Odcombe

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Somerset. Udecome (1086) (DB). Probably ‘valley of a man called Uda’. OE pers. name + cumb.

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Village off the A3088, 4 m. W of Yeovil. The church has a vivid modern E window and a facsimile of the title page of Thomas Coryate's Crudities (1611), the story of his travels, mainly on foot, through Europe. An account of his life hangs under the tower where the shoes he wore hung until their decay in 1702. Coryate (1577?–1617) was born in the Elizabethan rectory which stood near the church. His last journey in 1612 took him through Mesopotamia to India, where he died.

Coordinates: 50°56′10″N 2°42′18″W / 50.936°N 2.705°W / 50.936; -2.705

Odcombe
Yellow stone building with square tower, partially obscured by trees.
Church of St Peter and St Paul
Odcombe is located in Somerset
Odcombe

 Odcombe shown within Somerset
Population 730 [1]
OS grid reference ST505155
District South Somerset
Shire county Somerset
Region South West
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town YEOVIL
Postcode district BA22
Dialling code 01935
Police Avon and Somerset
Fire Devon and Somerset
Ambulance South Western
EU Parliament South West England
UK Parliament Yeovil
List of places: UK • England • Somerset

Odcombe is a village and civil parish in south Somerset, England, 3 miles (4.8 km) west of the town of Yeovil, with a population of 730 in 2002.[1]

The upper part of the village, Higher Odcombe, sits on the crest of the hill, while the lower part, Lower Odcombe, is built on its northern slopes. Odcombe falls within the Yeovil Parliamentary constituency and is covered by the Non-metropolitan district of South Somerset, which was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, having previously been part of Yeovil Rural District.[2] There is a parish council which has responsibility for local issues,

Contents

History

The village is mentioned in the Domesday book when it was owned by Robert, Count of Mortain. In the 1860s the village church was redeveloped, during which the preserved shoes of Thomas Coryat were lost. The village is built predominantly out of the local hamstone still quarried on Ham Hill, two miles to the west.

The parish was part of the hundred of Houndsborough.[3]

Religious sites

The Ham stone Church of St Peter and St Paul has 13th century origins. In 1874 transepts were added and the church restored. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.[4]

Notable residents

Notable residents of the village include Humphrey Hody, a 17th-century monk and theologian, George Strong, a 19th century soldier awarded the Victoria Cross in the Crimean war, and Thomas Coryat, a 17th-century traveller and writer; author of Coryat's Crudities. Coryate described his "...love of Odcombe in Somersetshire, which is so deare unto me that I preferre the very smoke thereof before the fire of all other places under the Sunne"[5]

References

External links

Media related to Odcombe at Wikimedia Commons


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