A BRIEF HISTORY OF PAULTON
A view from Simon's Hill 2005
The name ‘Paulton’ is thought to be derived from the Old English words ‘Peall’ meaning raised place or hill slope and ‘tun’ meaning a homestead or settlement, thus Paulton means village on a hillside. The well-watered, fertile soil has attracted settlers since the Bronze Age; evidenced by the round barrow at Wallenge, the Roman remains of a villa to the north and a stone coffin and burial urn found near Hallatrow Road. Together with the Saxon font in Holy Trinity Church, these suggest that there has been a settlement hereabouts for over 4000 years.
By the 15th century the village was rich enough to build a church, (the tower of which has one corner higher than the other three) which is typical of medieval churches in Somerset. The church has been rebuilt at least twice, the last time being in 1753 when the tower was refaced with Doulting stone.
No history of Paulton would be complete without mention of the staunch non-conformist movement in the village. The Baptists first met in the Pithay in 1691, and moved to their present site in 1724.
The Methodists, encouraged by numerous visits from John Wesley, had their first meeting house in the High Street in 1771 (where the British Legion hut now stands). As their supporters increased in number a new church was built on its current site in 1826.
Josiah Gregory's Cottage, High Street.
Initially the village's prosperity was based primarily in agriculture, but was helped by the numerous shallow coal seams which could be mined by open cast methods. In addition to domestic use, the coal was used to burn lime which could be widely traded. By the mid 18th century, the advent of steam power enabled rapid expansion of the collieries with the population doubling to over 2,000 between 1801 and 1850. Related industries such as the iron foundry, boot manufacturers, brewing and candle making also flourished. Most of the Paulton mines had ceased working before 1900, apart from Old Mills and Springfield which finally closed in 1966. Many of the former miners were able to find employment at Purnell’s Print Works which expanded rapidly after the Second World War. Sadly, in the past twenty years Paulton has lost Ashman’s boot factory, the Print works and Ink factory, all of whom had employed a large number of villagers.
This picture, taken from Simon's Hill in 2005, shows the extent of the factory buildings on the Polestar site.
Paulton's Nature Conservation Areas
The Paulton questionnaire demonstrated that many villagers were interested in the village having areas set aside as nature reserves. In fact there are three such sites within the village: Chivers Knoll in the Littlebrook area is managed by the Woodland Trust, whilst the Goosard Reserve and the Paulton Reserve are managed by the Cam Valley Wildlife Group details of thes areas can be found on their website under 'Projects'.