25 Facts About Somerset

Somerset is a county in South West England which borders Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east and Devon to the south-west.

Somerset is currently formed of six council areas, of which two are unitary authorities, until the four second-tier district councils are merged on 1 April 2023, after which the county will comprise three unitary authorities.

Somerset is a rural county of rolling hills, the Blackdown Hills, Mendip Hills, Quantock Hills and Exmoor National Park, and large flat expanses of land including the Somerset Levels.

Somerset's name derives from Old English Sumorsæte, short for Sumortunsæte, meaning "the people living at or dependent on Sumortun ".

Somerset was a shire of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and the phrase refers to the wholehearted support the people of Somerset gave to King Alfred in his struggle to save Wessex from Viking invaders.

Related searches

Somerset came under the political influence of several different nobles during the Middle Ages.

Somerset contains HM Prison Shepton Mallet, which was England's oldest prison still in use prior to its closure in 2013, having opened in 1610.

Boundaries of Somerset are very similar to how they were in medieval times.

Much of the landscape of Somerset falls into types determined by the underlying geology.

The Somerset Coalfield is part of a larger coalfield which stretches into Gloucestershire.

Somerset Levels are a sparsely populated wetland area of central Somerset, between the Quantock and Mendip hills.

The highest point in Somerset is Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor, with a maximum elevation of 519 metres .

Over 100 sites in Somerset have been designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

From 1984 to 1994, Somerset was represented by Conservative Margaret Daly as part of the Somerset and Dorset West constituency for elections to the European Parliament.

From 1994 to 1999, Somerset was represented by Liberal Democrat Graham Watson as part of the Somerset and North Devon constituency for elections to the European Parliament.

From 1999 to 2020, Somerset was part of the South West England constituency for elections to the European Parliament.

Somerset has few industrial centres, but it does have a variety of light industry and high technology businesses, along with traditional agriculture and an increasingly important tourism sector, resulting in an unemployment rate of 2.

Somerset is an important supplier of defence equipment and technology.

All of the ceremonial county of Somerset is covered by the Avon and Somerset Police, a police force which covers Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance is a charitable organisation based in the county.

Somerset songs were collected by Cecil Sharp and incorporated into works such as Holst's A Somerset Rhapsody.

Flag of Somerset, representing the ceremonial county, has been registered with the Flag Institute following a competition in July 2013.

The main train operator in Somerset is Great Western Railway, with other services operated by South Western Railway and CrossCountry.

Two branch lines, the West and East Somerset Railways, were rescued and transferred back to private ownership as "heritage" lines.

The Somerset LEA provides special schools such as Newbury Manor School, which caters for children aged between 10 and 17 with special educational needs.

Related searches