Montacute

"MONTACUTE, a parish in the hundred of Tintinhull, county Somerset, 4 miles N.W. of the Yeovil railway station. The village, which is of small extent, is chiefly agricultural. It is situated on the road from Yeovil to Ilminster, near the Durston and Yeovil branch of the Bristol and Exeter railway. The parish includes the hamlets of Bishopstone and Hyde. It was formerly called Logaresburch by the Saxons, and returned members to parliament in the 33rd of Edward I. On Hampden Hill are extensive freestone quarries, near to which is a double-moated Roman camp nearly 3 miles in circumference, and further defended on the N.W. by a high rampart partly of stone, enclosing a space of 20 acres, where many Roman coins have been found. In this parish is also a tower, 60 feet in height, on the site of a castle built by William Earl of Moreton, a relative of William the Conqueror, who gave to the place its present name. He also founded a Cluniac priory, the gateway of which is still in a good state of preservation. The remains have been converted into a farmhouse." From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson © 2003