Mells Parish, Somerset, England

Notes:
In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was known as "Mulne" meaning several mills.[5] The parish was part of the hundred of Frome.[6]



Around 1500 Mells seems to have been known as Iron Burgh, as a result of the iron ore extracted in the area.[7]



The village hall was built in the 14th century as a tithe barn for Glastonbury Abbey and now serves as the village hall.[8][9]



During the 19th and early 20th centuries Mells and surrounding villages had several coal mines on the Somerset coalfield, much of which may have supplied the iron works of James Fussell. The Old Ironstone Works is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest due to the population of Greater and Lesser Horseshoe bats. The site is a ruined iron works, which mainly produced agricultural edge-tools which were exported all over the world, and is now, in addition to its unique and major importance in relation to industrial archaeology. The block of buildings adjacent to the entrance is listed Grade II* and most of the rest of the site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It is included in the Heritage at Risk Register produced by English Heritage.[10]



Mells War Memorial is a grade II* listed building. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and is one of several structures in the village by the same architect. The memorial was unveiled in 1921 by Brigadier-General Arthur Asquith, whose brother?killed in action in the First World War?is listed on the memorial. The Asquith family have a long association with the village.[11]



The nearby former railway is now the route of NCR 24, the Colliers Way. Mells Road railway station opened in 1875 and closed in 1959.[12]



Close to the church is the Grade I listed 16th-century Manor House,[13] formerly in the Horner family[14] and now the residence of Raymond Asquith, 3rd Earl of Oxford and Asquith. The other large house, Mells Park, was largely rebuilt by Lutyens in 1923; Pevsner calls attention to its ashlar masonry, Doric pilasters and hipped roof.[14] The Talbot Inn, a former coaching inn, dates from the 15th century and is Grade II* listed.[15] It was voted Sunday Times Hotel of the Year in 2013.[16]



The stone village lock-up was built in the 17th century.[17]



The Mells Post Office and Shop was refurbished and reopened in 2009 as a community social enterprise, following the retirement of the postmaster the previous year. The attached Mells Caf? was opened in 2011 by The Great British Bake Off star Mary Berry.[18]



The Walled Garden, part of a former monastery, is now a cafe, shop and plant nursery.



Mells Church of England First School, on the edge of the village green, was established in the mid-nineteenth century. It serves Mells and nearby villages and had 71 children on the roll in 2016.[19] Mells Nursery School provides full day care for children from two years old to school age in a dedicated building which has been constructed adjacent to the school.[20]



Mells holds on Easter Mondays a popular and traditional event called Mells Daffodil Festival.



Mells Manor was purportedly procured by Jack Horner upon discovering the deed in a pie given to him to carry to London by Richard Whiting, the last Abbot of Glastonbury. This act is referenced in the popular nursery rhyme "Little Jack Horner". An alternative explanation is that the manor was bought in 1543. After successive generations Thomas Strangways Horner moved out of the manor house in the village and commissioned Nathaniel Ireson to build Park House within Mells Park.[21]

Marriage

Matches 1 to 1 of 1

	Family	Marriage		Family ID
1	Payne / Woolen	20 Feb 1764	Mells Parish, Somerset, England	F10583