Bruton, Somerset

Description
Bruton, a small town and a parish in Somersetshire. The town stands on the river Brue, among a cluster of hills, 10 1/2miles SSW of Frome, and has a station on the G.W.R., 117 miles from London. It is a place of considerable antiquity. A Benedictine monastery was founded at it in 1005 by Algar, Earl of Cornwall; changed into a priory of black canons in 1142 by William de Mohun, Earl of Somerset; raised to the dignity of an abbey in the time of Henry VIII., at the instance of the then prior, who was coadjutor to the Bishop of Bath and Wells; and given at the dissolution to Sir Maurice Berkeley. The town consists of three streets, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office (S.O.), a bank, a parish church, a Congregational chapel, a Wesleyan chapel, a grammar school, and an hospital. The church is Later English and large, has two quadrangular towers, one at the west end, the other at the north aisle, the former richly ornamented, and contains a fine tomb to Sir Maurice Berkeley and his two wives, and some other good monuments. The parsonage adjoining the church was built in 1822 from the ruins of the abbey. The grammar school was founded in the time of Edward VI. by Fitz-James, bishop of London, has £400 a year from endowment, and holds two exhibitions at the universities. The school also receives £300 a year from Hugh Sexey's Hospital, which is awarded in scholarships tenable at the school. There is a newly erected technical or trade school, with an endowment of £400 a year and about 80 pupils. An hospital, founded in 1618 by Hugh Sexey, said to have been a waiter in the town, maintains 30 old men and women, and 15 girls are trained for domestic service. It gives ,£1400 a year to various schools for educational purposes. Brewing and manufactures of horse hair are carried on. Dampier the navigator was a native. The parish includes also part of the parish of Eastrip containing Sheephouse Farm. Acreage, 4007; population of the civil parish, 1788; of the ecclesiastical, 1582. Redlynch Park is a seat of the Earl of Ilchester. A Roman pavement was found in 1711 at Discove. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells; gross value, £168 with residence.