Kilton, West Somerset

Close to the Quantock Hills, Kilton is a small hamlet close to Holford and Kilve There are four bells in the tower (not open), one dating form 1626 and two from 1845, but the dangerous state of the framework prevents their being rung. A barrel organ was purchased in 1862 from Bishops Hull near Taunton and after restoration in 1980 is now housed in St. Audries church, West Quantoxhead where it is occasionally brought into use. A tape recording of it is available from no. 6, Kilton. Outside over the south porch is a sundial with a barely decipherable inscription, ROBART GOVATT 17. At the edge of the churchyard, still standing in 1843, was the Church House (or Parish Hall), the centre of social activity of the village, built some time before 1594. Here for a week or two each year the Church Ale was brewed and the selling of this must have been the financial equivalent of our coffee mornings designed to swell church funds.

 Kilton Church - St Nicholas Wayfarers Church

The earliest mention of Kilton would seem to be in the will of King Alfred when he gave his estate here to his son Edward the Elder in 873. By 1086 it had passed to William de Mohun and descended with the barony of Dunster eventually passing to the Luttrell family.
Kilton is probably one of the earliest documented of the neighbouring parishes and the church was probably founded by1100. There is a charter in which Kilton is given to Dunster Priory by the King, William Rufus (1087-1100) and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Anselm. This is confirmed in a later charter with Archbishop Theobald whereby William de Mohun gives the tithes to the monastery of Bath.

There may have been an incumbent rector here in the early 1200s for Robert, the Prior of Bath (1198-1223) granted the messsuage (dwelling house with its outbuildings and land) in Kilton where the priests house used to be to John the parson for his life. A vicar had been appointed by 1276 and a vicarage was instituted in 1283. Nothing is known of the site of this house but by 1626 there was a church dwelling made up of an entry hall, kitchen and buttery with three rooms overhead, and farm buildings. By 1815 it was unfit for habitation, being "old, mean and neglected". It was rebuilt before 1831 and extended in 1859. (It is now No 5, Kilton.) There still remains a raised path with a footbridge over the stream.

 Contributed by: Ian Brown