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Somerset is a county in the south-west of England. The county town is Taunton. Prior to 1974, Somerset adjoined the counties of Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north east, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south east and Devon to the southwest. The county is bounded to the north by the coast of the Bristol Channel. |
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Somerset is pronounced as though spelt Summerset. Some local people pronounce it Zummerzet as per the local West Country Accent. The name derives from Somersæte, meaning land of the summer people. The name continues in the motto of the county, Sumorsaete ealle, meaning "all the people of Somerset" in Anglo-Saxon. | |||
| Somerset is a largely rural county famous for its rolling hills and downland, the large flat Somerset Levels, and the Exmoor National Park which straddles the border with Devon. The town of Glastonbury is famous in mythology. The north of the county is administratively independent and includes the city of Bath, a World Heritage Site famous for its Roman history and Georgian architecture. The popular sea-side resort Weston-super-Mare lies on the Bristol Channel coast. Wells is the smallest city in England, The main attraction is Wells Cathedral. The Cathedral Grounds contain the Bishop's Palace and the Vicars Close, It is purported to be the oldest continuously-inhabited street in all of Europe. | ||||
| Much of Somerset is scenic and unspoilt. Tourism is a major industry in the county, estimated in 2001 to support around 23,000 people. Attractions include its coastal towns, part of the Exmoor National Park, the West Somerset Railway (a heritage railway), and the museum of the Fleet Air Arm at RNAS Yeovilton. The town of Glastonbury is famous for its mythical associations, and open-air rock festival (actually in Pilton), while the Cheddar Gorge is famous for caves open to visitors, as well as its locally produced cheese. Wookey Hole Caves is a show cave and tourist attraction in the village of Wookey Hole on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills near Wells in Somerset. The cave is noted for the Witch of Wookey Hole, a roughly human shaped rock outcrop. |  |
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Somerset placenames are mostly Saxon in origin, though the settlements may well be older. In many cases it is likely that a Saxon place name replaced an earlier Celtic one, for example a charter of 682 concerning Creechborough Hill defines it as "the hill the British call Cructan and we call Crychbeorh". A few modern names are Celtic in origin, such as Tarnock, while others are hybrid, having both Saxon and Celtic elements such as Penhill. Most of the river names are Celtic, such as Axe, while a few may be pre-Celtic such as Parret earlier Pedred. |
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| Somerset contains England's oldest prison still in use, in the small town of Shepton Mallet, and the world's oldest known engineered roadway, the Sweet Track. | ||||
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