Street, Somerset

Street
Church of the Holy Trinity, Street
Population	11,066
OS grid reference	ST483363
District	Mendip
Shire county	Somerset
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	STREET
Postcode district	BA16
Dialling code	01458
Police	Avon and Somerset
Fire	Devon and Somerset
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	Wells

Street is a village and civil parish in the county of Somerset, England, situated on a dry spot in the Somerset Levels, at the end of the Polden Hills, two miles south-west of Glastonbury. The village has a population of 11,066.

History

Names

Lantokay

The settlement's earliest known name is Lantokay, meaning the sacred enclosure of Kea, a Celtic saint.

Lega (Leigh)

In the Domesday Book it was recorded as Strate , and also Lega, a name still used throughout the country in the modern form, "Leigh". The centre of Street is where Lower Leigh hamlet was, and the road called Middle Leigh and the community called Overleigh are to the south of the village.

Strete (Street)

In the 12th century a causeway from Glastonbury was built to transport stone from what is now Street for rebuilding Glastonbury Abbey after a fire, and Street's name is derived from the Latin strata - a paved road. The causeway is about 100 yards north of a Roman road.

Pre-history: the fossil record

Quarries of the local blue lias stone were worked from as early as the 12th century to the end of the 19th century. Blue lias is peculiar to the south western counties of England. Its name seems to have been borrowed from Somerset quarrymen. It is found in a series of strata forming the lower division of the Jurassic series. It consists of thin blue argillaceous, or clay-like, limestone. It tends to contain many fossils. Fossils discovered in the lias include many ichthyosaurs, one of which has been adopted as the badge of Street. There is a display of Street fossils in the Natural History Museum in London.

Early human settlement

Roman

The churchyard of the Parish Church has yielded a pre-Roman gold coin and a number of Roman pottery fragments, now in the Somerset County Museum. Remains of Roman villas exist on the south edge of Street near Marshalls Elm and Ivythorn. Buried remains of a Roman road were excavated in the early 20th century on the flood-plain of the river Brue between Glastonbury and Street.

Early Christian

The parish churchyard is on the first flood-free ground near the river Brue and was probably the first land to be inhabited. The form of the large churchyard suggests a lan, a sacred area of a kind that was built in the first half of the 6th century.

One biography of St Gildas has the saint spending some time in Glastonbury Abbey, and moving to a site by the river, where he built a chapel to the Holy Trinity and there died. The Parish Church, now Holy Trinity, has at times been known as St Gildas' church.

Middle Ages

Glastonbury Abbey controlled Street until the Dissolution.

Governance

The parish council is responsible for some local issues, and sets an annual precept (local rate) to cover its council’s operating costs. The parish council evaluates local planning applications and works with the local police, district council officers, and neighbourhood watch groups on matters of crime, security, and traffic. The parish council also initiates projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, and consults with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning. Conservation (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also the responsibility of the council.

Having previously been part of Street Urban District, the village now falls within the Non-metropolitan district of Mendip, which was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, , and is responsible for local planning and building control, local roads, council housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection and recycling, cemeteries and crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism.

Somerset County Council is responsible for the largest and most expensive local services such as education, social services, libraries, main roads, public transport, policing and fire services, trading standards, waste disposal and strategic planning.

Street is in the Wells parliamentary constituency, which elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system, and at the next general election in 2010 will become part of the Bridgwater and West Somerset constituency. Street is also in the South West England constituency of the European Parliament which elects six MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.

C&J Clark

An entrance to Clarks Village

The Society of Friends established itself here in the mid 17th century, and among the close-knit group of Quaker families were the Clarks: Cyrus started a business in sheepskin rugs, later joined by his brother James, who introduced the production of woollen slippers and, later, boots and shoes. Under James's son, William, the business flourished, but most of the profits were ploughed back into employee welfare, housing and education.

C&J Clark still has its headquarters in Street, behind a frontage which includes the clock tower and water tower, but shoes are no longer manufactured there. Instead, in 1993, redundant factory buildings were converted to form Clarks Village, the first purpose-built factory outlet in the United Kingdom. Despite strong concerns being voiced by local retailers at the time, the retail outlets have not led to a demise of the existing shops. The Shoe Museum provides information about the history of Clarks and footwear manufacture in general.

The Clark family mansion and its estate at the edge of the village are now owned by Millfield School. The company, through the Society of Friends, also had its own small sanatorium and convalescent home on Ivythorne Hill overlooking the town. In 1931 this chalet style building was leased to the Youth Hostel Association and became the first youth hostel in Somerset. It is still used for this purpose.

Education

• Crispin School is a secondary school teaching 11–16 year old students from Street and many local villages.
• Hoe's college is a further education college.
• Millfield School is an independent co-educational boarding school with a strong focus on sport.

Primary infant/junior schools include Avalon, Brookside, Hindhayes, and Elmhurst.

Leisure

Street has two public swimming pools, one indoor and one outdoor. The indoor pool forms part of the Strode complex. The outdoor pool, Greenbank, is open daily from early May until mid September each year.

The only cinema in Street was closed down and converted into a nightclub in the 1990s. Strode Theatre, linked to the Crispin School and Strode College complex, is now the only place to see films, exhibitions and live performances.

Even before the opening of Clarks Village, Street was notable for its number of shoe and sheepskin shops.

Religious sites

The Anglican Parish Church of The Holy Trinity dates from the 14th century but underwent extensive restoration in the 19th century. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building.

Friends' Meeting House

The Quaker Friends Meeting House was built in 1850, by J. Francis Cottrell of Bath.

External links

• Street at Curlie