Freshford, Somerset

The Anglican Church of St Peter in Freshford within the English county of Somerset dates from the 15th century. It is a Grade II* listed building.Parts of St Peter's Church, which is on the north side of the village, date back to the fifteenth century. The three stage tower, which is supported by diagonal buttresses, was added in 1514. The church underwent Victorian restoration by Charles Edward Davis.The churchyard has a number of Georgian chest tombs, dating from the late 18th and early 19th century, four of which are listed in their own right.The parish is part of the benefice of Freshford with Limpley Stoke and Hinton Charterhouse within the Diocese of Bath and Wells.

Freshford Manor is an early 18th century house in Freshford, Somerset, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.The two-storey Cotswold stone house, designed by Thomas Greenway, was built on the site of a previous house. A new wing at the rear of the house was built in the early 19th century and the north wing was added in the 1880s. By the 1950s the house and garden were derelict and under threat of demolition; however, it was bought and restored. One of the owners was William Francis Patrick Napier who wrote part of his History of the Peninsular War at a stone table in the garden of the house.

Freshford railway station is a railway station serving the village of Freshford, Bath and North East Somerset, England. It also serves the nearby village of Limpley Stoke in Wiltshire. The station has two platforms and is served by Great Western Railway. For many years the station had a notable flower garden maintained by the Vaisey sisters. This later faded but in 2007 local residents renovated the garden and planted new flowers in the memory of the Vaisey sisters. A few weeks later staff from Network Rail cut down all the flowers.In February 2006, Platform 2 at Freshford was raised by 30 cm to reduce the large stepping gap between the train and the platform. It had been lowered in 1988 as part of the realignment of the track through the station to allow trains to pass at a faster speed. At the same time the platform was raised, the station also received additional improvements including better lighting and the construction of a new waiting shelter.

The Friary is a small hamlet outside the English village of Freshford, about 6 miles (10 km) south of Bath, Somerset. Although closer to Freshford it lies within the parish of Hinton Charterhouse. The hamlet consists of two small fields named Church Close and Corn Close, which are bounded to the south by Friary Wood and to the north by the River Frome. There are five detached houses which are accessed by a narrow lane about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) long, known locally as the causeway, which descends steeply through Friary Wood from the Warminster Road originally called the Black Dog Turnpike. The name Friary comes from its relationship to the Carthusian priory at Hinton Charterhouse about one mile away, and was where the lay brothers lived. A larger village south of Frome called Witham Friary also has connections to the Carthusians. On some early texts and Ordnance Survey maps it is shown as Friary Green. An early map of Somerset dated 1782 records the name as Friery Green. But today it is known locally as simply Friary or The Friary. There are very little standing archaeological remains of the buildings used and lived in by the lay brothers but there is evidence of contemporary construction in one of the remaining cottages and the remains of a mill adjacent to the river Frome are still visible. The church of Church Close has disappeared and is thought to have been robbed of its stone to build the later mill at nearby Iford. However, examples of the stonemasons' art are regularly unearthered, including window tracery and mullions, and door surrounds which could only have come from a high status building such as a church. There is also evidence of fish ponds and buried walls belonging to other structures built during the lay brothers' occupation. The site has never been subject to detailed archaeological investigation. The lay brothers abandoned the site some time before the dissolution of the monasteries and it later became part of the Hinton Abbey Farm estate. A map of Hinton Abbey Farm dated 1785 shows dwellings now long since demolished together with the names of their occupants or tenants. Two of the names appearing on this map are Swift and Humphrys. These families were related. Both Swift and Humphrys (now spelt Humphries) were living in Friary (in the same dwelling) according to the 1901 census and Humphries were living in the nearby village of Hinton Charterhouse until the late 1900s. One Mercy Swift, recorded on the 1901 census as 14 years old, was still living in Friary until the 1950s when the house she occupied was demolished as unfit. At that time it had neither electricity nor running water. Water had to be fetched from a nearby spring known as Ela's Well which itself has significant legendary connections with the founding of the monastery at nearby Hinton. Ela was Countess of Salisbury and in addition to founding the priory at Hinton she also founded the abbey at Lacock. Today many of the dwellings in Friary still derive water supplies from a local spring although it now arrives via a network of pipes. Mercy Swift's house or at least the ruins of it are still visible alongside the bridle path that links Friary to Freshford and in spring her hidden garden still produces an unexpected show of spring bulbs.

