Curry Rivel

The Church of St Andrew in Curry Rivel, Somerset, England dates from the 13th century and is designated as a Grade I listed building. It was included in Simon Jenkins England's Thousand Best Churches.The oldest part of the church is the north chapel which is Norman, however there may have been an earlier Saxon church on the same site. Most of the church is from the 15th century. An earlier tower was demolished and rebuilt in 1861 when the interior was also refashioned. Within the tower are eight bells, the oldest of which is from 1510.The interior includes several 13th century monuments and a parclose screen.The Anglican parish is within the benefice of Curry Rivel with Fivehead and Swell, within the Taunton archdeaconry.

Drayton is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, focussed less than a mile from Curry Rivel and five miles southwest of Somerton in the South Somerset district. It adjoins the River Isle, near its confluence with the Parrett, and the former Westport Canal. The parish includes the hamlet of Midelney. The village has a population of 379 and is home to St Catherine's parish church and the Drayton Crown pub.

The Church of St Catherine in Drayton, Somerset, England dates from the 15th century. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.St Catherine's exterior is blue lias and golden hamstone. It was restored in 1855 by Maurice Davis of Langport and again in 1896.The 15th-century cross in the churchyard has a sculpture of St Michael with a sword and shield in the act of vanquishing a dragon.In 2002 plans to put a new floor in the tower provoked objections from parishioners and was eventually resolved by the Ecclesiastical Court.The rectory, known as Drayton Court, which dates from the early 19th century, is now a private house.The parish is part of the benefice covered by the Langport Area Team Ministry within the deanery of Ivelchester.

The 140 feet (43 m) Burton Pynsent Monument on Troy Hill at Burton Pynsent, within the parish of Curry Rivel, Somerset, England, was built in 1767 and has been designated as a Grade I listed building.Alternative names for the tower, which stands on Troy Hill, a spur of high ground about 700 m north-east of Burton Pynsent House, include the Curry Rivel Column, Pynsent Column, Pynsent Steeple or Cider Monument.The monument, which is clad in Portland Stone, was designed by Capability Brown and built by Philip Pear, at a cost of £2,000, for William Pitt as a monument to Sir William Pynsent, of the Pynsent Baronets. There is a legend that Pynsent was grateful to Pitt for opposing a ten shilling tax on a hogshead of cider (1763 Cider Bill), which would have affected his business, so on his death he left his entire estate to Pitt. However, Pynsent signed his will before the Cider Tax was ever proposed. Pitt certainly opposed the tax, but that was because the legislation would have allowed the Revenue men to enter people's homes to check whether cider was being made, and he believed that an Englishman's home is his castle and no-one should enter uninvited. Pitt then used some of the income from the estate (£3000 per annum) to erect the monument to his benefactor. In June 1948 it was reported that a heifer climbed the 172 steps to the top of the monument, but was later returned safely to her hillside pasture.The tower was restored in the 1990s by the John Paul Getty Trust and English Heritage.

Aller is a village and parish in Somerset, England, situated 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Somerton on the A372 road towards Bridgwater in the South Somerset district. The village has a population of 410. The parish includes the hamlet of Beer (sometimes Bere or Bere Aller) and the deserted medieval village of Oath on the opposite bank of the River Parrett.

The Anglican Church of St Andrew in Aller, Somerset, England, was built in the 11th century. It is a Grade II* listed building.

The Warehouse in Great Bow Yard Langport, Somerset, England is an example of Victorian industrial architecture. The Warehouse was built in the late 18th century of English bond red brick, with Flemish bond extensions. It has clay plain tile roofs with hipped ends. It was built by the Parrett Navigation Company, a trading Company owned by Vincent Stuckey and Walter Bagehot, on the banks of the River Parrett. When the river became unnavigable the buildings usefulness waned and was eventually abandoned. The Somerset Trust for Sustainable Development, now the Ecos Trust, purchased the site, designated as a brown field site, in February 2003, and worked with Somerset Buildings Preservation Trust (SBPT), English Heritage and local councils to redevelop it into a craft, heritage learning and small business centre, with the surrounding land being used for an eco-friendly housing development.It is a grade II listed building.

Burton Pynsent House is a historic country-house in the parish of Curry Rivel, Somerset, England. It is a Grade II* listed building. The house was built in stages between 1565 and 1765, when it was bequeathed to William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham by Sir William Pynsent, 2nd Baronet, who did not want the house to go to Lord North. Pitt had an additional wing built to a design by Lancelot Brown, and the subsequent owner demolished everything but this wing in 1805. The house was extended around this wing in the 20th century, overlooking the 98 hectares (240 acres) of formal gardens and parkland. To the northwest of the house is Burton Pynsent Monument, a 140 feet (43 m) column with an urn finial, built to commemorate Pynsent's generosity to Pitt.

Midelney Manor in Drayton, Somerset, England was built in the late 16th century in two distinct halves by Richard and Thomas Trevillian. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.The manor house is sited on a former island site, and was the property of Muchelney Abbey, passing to the Trevillian family after the dissolution of the monasteries. The building incorporates fragments of an earlier medieval building on the site which burned down.At the rear of the house is an 18th-century falcon mews.In 1985 the Manor was the venue for a television quiz series in which guests identify the origin and use of various artifacts.

Hambridge and Westport is a civil parish in Somerset, England. It had a population of 514 in 2011. The parish includes the villages of Hambridge and Westport, and is in the South Somerset district.

Earnshill House in Hambridge, near Curry Rivel, Somerset, England is a manor house, set in parkland. It was built in 1725 for Henry Combe, a Bristol merchant by John Strachan. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.

The River Isle (also known as the River Ile) flows from its source near Combe St Nicholas, through Somerset, England and discharges into the River Parrett south of Langport near Midelney. Several small springs merge into the river near Wadeford it then flows north past Donyatt, Ilminster, Puckington, and Isle Abbotts, before joining the Parrett. The first section of the river falls 250 feet (76 m) in 6 miles (9.7 km) and then falls less steeply falling 80 feet (24 m) during the subsequent 8 miles (13 km). As a result, several mills were built on the upper reaches of the river. At least one mill was in existence at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086. These mills were an important part of the local economy connecting with the wool trade.The road bridge over the river at Knowle St Giles is a Grade II listed building.A lock was built at the junction with the River Parrett, to maintain water levels, when the Westport Canal was built in the 1830s. The canal joins the river approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) before the confluence with the Parrett.Chard Reservoir was built by damming the river in the 1840s to provide water for the Chard Canal.