Kingston St Mary

  • St. Mary’s church

    Kingston is called ‘St Mary’ after its fine old church. Its high tower looks over the village.

  • Bench on the village green

    ..and today. The seat round the tree tells us why Kingston is a good place to live.

  • Fields on the edge of Kingston St Mary.

    It has rich soil, and plenty of water, which is good for farming.

  • Road sign in Kingston St Mary.

    There were good things under the ground too, like stone and slate. This lane led to a copper mine.

  • Old photo of Kingston St Mary.

    The copper in the soil gave a special taste to the apples grown in Kingston. People still enjoy a drink of cider at the Swan Inn. You can see the Swan Inn at the left of this old postcard.

  • Limestone milestone

    How many miles to Taunton?

  • Cob-built house

    The buildings help to tell us the story of Kingston.

  • Manor House

    There was plenty of good building stone around Kingston.

  • When the Manor House was a farmhouse, this building was a coach house with a granary above. In the 20th century it was changed into a house, but the pigeons’ nesting holes were kept.

    This house used to be a grain-store, a coach house and a home for pigeons!

  • The Grange

    This strange house includes parts of an old church.

  • Tetton House

    This 8-sided house is at the entrance to Tetton Park,

  • This row of 6 homes was built in the early 1800s, with a carriage-way through to the back. It would have seemed a lovely ‘modern’ replacement for the old tumbledown cob cottages.

    In the middle of this row of cottages is the way in for a horse!

  • The Old Bakery

    There used to be more shops in Kingston.

  • Local shops help keep small communities alive.

    Today this shop and post office is just an ordinary house.

  • Village Post Office

    But Kingston still has a post office.

  • When people started using cars and tractors instead of horses, many village blacksmiths became car mechanics instead.

    This used to be the Blacksmith’s. Horses came here to be shod. Now cars come here to be fixed!

  • The new village school

    At Mill Cross, outside the village, were a mill and a brewery.

    Here is the new village school.

  • Students from King Alfred’s college, Winchester have excavated sites around Kingston and Yarford. They have found evidence that people have lived and farmed here for thousands of years.

    Archaeologists looking for clues about the people who lived here before the village began.