West Coker is a village and
civil parish in Somerset
, England,
situated south west of Yeovil
in the
South Somerset district.
History
The name Coker comes from Coker Water (
crooked stream from
the
Celtic Kukro).
Artifacts from early settlement in the parish include a polished
stone axe and boat shaped-bronze broach. A Roman villa has been
excavated and a bronze plate inscribed to the god
Mars discovered. From this Mars was given
the title Mars Rigisamus (which means 'Greatest King' or 'King of
Kings') as it depicts a standing naked male figure with a
close-fitting helmet; his right hand may have once held a weapon,
and he probably originally also had a shield (both are now lost).
The same
epithet for a god is recorded from Bourges
in Gaul. The use of this epithet implies that Mars
had an extremely high status, over and above his warrior
function.
The manor
descended with its neighbour East Coker
until the 14th century when it passed to a junior
branch of the Courtenay family. It was later held by
the Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland protectors of Edward VI and later still by the Portmans of
Orchard
Portman
.
The
original manor house burned down during an attack in the Wars of the Roses, although the current
hamstone manor house
has medieval origins, the earliest surviving
portions probably being of around 1500. It is a grade I
listed building.
The village had a long history of growing hemp and flax for
sailcloth manufacture, which made "Coker Canvas" highly prized by
naval captains during the
Napoleonic
Wars. Dawes Twine Works, a late 19th century historic building
in the village used for the manufacture of
rope
and twine, was a featured candidate on the BBC
Restoration TV series in
2006.
Governance
The
parish council has
responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual
precept (local rate) to cover the council’s operating costs and
producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The parish council
evaluates local planning applications and works with the local
police, district council officers, and
neighbourhood watch groups on
matters of crime, security, and traffic. The parish council's role
also includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of
parish facilities, as well as consulting with the district council
on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage,
footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning. Conservation
matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental
issues are also the responsibility of the council.
The village falls within 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. The district
council is responsible for
local
planning and
building control,
local roads,
council housing,
environmental health,
markets and fairs,
refuse collection and
recycling,
cemeteries
and
crematoria, leisure services, parks,
and
tourism.
Somerset County Council is
responsible for running the largest and most expensive local
services such as
education,
social services,
libraries, main roads,
public transport,
policing and
fire
services,
trading standards,
waste disposal and strategic
planning.
It is also
part of the Yeovil county constituency represented in the
House of
Commons
of the Parliament of the United
Kingdom
. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election,
and part of the South West
England constituency of the European Parliament
which elects seven MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional
representation.
Geography
Nearby is
the Hardington
Moor
Site
of Special Scientific Interest and National Nature Reserve where
meadows are examples of species-rich unimproved neutral grassland,
which is now nationally rare. The rare
French oat-grass is very abundant on the
site and the fields are home to a wide variety of plant species,
most notably
adder's tongue,
corky-fruited water-dropwort
and large numbers of
green-winged
orchid. Invertebrates found at the site include
butterflies such as
Gatekeeper,
Small Tortoiseshell and
Common Blue. Less commonly seen are
Large Skipper,
Green-veined white and
Green Hairstreak.
Transport
The parish
has no railway station, the nearest being Yeovil
Junction railway station
on the Exeter
-London
Waterloo
line.
There are
a few bus routes, these are: Route 47 (First Hampshire & Dorset)
Bridport
-Yeovil which
operates four journeys a day Monday to Friday and three journeys on
a Saturday, Routes 60/61/X61 (Stagecoach Somerset) Ilminster
/Chard/Crewkerne
-Yeovil which are combined to operate 11/12 journeys
a day and are the main routes through the village. Also
Route N8 (Nippy Bus) West Coker(Lakefields)-Yeovil operates hourly
Monday to Saturday Daytime and two journeys morning peak hours to
Yeovil and one peak hour return and Route N14 (Nippy Bus) East
Chinnock-Yeovil provides one return journey Monday-Friday daytime
to give access to doctors surgeries in Yeovil. The parish also has
some innovative
demand
responsive transport provided by Nippy Bus, the N8 can be
booked to pick up passengers off route in the parish after first
registering and calling the company an hour before travel and will
arrange a convienient time within the hours of operation to pick
people up. There is also a
night bus
service Route N4 Crewkerne-Yeovil which operates on a demand
responsive basis Wednesday-Saturday Nights, last journey from
Yeovil Thursday-Saturday Nights is at 0250 in the early hours of
the morning arriving in the parish around 0330.
Religious sites
The Church of Saint Martin of Tours has 13th or 14th century
origins but was mostly rebuilt in 1863-64.
Notable residents
See also
References
- A Vision of Britain Through Time : Yeovil Rural
District
- Hardington Moor NNR
Further reading
- Shorey, David, and Dodge, Michael and Nadine (2008). Book
of West Coker: a pictorial and social history of a Somerset
village, Wellington, Somerset: Halsgrove Publishing, ISBN
1841147990
External links
soldier and civil servant, who variously served as
the Governor of Sierra
Leone
, Gold
Coast, Hong
Kong
, Natal and
Queensland
, died in the village.
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