PLACES AND VOYAGES 
A Brief Description of Congresbury, Somerset, England 
From 888AD until Domesday Book little is known about the parish. In 1086AD Congresbury had two mills and a population of about 500 people, almost all involved in mixed fanning, although grain production took priority. Congresbury Manor, which included Wick St Lawrence, paid £28 15s [£28.75] annually in silver, a huge sum, to the then Lord, the King. 
In the early 13th century the King gave Congresbury back to the Bishop of Bath & Wells an in 1215 a new church, St Andrew's, built on Saxon foundations, was consecrated. Parishioners adde the two aisles and the tower and spire in the next 250 years and pilgrims came, presumably, to see S1 Congar's burial place. The early 13th century was also possibly when Broad Street was laid out to hold a market and fair. The market lapsed long ago but the September fair continued into the 1960s. 

Congresbury Cemetery next to the Church 

The Congresbury Church and its Stain Glass Window 
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PLACES AND VOYAGES 

Congresbury Village Sign & Church 
A Brief Description of High Littleton, Somerset, England 

High Littleton was probably settled by the Saxons in the late 7th or 8th century. They called it Lytel tun. In early times the villages would have been almost entirely farmed, mostly arable farming but with a mixture of dairy farming and sheep raising. 
The parish would have some of the earliest of the Somerset coal mines because here the coal seams ran obliquely to the surface. The first documentary evidence of mining in the parish dates from 1633, and the first deep mine in the parish was Mearns Coalworks which began in 1783. The wealth and work generated by the mines attracted people in, and by 1800 the population had grown to about 800. In fact, production at these pits did not last very long and by 1820 most of the miners who lived in the parish worked in neighbouring villages. The Greyfield Coal Company did not start until 1833 and was at that time outside the parish. It received a boost with the opening of the railway in 1873. Greyfield Colliery closed in 1911 and the railway in 1964. 

Holy Trinity Church in High Littleton, Somersetshire, England 
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