The River Frome is a river in Somerset, England. It rises near Bungalow Farm on Cannwood Lane, south-west of Witham Friary, flows north through Blatchbridge to the town of Frome, and continues in a generally northerly direction passing between the eastern edge of the Mendip Hills and Trowbridge before joining the Bristol Avon at Freshford, below Bradford on Avon. The river is approximately 43 kilometres (27 mi) in length, comprising 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from its source to the confluence with Maiden Bradley Brook, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) through Frome to the confluence with the Mells River, and 18 kilometres (11 mi) to the Avon. Below Frome the river passes close to Beckington, Rode, Tellisford, Farleigh Hungerford and Iford Manor. The name Frome comes from the Old British word ffraw meaning fair, fine or brisk and describing the flow of the river. The name was first recorded in 701 when Pope Sergius gave permission to Bishop Aldhelm to found a monastery "close to the river which is called From" (Latin: "juxta fluvium qui vocatur From").

Winsley Mines (grid reference ST795607) is a 1.48 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest, near the village of Winsley in Wiltshire, England, notified in 1989. The site is a hibernation roost for the Greater Horseshoe bat, and forms part of the Bath and Bradford-on-Avon Bats Special Area of Conservation.

Limpley Stoke is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It lies in the Avon valley between Bath and Freshford, and is both above and below the A36 road. The parish is surrounded to the north, west and south by the Bath and North East Somerset district and includes the outskirts of the Somerset villages of Freshford and Midford. The Avon forms the eastern boundary of the parish, and its tributary the Midford Brook is the boundary in the north and west.

Limpley Stoke railway station is a former railway station in Limpley Stoke, Wiltshire, England, UK. The station was originally started by the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway, which was bought by the Great Western Railway before service started. The station served as a loading point for limestone from nearby quarries until 1960. Two camping coaches were positioned here by the Western Region from 1956 to 1957. The station closed in 1966, and the building is now in private hands. The line remains open, and has regular passenger service.

Hinton Priory was a Carthusian monastery in northeast Somerset, England, from 1232 until 1539.

Winsley is a large village and civil parish about 2 miles (3 km) west of Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire, England. The parish includes the hamlets of Conkwell, Turleigh, Little Ashley and Great Ashley.

Iford Manor (grid reference ST802589) is a manor house in Wiltshire, England. It is a Grade II* listed building sitting on the steep, south-facing slope of the Frome valley, in Westwood parish, about 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of the town of Bradford-on-Avon. Its Grade I registered gardens are open to the public from April to September each year. Iford was rated as among the "20 most beautiful villages in the UK and Ireland" by Condé Nast Traveler in 2020, with the manor taking "center stage".

Avoncliff Aqueduct (grid reference ST803599) carries the Kennet and Avon Canal over the River Avon and the Bath to Westbury railway, at Avoncliff in Wiltshire, England, about 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) west of Bradford-on-Avon. It was built by John Rennie and chief engineer John Thomas, between 1797 and 1801. It is a Grade II* listed structure.During construction, stone from a local quarry was used which split when affected by frost. This caused buttresses to collapse and parts of the structure to need rebuilding. Eventually Bath stone from Bathampton Down was used to ensure greater stability.The aqueduct has three arches and is 110 yards (100.6 m) long, with a central elliptical arch of 60 ft (18.3 m) span, and two semicircular side arches each 34 ft (10.4 m) across, all with V-jointed arch stones. The spandrel and wing walls are built in alternate courses of ashlar masonry and rock-faced blocks. The central span sagged soon after it was built and has been repaired many times.As part of the 20th-century restoration of the canal, the aqueduct was lined with a concrete "cradle" and made watertight in 1980.