The furore that has been caused by residents of Rickford, who wish for
their community to be part of a single parish, preferably Burrington,
rather than be split, as at present, between Burrington and Blagdon,
highlights two things that puzzle me. I wonder if any readers can shed
light on them.

One is how the Parish of Burrington came to be formed. The other is the
reason for the extraordinary boundary that separates the parishes of
Burrington and Wrington.

The land-holdings at Wrington, Butcombe, Aldwick, Blagdon and Havyett are
all described in the Domesday Book(s), (1086). But there is no mention of
Burrington. The assumption must be that at that time it was either
included in the Manor of Wrington or was part of the 1 hides at Havyett
(perhaps 150 - 200 acres of farmland) held by Brungar the Englishman from
the Bishop of Coutances. The first well documented references to
Burrington date from the early 1100s, not so long afterwards.

My conjecture would be that Burrington was split off from Wrington to form
a separate parish and that, when that was done, the boundary was drawn
between the holders of different strips in the open field of the manor, for
their mutual convenience.

Another administrative change that occurred between 1086 and 1274 was
the transfer of Wrington Manor from the Hundred of Hartcliffe-with-
Bedminster to join with the Hundred of Brent (forming Brent-cum-Wrington).
The likely reason for this is that both Brent and Wrington were held by the
Abbey of Glastonbury.

So, even though they were detached from one another, putting them together
probably made sense to the officials in charge of local government at that
time.

I wonder if those changes caused as much consternation to the local
residents as the proposed parish boundary alterations have today.

John Gowar