Stoke St Mary

infobox UK place
country = England
latitude= 50.9952
longitude= -3.0510
official_name= Stoke St. Mary
population= 423ref|population (2002)
shire_district= Taunton Deane
region= South West England
shire_county = Somerset
constituency_westminster= Taunton
post_town= Taunton
postcode_district = TA3
postcode_area= TA
dial_code= 01823
os_grid_reference= ST262223

Stoke St Mary is a village and parish in Somerset, England, situated two miles south east of Taunton in the Taunton Deane district.

History

The earliest recorded mention of Stoke St. Mary is in a Saxon Charter dated 854AD, when a West Saxon King gave the clearly defined lands at ‘Stoc’ to the minster church at Taunton.The church in Stoke St. Mary was built in the 13th century and is a simple stone building with battlemented tower. It remains largely unchanged today and the tower is one of the few remaining 13th century towers in the county.Agriculture has always been the main occupation in Stoke St. Mary but in the 17th century the cloth industry became important in the village and limeburners were common, most working quarries on stoke hill. The parish of Stoke St. Mary also became famous for its cider and although it is no longer produced in the village, Taunton remains well known for it.Over the last 20 years the village has changed dramatically with the decline of agriculture and it has now become in the most part a dormitory village. The village has also grown dramatically with the building of new houses, which continues now.

Transport

Despite its rural setting, Stoke St. Mary is in fact very well connected. It is about a mile from the A358 which heads east and only 2 miles from the M5. The nearest railway station is just 2 miles away in Taunton, which is on the mainline between Exeter and Bristol and has a line going directly to Reading.

Politics

The village is part of the Taunton constituency of which Jeremy Browne (Liberal Democrats) (2005- ) is currently MP.

References

# Somerset County Council, 2002. [http://www.somerset.gov.uk/somerset/statistics/contents/population/estimates/2002mye/ Population estimates] .

External links

Windows Live Local [http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=50.995641~-3.053311&style=a&lvl=16&scene=3712634&rtp=null~null| Aerial photo of the village]