Old Cleeve, Somerset

Description
Cleeve, Old, a parish in Somerset, on the coast, adjacent to the Brendon Hills, and a mile from Washford station on the G.W.R. It includes the chapeh'y of Leighland, and the hamlets of Warren, Chapel-Cleeve, Blue-Anchor, Bilbrook, Roadwater, Golsoncott, and part of Washford. Post town, Taunton. Acreage, 5203 ; population, 1447. High craggy cliffs are on the coast, commanding fine views across the Bristol Channel, and alabaster abounds near Blue-Anchor. A Cistercian abbey was founded in the Vallis Florida, or flowery vale, in the time of Henry II., by William de Romana, Earl of Lincoln, and endowed with the property of the entire parish. A beautiful refectory and other domestic buildings remain. A Lady's chapel, long a resort of devotees, and still represented by some fragments, stood between the church and Blue-Anchor. A fragment of a cross, for guidance to the chapel, stands between the church and Washford, and another ancient cross, in tolerable preservation, stands in the churchyard. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Bath and Wells; value, £456. The church is ancient, with floor slanting upward from the tower to the chancel, but is in good condition. The vicarage of Leighland is a separate benefice.