( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = Somerset UK locator map 2010

, coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_lieutenant_name =

Mohammed Saddiq Mohammed Habedat Saddiq is Lord-lieutenant of Somerset. A utilities-sector engineer and manager he was born in Leeds, Yorkshire in June 1970 after his parents came to England in the late 1960s from Pakistan. Career He has held management and en ...

, high_sheriff_office =High Sheriff of Somerset , high_sheriff_name = Mrs Mary-Clare Rodwell (2020–21) , area_total_km2 = 4171 , area_total_rank = 7th , ethnicity = 98.5% White , county_council = , unitary_council = , government = , joint_committees = , admin_hq = Taunton , area_council_km2 = 3451 , area_council_rank = 10th , iso_code = GB-SOM , ons_code = 40 , gss_code = , nuts_code = UKK23 , districts_map = Somerset numbered districts 2019

, districts_list = County council area:
, MPs = * Rebecca Pow

(C) An uppercase (C) (parenthetical C) may refer to: * Copyright symbol (©) * * , indicating NSA-controlled cryptographic/classified items See also * Circle-c (disambiguation) * Copyright symbol (disambiguation) * C (disambiguation) C is the ...

* Wera Hobhouse ( LD) * Liam Fox (C) *

David Warburton David John Warburton (born 28 October 1965) is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Somerton and Frome. On his election in the 2015 general election he represented the Conservative Party, but was suspended from the p ...

Avon and Somerset Police Avon and Somerset Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement in the county of Somerset and in four districts that used to be in the defunct county of Avon: Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and So ...

, website =http://www.somerset.gov.uk/ Somerset ( , ; archaically Somersetshire , , ) is a county in South West England which borders Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east and Devon to the south-west. It is bounded to the north and west by the Severn Estuary and the

Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Seve ...

, its coastline facing southeastern Wales. Its traditional border with Gloucestershire is the River Avon. Somerset is currently formed of six council areas, of which two are unitary authorities, until the four second-tier district councils are merged on 1 April 2023, after which the county will comprise three unitary authorities. Its

county town In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...

is Taunton. Somerset is a rural county of rolling hills, the

Blackdown Hills The Blackdown Hills are a range of hills along the Somerset-Devon border in south-western England, which were designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1991. The plateau is dominated by hard chert bands of Upper Greensand wit ...

Mendip Hills The Mendip Hills (commonly called the Mendips) is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running from Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel in the west to the Frome valley in the east, the hills ...

, Quantock Hills and Exmoor National Park, and large flat expanses of land including the Somerset Levels. There is evidence of human occupation from

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

times, and of subsequent settlement by the Celts, Romans and

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

s. The county played a significant part in

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bot ...

's rise to power, and later the English Civil War and the

Monmouth Rebellion The Monmouth Rebellion, also known as the Pitchfork Rebellion, the Revolt of the West or the West Country rebellion, was an attempt to depose James II, who in February 1685 succeeded his brother Charles II as king of England, Scotland and Ir ...

. The city of

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

is famous for its Georgian architecture and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Toponymy

Somerset's name derives from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

'' Sumorsǣte'', short for ''Sumortūnsǣte'', meaning "the people living at or dependent on Sumortūn ( Somerton)". The first known use of ''Somersæte'' is in the law code of

King Ine Ine, also rendered Ini or Ina, ( la, Inus; c. AD 670 – after 726) was King of Wessex from 689 to 726. At Ine's accession, his kingdom dominated much of southern England. However, he was unable to retain the territorial gains of his predecessor ...

who was the Saxon King of Wessex from 688 to 726 CE, making Somerset along with Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset one of the oldest extant units of local government in the world. An alternative suggestion is the name derives from ''Seo-mere-saetan'' meaning "settlers by the sea lakes". The Old English name is used in the motto of the county, , meaning "all the people of Somerset". Adopted as the motto in 1911, the phrase is taken from the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. Somerset was a

shire Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the beginn ...

of the

kingdom of Wessex, and the phrase refers to the wholehearted support the people of Somerset gave to King Alfred in his struggle to save Wessex from Viking invaders. Somerset settlement names are mostly Anglo-Saxon in origin (for example,

, Somerton,

Wells Wells most commonly refers to: * Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England * Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground * Wells (name) Wells may also refer to: Places Canada *Wells, British Columbia England * Wells ...

and

Keynsham Keynsham ( ) is a town and civil parish located between Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. It has a population of 16,000. It was listed in the Domesday Book as ''Cainesham'' (as it is pronounced), which is believed to mean the home of Sai ...

), but numerous place names include

British Celtic Insular Celtic languages are the group of Celtic languages of Brittany, Great Britain, Ireland, and the Isle of Man. All surviving Celtic languages are in the Insular group, including Breton, which is spoken on continental Europe in Brittany, ...

elements, such as the rivers Frome and Avon, and names of hills. For example, an Anglo-Saxon charter of 682 refers to Creechborough Hill as "the hill the British call ''Cructan'' and the Anglo-Saxons call ''Crychbeorh''". Some modern names are wholly Brittonic in origin, like

Tarnock Badgworth is a village and civil parish in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England, south west of Axbridge. According to the 2011 census it had a population of 525. The village is home to an equestrian centre known as the Badgworth Arena. ...

Priddy Priddy is a village in Somerset, England in the Mendip Hills, close to East Harptree and north-west of Wells. It is in the local government district of Mendip. The village lies in a small hollow near the summit of the Mendip range of hills, ...

, and

Chard Chard or Swiss chard (; ''Beta vulgaris'' subsp. ''vulgaris'', Cicla Group and Flavescens Group) is a green leafy vegetable. In the cultivars of the Flavescens Group, the leaf stalks are large and often prepared separately from the leaf blade; ...

, while others have both Saxon and Brittonic elements, such as

Pen Hill Pen Hill forms part of the Mendip Hills plateau in Somerset, England. The hill is located in St Cuthbert Out civil parish in Mendip district. The name Pen is believed to be Celtic for hill or tor. It gives its name to one of the four periclin ...

History

Prehistory

The caves of the

were settled during the Palaeolithic period, and contain extensive archaeological sites such as those at

Cheddar Gorge Cheddar Gorge is a limestone gorge in the Mendip Hills, near the village of Cheddar, Somerset, England. The gorge is the site of the Cheddar show caves, where Britain's oldest complete human skeleton, Cheddar Man, estimated to be 9,000 years ...

. Bones from Gough's Cave have bee