Chapter 2

The Parish

“If you have eyes to see, all England lies in such a thing as Brockley Church”.

Hutton, writing his “Highways and Byways of Somerset” in 1912, loved the little church, but added, “The best thing about Brockley is its sweetness & its beauty”. No one could possibly disagree with this, even though the traffic on the A370 now goes thundering through the heart of the parish. There is no parish hall in Brockley, no pub, no telephone box (it was vandalised), no village centre; instead it has two thirteenth century churches – those of Brockley and Chelvey. The two parishes are now combined for purposes of administration.

Brockley gained a mention in Domesday Book. The entry reads: “Eldred holds Brochelie. The same held it in the time of King Edward and gelded for four hides. The arable is four caracates, and so many there are, six villanes and seven cottagers, and sixteen acres of meadow. It is worth thirty shillings”.

• A hide was a unit of land that could support one free family, to make them self sufficient – about 160 acres. The geld, or tax was paid on this.
• A carucate was the amount of land that could be worked keeping one plough employed for a year.
• A villane was not free. He was a serf, or feudal servant dependant on his lord.

Brockley got its name from its large population of badgers. The Celtic name for a badger was “broce” and the badgers are still so abundant that the name is not surprising. The “ley” most likely comes from the Old English word “leah” meaning a grove or a clearing. Brockley is still quiet, its wildlife is exceptional, and its beauty is still not spoilt. The population has always fluctuated but never been very great. In 1830 there were 19 houses in the parish and the same number of families, making 173 inhabitants in all. In 1870 there were 98 inhabitants. There is a record, in Lilian Pearce’s little pamphlet, “St Nicholas Church through the ages”, of some of their names. The Hall was rented by Dr Nash, and Brockley Court by the Reverend Joseph Hardman LLD. Miss Cox lived in Brockley Cottage and another cleric, the Reverend Edward Phillott, MA lived in the Rectory. Four farmers are named – Edward Davis of Upper Farm, Samuel Hardwick of The Elms, John Higgins of Court Farm, and William Petherham of Lower Farm.

In 1901 there were 88 inhabitants. In 1942 there were only 65 names on the electoral roll, and now there are about 80. It is unlikely that the population will swell very much as the parish is largely in the Green Belt.

Early History

Although only a small hamlet, Brockley has a long and interesting history, most of it centred on the Court and the Hall. The earliest trace of human habitation seems to be the Iron Age Camp in a garden above Chelvey Batch. The Romans were in the area too, and in 1808, when foundations were being dug for Brockley Academy (later Brockley Elm Farm) a pot containing 274 Roman coins was unearthed, together with a black urn containing bones and ashes. The coins were sent to the British Museum but now appear to be lost. Towards the end of the last century excavations at Gatcombe Farm in Long Ashton only 4 miles away, revealed a large Roman “station”. There was also a Roman villa at Yatton.

What is now the Parish of Brockley with Chelvey consists of three Saxon Manors – Brockley, Chelvey and Midgell. The old Saxon name for Brockley Combe was Wulf Combe. Few have heard of Midgell, but the name survives in Midgell Farm, adjoining Chelvey Court. It is now a private estate.

There must have been medieval field systems, and Mr Pullan, who wrote the parish survey, “Chelvey with Brockley”, was sure that when the light was right he could see evidence of lynches in the field called The Park, on the North corner of the crossroads. There is a field on Midgell Farm called Barking Furlong, a name which probably survives from a field strip system. The three manors still retain the same boundaries they held before the Norman Conquest, although Mr Pullan thought that Midgell was carved out of Brockley before 1066, taking Brockley’s share of lands on the riverside of the Yeo.

During the Norman reign Brockley was still held by a Saxon lord for a while, but it was soon given to a Norman, Peter de Santa Croce. In 1217 Ralph de Scoville owned Brockley but because he had sided with the Rebellious Barons against King John his lands were confiscated and given to Hugh de Vivonia. Scovilles and Vivonias were baronial landlords of Norman descent. The Vivonias did not last long however for after John’s death Humphrey de Scoville, Ralph’s son, convinced Henry III of the Scovilles loyalty and had their land restored. Humphrey had in fact been one of the two thousand Knights who forced King John to sign Magna Carta on the island of Runnymede in 1215. Brockley was in the ownership of the Scovilles for nine generations, the last record of their ownership being in 1272. Sir Robert de Ashton was in possession of Brockley in 1367 and he may have sold it to the Harveys. There seems no way of knowing whether any of these families built a house on the Brockley Hall site. The Harveys were established in Somerset before the reign of Henry VIII and were originally of Norman descent, having crossed the Channel as supporters of William the Conqueror. According to Domesday Book, many manors in Somerset were given to his Norman followers, which accounts for why several families named Harvey were settled in the County. The Brockley Harveys lived in Brockley Court Farm. Nicholas, born in 1515, was the last Brockley Harvey, and there is a memorial to his daughter Judith, who died in 1652, in the chancel of Brockley Church. The Harveys sold Brockley Manor to Colonel Thomas Pigott, of whom more later.

