England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
West Monkton St Augustine

The Parish

The parish of West Monkton lies in western central Somerset roughly 3 1/2 miles northeast of the town of Taunton. West Monkton sits about a half mile north of the A38 road which links Taunton with Bridgwater. West Monkton is a substantial village sitting at the foot of ground rising into the Quantock Hills from the Tone Valley's plains. Most of the village's properties line two parallel lanes running northwards from the A38. Closer to Taunton and sitting on the A3259 lies the relatively modern settlement of Monkton Heathfield which has surpassed its earlier mother parish, growth has made it almost contiguous with Taunton for which it acts as a suburb. A glance at the Ordnance Survey mapping shows the characteristic green speckling of orchards, Somerset is famous for its cider and that is certainly grown today and probably in the past within West Monkton parish. The farming was a mixture of said orchards and pastoral fields, in addition some extensive quarries for the stone beneath the Quantocks were opened exploited for local building stone and road mending. Modern developments have come to the parish, the modern M5 motorway carves its way south from Bristol to Exeter passing through the eastern portion of West Monkton parish. The earlier Bridgwater & Taunton Canal skirts the southern edges of Monkton Heathfield too. West Monkton is drained southwards by a series of small streams, including Allen's Brook, the short distance to meet the Tone which turns water eastwards to meet the Parrett, the latter passes through Bridgwater to the outer Bristol Channel. West Monkton is sited at around 70 metres above the sea but the Quantocks rise at its back quickly reaching 205 metres on nearby Cheddon Down. By the standards of its area West Monkton parish was towards the largest, covering just under 3,100 acres it would have supported a population of around 1,150 parishioners. Even by Domesday times West Monkton with 56 households was a large village of sufficient size as to be placed in the top 20% by population, held by Glastonbury Abbey its assets of 16 ploughs backed by meadows, pastures and woodland were indicative of a large farming community.

The Church

St Augustine's church hides away from the village's main lane network accessed by a short driveway marked by a prominent red plaque. St Augustine is essentially an essay in the late-medieval style of the Perpendicular, clearly built almost in a single continuous phase through the late 14th into the 15th centuries. The church's stand-out feature is its impressive 88 feet tall western tower admirably dressed in Ham stone and complete with a polygonal northeastern stair-turret. Pevsner finds it a little sparse in its decoration but it is certainly a statement piece. The nave is lengthy too having 4 bays with both northern and southern aisles and given good internal lighting by a typical Perpendicular clerestory. Pevsner indicates the scar of an earlier church commemorated in its previous roof-line above the tower arch, of what era that was there is not enough detail to tell. The church received a typical Victorian restoration, here in 1884, besides refreshing the main fabric that work also added the side chapels to the chancel, almost mini-transepts being quite large. The S-shaped curving driveway ends with an oblong parking area outside the churchyard which is open & uncluttered with no obvious obstacles for the photographer.