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Please check again soon for bits about Crewkerne's history.
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For full background on Crewkerne's important archaeological remains, you may wish to read Somerset Councty Council's survey which was revised in 2003 in co-ordination with English Heritage.
Archaeological Assessment of Crewkerne,
Richardson & Webster, 2003
Somerset County Council & English Heritage
Click the pdf file below:
Somerset Extensive Urban Survey, Crewkerne
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The following text is an excerpt from Collinson’s Eighteenth-Century study of the area. As with any ‘antiquarian’ analysis, caution as to actual historicity should be applied.
From Collinson, History & Antiquities of Somerset (1791)
Crewkerne
A very ancient town, known in the Saxon times by the name of Crucerne, which is compounded of the words Cruce a cross, and Earne a cottage, or place of retirement. There is no doubt that this name was applied to it in the early ages of Christianity, when churches were rare, and hermitages or cells were the usual places of religious associations.
It is situated in a rich and fertile vale, well wooded and watered, and surrounded with cultivated eminence, which command extensive and very beautiful prospects. The town consists principally of five streets…
[John] Leland visited this town… “Crewkerne (says he) is sette under the rootes of an hille. Ther I saw nothing very notable. Yet ther ys a praty crosse environid with smaul pillers, and a praty toune house yn the market place.”
The market is held on Saturdays, and there is a fair for cattle on the fourth of September.
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