There would have been many cottages and other dwellings in the Parish over the centuries, now gone without trace, except for the larger houses, which have been altered and extended, and maybe rebuilt more than once. They are on the same sites they occupied in Saxon and medieval times.

Roads, Poorhouse and Pound

Brockley was a secluded as well as a quiet place because there was no through-road to Weston until the early nineteenth century. What is now the main road only went to Congresbury and Yatton. The 1827 turnpike map shows the turnpike road coming from Bristol through Flax Bourton and stopping at Brockley. The old road ran along what is now Chelvey Batch and there is another section of it in Cleeve.

The road from Backwell to Brockley was built as the result of the development of Weston-super-Mare as a seaside resort in the early nineteenth century by the Smyth-Pigotts, and the consequent need for a better road. Two sites along this road (which destroyed one of Brockley’s farms) are the poorhouse, which used to be at the foot of Pit Lane, opposite Chelvey pump (horse-trough) and the other the village pound, where stray animals were rounded up and impounded. The pound is in the garden of The Barton, on the A370.

Brockley Academy

Brockley could once boast a private school, known as Brockley Academy. It was a school for young gentlemen of good family. The house was built in 1808 and the school set up in what is now Brockley Elm Farm. It was advertised in 1827 in the Bristol Mirror, and the vacancy for the Headmaster’s post was again advertised in 1841. In 1844 the Bristol Mercury carried an advertisement saying that Brockley Academy offered Classics and Mathematical Studies as part of an English Education. It was stated that the school was in Chelvey, but that part of the parish was never in Chelvey. It was the Rector of Chelvey, The Reverend W Shaw who set up the school. It was common at that time for young boys, and sometimes girls, to be boarded and educated in a family environment. Jane Austen and her sister spent a short time in such a school in Reading.

The school rooms were in a separate building behind the main house. The boys carved their names on the beams, which were recently removed because they were unsafe although the owners have carefully preserved them. There was a fives court at the end of one of the barns where the boys played this unusual game, which was also played at Eton. One wonders how many of these boys were given and whether they went on scrumping forays into the Smyth-Pigott orchards. The school failed and was eventually closed down.

The Smyth-Pigotts never owned Brockley Elm Farm. It is now a private house, and the facade has survived virtually unchanged since being built. It is a very attractive building of mellowed stone. The former schoolrooms are now occupied by a small enterprise, Motivation, manufacturing wheelchairs for the third world.

Coleridge and Brockley Coomb

In May 1795 Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his wife Sara were spending their honeymoon in a cottage in Old Church Road, Clevedon. He climbed Brockley Combe and was so impressed that he moved to write a sonnet, “Lines composed while climbing the left ascent of Brockley Coomb”. His description of the Combe is valid today, although the cuckoo has not passed through Brockley Combe for quite a few years now. Coleridge was a prodigious walker and no doubt walked over from Clevedon.

Lines composed while climbing the left ascent of Brockley Coomb, May 1795

With many a pause and oft reverted eye
I climb the Coomb’s ascent: sweet songsters near
Warble in shade their wild-wood melody:
Far off the unvarying Cuckoo soothes my ear.
Up scour the startling sallies of the flock
That on green plots o’er precipices browse:
From the deep fissures of the naked rock
The Yew-tree bursts! Beneath its dark green boughs
(‘Mid which the May-thorn blends its blossoms white)
Where broad smooth stones jut out in mossy seats,
I rest and now have gained the topmost site.
Ah! What a luxury of landscape meets
My gaze! Proud towers, and Cots more dear to me,
Elm-shadowed Fields, and prospect-bounding Sea.
Deep sighs my lonely heart: I drop the tear:
Enchanting spot! O were my Sara here.

Heronry and Windmill

Brockley has a heronry which was mentioned in Domesday Book. The trees where the herons nested were cut down in the early 1960’s, and it was feared the birds would not come back, but they did, and the heronry is still there, in the woods behind Cleeve Post Office.

There was a windmill too in Brockley, at the highest point in the woods at the conjunction of the three parishes of Brockley, Cleeve and Wrington. It was first mentioned in 1528 when it was owned by the Harvey family. It was probably a timber construction then, but was superceded by a stone windmill, now in ruins.