Puriton

Puriton is a village and parish at the westerly end of the Polden Hills, in Somerset, England. The parish has a population of 1,968. The local parish church is dedicated to St Michael and All Angels. A chapel on Woolavington Road was converted to a private house some 20 years ago. The parish includes the hamlets of Dunball and Down End. In 1996, the village was described as "now becoming a rural commuter village". The built-up area is mostly between 5 and 50 metres above sea level. The village has a full range of facilities, such as a primary school, parish church, pub, post office, butcher and hairdresser. It started to expand considerably in the 1960s and 1970s when new houses were built on former farm land, a former infilled stone Blue Lias quarry, Puriton Park, and on fields between the existing houses. The old Victorian school near the church was converted into homes and a new school built elsewhere. The Manor House was sold in 1960 and four houses were built on its former tennis courts; the House is in multiple occupancy. Puriton was mentioned in the Domesday Book as growing pears, and was held by the Church of St Peter's, Rome. Its parish church was St Michael's. Just north of Dunball is Down End which is the site of Down End Castle, a motte-and-bailey castle, which has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The parish was part of the Huntspill and Puriton Hundred, A cement and lime works was at the western end of the Polden Hills, at Dunball. It used Blue Lias stone quarried at several locations in the village, transported to the works on narrow-gauge railways. This area of the Polden Hills was used for quarrying stone and lime burning from 1888 until 1973. Quarrying may have taken place on the hillside as early as the 15th century. In 1910 exploration for coal discovered a thick seam of Rock salt beneath the mudstones. Between 1911 and 1922 this was commercially extracted by dissolving the salt with water pumped down bore holes, which was brought to the surface and evaporated in boiling pans.