Notable buildings

Temple Cloud has a number of buildings that are listed for their historical or heritage value, including the Temple Inn. The Old Court is a Grade II listed former magistrates' court house with police cells, built in 1857 in

baronial Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...

style.

References

External links

* * * * * * * * * * {{Commons category, Temple Cloud Villages in Bath and North East Somerset