Clevedon: Guide, Hotels, Map & Photos
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GBP 46 - 99 Warrens Village Ltd
 The family-run Warrens Village offers self-catering accommodation in holiday chalets or lodges. There is an on-site restaurant, a bar and free private… MoreGBP 59 - 105 Walton Park Hotel
 Walton Park has a stunning cliff-top location, overlooking the Severn Estuary and Welsh Hills. It has spacious bedrooms, free private parking and free… MoreGBP 49 - 83 The Highcliffe Hotel
 Perfectly situated on the seafront, The Highcliffe Hotel is in a tranquil area of Clevedon near the picturesque pier, with good access to the M5 motor… MoreGBP 39 - 55 Bridge Inn New Lodge
 Close to the M5, Bridge Inn is a countryside lodge with free parking, spacious rooms and a restaurant. It is ideal for families and about 9 miles from… More | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Clevedon: Guide
For the New Zealand town, see Clevedon, New Zealand
:Clevedon may easily be confused with Cliveden in Buckinghamshire
Clevedon is a town in North Somerset, England.
The name derives from the Saxon language|Saxon, 'Cleve' meaning Cleave or Cleft and 'don' meaning hill, the town being situated amongst a group of small hills alongside the Bristol Channel. The town has a population of 23,000 according to the United Kingdom|UK government census of 2001.
History
Clevedon was mentioned in the Domesday book (1086) as being a holding of a tenant in chief by the name of Mathew of Mortaigne, and was listed at that time as having eight villagers, and ten smallholders.
Saint Andrew|St. Andrew's church, on a hill in the west of the town, was built in the thirteenth century AD, although there are thought to be Saxon foundations under the present building. It is the burial place of Arthur Hallam, subject of the poem In Memoriam by his friend Alfred Tennyson. Other literary figures associated with the town are Samuel Taylor Coleridge (who spent some months living in a cottage in the town after his marriage to Sarah Fricker), William Makepeace Thackeray (a frequent guest of the Elton family at Clevedon Court), and George Gissing (The Odd Women is set in the town).
Clevedon Court lies at the other end of the town, close to the road to Bristol. It is one of only a few remaining fourteenth century manorial halls in England, having been built by Sir John de Clevedon circa 1320. Since the early eighteenth century the house has been owned by the Elton family, who were responsible for much building work on the house and many improvements in the town, and although the house itself is now owned by the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty|National Trust, the associated estates are still owned by the Elton family. Sir Edmund Elton (1846-1920) was a well-regarded potter who produced unusually-shaped ware in a variety of richly-coloured glazes, including a gold glaze of his own invention. A clock tower in the centre of the town is decorated with "Elton ware".
During the Victorian era Clevedon became a popular seaside resort|seaside town, and Clevedon Pier|a pier was opened in 1869, one of the earliest examples of a Victorian pier still in existence in England. The seafront stretches for approximately half a mile from the pier to Salthouse Field, and includes ornamental gardens, a Victorian bandstand, a marine lake (occasionally used for boating), a bowling green, tennis courts and other amusements. Salthouse Field has a light railway running round the perimeter and is still used for donkey rides during the summer. The shore at Clevedon is a mixture of pebbled beaches and low rocky cliffs. "Poet's Walk" is a footpath around Wains Hill and Church Hill, to the southwest of the seafront, and the upper part of the town contains many other footpaths through parks and wooded areas which were laid out in the nineteenth century. The Victorian craze for bathing in the sea was catered for in the late 19th century by saltwater baths adjacent to the pier (since demolished, though the foundations can still be seen), and bathing machines on the main beach.
Clevedon was served by a short Clevedon branch line|branch line from the main railway at Yatton, opened in 1847, six years after the main line itself. This continued in operation for passengers until 1961, and the site of the station is now Queen's Square, a shopping precinct. Another railway also served the town, the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Light Railway, which opened in 1897 and closed in 1940. Trains crossed the road at The Triangle, preceded by a man with a red flag.
At the dawn of the twentieth century Clevedon was still a popular resort and the Curzon cinema was built, thought to be the oldest purpose-built, continuously operated movie theatre|cinema in the world.
The rocky beach and the sedate nature of the amusements on offer meant that Clevedon lost almost all of its residential holiday trade by the middle of the twentieth century, though it is still a popular resort for day-trippers.
The modern town
Clevedon is now part of the North Somerset unitary authority, having formerly been part of Somerset, and between 1974 and 1996 the county of Avon.
Clevedon has a certain amount of light industry, mainly in industrial estates near the M5 motorway junction, and it is also a dormitory town for Bristol. The Clerical Medical pensions and investments group has its headquarters in the town.
Clevedon Community School is a large secondary comprehensive school serving the whole town and the surrounding rural areas, and there are several primary schools in the town.
On a clear day there are far reaching views across the Bristol Channel to Wales, when the visibility is particularly good the island of Lundy can be seen.
External links
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This "Travel Guide" section is drawn from the Wikipedia article "Clevedon". We hope you will edit and improve it. It is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.