Huntworth is a small hamlet and farming community (population approximately 50), within 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 ...

of North Petherton east 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 ...

from

Bridgwater Bridgwater is a historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. The town had a population of 41,276 at the 2021 census. Bridgwater is at the edge of the Somerset Levels, in level and well-wooded country. The town lies along both sid ...

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. Huntworth was in the news on 5/12/19 as it was the epicentre of a 3.2 magnitude earthquake.

Canal

When the

Bridgwater and Taunton Canal The Bridgwater and Taunton Canal is a canal in the south-west of England between Bridgwater and Taunton, Somerset, Taunton, opened in 1827 and linking the River Tone to the River Parrett. There were a number of abortive schemes to link the ...

was opened in 1827 it joined the

River Parrett The River Parrett is a river that flows through the counties of Dorset and Somerset in South West England, from its source in the Thorney Mills springs in the hills around Chedington in Dorset. Flowing northwest through Somerset and the So ...

by a lock at Huntworth, where a basin was constructed, but in 1841 the canal was extended to a floating harbour in Bridgwater, and the Huntworth link was filled in. The canal and river were not re-connected at this point when the canal was restored, because the Parrett is by then a salt water river laden with

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension (chemistry), suspension with water. Silt usually ...

, whereas the canal contains

fresh water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salt (chemistry), salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include ...

. Not only is there a risk of silt entering the canal, but the salt water cannot be allowed to contaminate the fresh, as the canal is still used for the transport of

drinking water Drinking water or potable water is water that is safe for ingestion, either when drunk directly in liquid form or consumed indirectly through food preparation. It is often (but not always) supplied through taps, in which case it is also calle ...

for Bridgwater's population.

Beam Wireless Station

The

Imperial Wireless Chain The Imperial Wireless Chain was a strategic international communications network of powerful long range radiotelegraphy stations, created by the British government to link the countries of the British Empire. The stations exchanged commercial a ...

, also known as the Empire Wireless Chain, was a strategic international wireless telegraphy communications network, created to link the countries of the British Empire. Between 1929 and 1940 Huntworth was the site of the "

" Beam Wireless Station, which received HF communications from Drummondville and Yamachiche in Canada, and Kliphevel (now Klipheuwel) and Milnerton in South Africa, working with an associated transmitter station at

Bodmin Bodmin () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south-west of Bodmin Moor. The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character. It is bordered ...

. Each aerial for the Beam Wireless Station stretched to nearly half a mile (0.78 km) long, and consisted of a row of five high lattice masts, erected in a line at intervals and at right angles to the overseas receiving station. These were topped by cross-arm measuring 10 feet high by 90 feet wide (3m x 27.4m), from which the vertical wires of the aerial were hung, forming a 'curtain antenna'. Although the site has long since closed, and all the equipment has been removed, the facility is remembered in the naming of 5 properties in the village as Beam Wireless Station.

Manor

The manor of Huntworth was acquired in the late 13th century by the ''de Popham'' family of

Popham, Hampshire Popham is a hamlet and civil parish south of Basingstoke, Hampshire, England. According to the Post Office the population of the 2011 Census was included in the civil parish of Dummer, Hampshire, Dummer. The area was occupied from pre-historic ...

, which senior family died out in the male line on the death of Sir Stephen Popham (c. 1386 – 1444), five times MP for Hampshire. The Popham family of Huntworth was more prominent and longer-lived than the Pophams of Popham. The most prominent member of the Huntworth line was Sir John Popham (1531–1607),

Lord Chief Justice The Lord or Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary of England and Wales and the president of the courts of England and Wales. Until 2005 the lord chief justice was the second-most senior judge of the English a ...

of England from 1592 until his death. His monument survives in the nearby Church of St John the Baptist in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

Present Day

The Bridgwater Canalside Centre provides an entertainment and meeting venue.

Geography

Screech Owl is the name of a local nature reserve. It is a wetland area which supports a variety of birds,

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

s and small mammals.

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline, Huntworth North Petherton Transatlantic telecommunications Villages in Sedgemoor