Hunstrete

Hunstrete
240px Hunstrete Green
Hunstrete  Hunstrete shown within Somerset
Population	approx. 100
OS grid reference	ST647624
Unitary authority	Bath and North East Somerset
Ceremonial county	Somerset
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BRISTOL
Postcode district	BS40
Dialling code	01761
Police	Avon and Somerset
Fire	Avon
Ambulance	South Western
EU Parliament	South West England
UK Parliament	North East Somerset
List of places UK England Somerset

Hunstrete (grid reference ST625643) is a small village on the River Chew in the Chew Valley, Bath and North East Somerset, England. It falls within the civil parish of Marksbury and is 8 miles from Bristol, and Bath, and 5 miles from Keynsham.

History

The origin of the name Hunstrete is unclear. One explanation is that it means 'The hundred road' from the Old English hund and street. Other possible derivations are the personal name hund and Old English steort meaning a projecting piece of land or hund meaning hound or dog relating to the place where they were kept.

Although occupation during the Iron Age is possible the earliest evidence are Roman coins from the emperor Carausius, and continuous occupation during the Saxon period may have been connected with the nearby Wansdyke. A charter of 936 suggests the land was given to a thegn by the name of Ethelelm by Æthelstan. The manor was granted to Glastonbury Abbey who held it until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539 when it was forfeit to the crown and granted to Richard Watkins. At the beginning of the 17th century it passed to the family of Sir John Popham, whose descendants sold off portions of land in the intervening years but owned Hunstrete House until 1977.

Government and politics

Hunstrete is part of the Farmborough Ward, which is represented by one councillor on the Bath and North East Somerset Unitary Authority, which has responsibilities for services such as education, refuse, tourism etc. The village is a part of North East Somerset, and part of the South West England constituency of the European Parliament.

Demographics

According to the 2001 Census, the Farmborough Ward (which includes Compton Dando, Marksbury, Woollard and Chewton Keynsham), had 1,111 residents, living in 428 households, with an average age of 44.5 years. Of these 71% of residents describing their health as 'good', 21% of 16- to 74-year-olds had no qualifications; and the area had an unemployment rate of 1.0% of all economically active people aged 16–74. In the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004, it was ranked at 22,100 out of 32,482 wards in England, where 1 was the most deprived LSOA and 32,482 the least deprived.

Hunstrete House

File:Hunstrete House.JPG

Hunstrete House

Hunstrete House is a Grade II listed building dating from 1820. In its grounds are Hunstrete Lake, a walled garden and an icehouse which is also a listed building.

In September 2007 a team from the television programme Time Team visited Hunstrete to explore stories about the "Grand Mansion" which preceded the current house. It is thought that Francis Popham, a descendant of Sir John Popham, started the construction of a 17-bay mansion; however this was abandoned after his death in 1780, and the construction which had taken place was demolished in 1830, leaving just a line of arches. The building material was used in the restoration of Prior Park in Bath. The excavations undertaken tried to identify whether there was a previous medieval or Tudor manor house on the site. The programme was aired on 17 February 2008, and showed that the 1780 mansion was really the addition of a new exterior to a previous building.

Other buildings of note

Other Grade II listed buildings in the area are a pair of mid-nineteenth-century cottages, and a fragment of an arcade from an earlier large house, dating from c.1700.

External links

• Map of Hunstrete circa 1900