47-511: Wincanton ( / ˈ w ɪ ŋ k æ n t ən / or / w ɪ ŋ ˈ k æ n t ən / ) is a town and electoral ward in South Somerset , southwest England . The town lies off the A303 road , a main route between London and South West England , and has some light industry . In the 2021 census the civil parish had a population of 6,568. The name of Wincanton is first attested in 1084, in
94-463: A Children's Centre for Wincanton and South East Somerset. The (War) Memorial Hall, which opened on 9 January 1959, has a stage as well as facilities for dancing or for seating 250. It also has a separate committee room that can seat 50. Fire, police and ambulance services are provided jointly with other authorities through the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service , Avon and Somerset Constabulary and
141-643: A Sunday team. The rugby union club plays at King Arthur's Community School in the town. In 2010 they won the Dorset & Wilts division of the English Rugby Union South West Division. Wincanton is unusual in that it was twinned in 2002 with a town which can only be found in fiction . As well as with Gennes / Les Rosiers in France and Lahnau in Germany, Wincanton is twinned with Ankh-Morpork ,
188-528: A castle. In Wales, the term electoral ward is used for elections to principal councils ( county councils or county borough councils ). These were formally called electoral divisions . Communities in Wales (the equivalent to the civil parish in England) are sometimes divided into wards for elections to the community council. All of Scotland is divided into over 300 wards for local government elections. Using
235-529: A creamery and milk processing plant in the town, but has sold the cheese business to Adams Foods Ltd, producer of the Pilgrim's Choice brand of Cheddar cheese . Several businesses are located in Wincanton, such as Coffee Sense Coffee Roasters who won a Guild of Fine Food Great Taste Award Winner in 2017 and Boxclever Press Ltd who gained Royal recognition in 2019 when they were awarded a Queen's Award for Enterprise in
282-427: A dedicated teaching area, counselling and interview rooms and a studio space for physical and community activities. The Church of St Peter and St Paul was almost totally rebuilt in 1887-91 by J. D. Sedding ; however, parts of the tower may be remnants of an earlier church, dating from 1313, on the same site. In 1793 the tower was raised by 12 feet (4 m) making it 50 feet (15 m) high; five bells were cast and
329-641: A fictional city state near the Circle Sea on Terry Pratchett 's Discworld . On 5 April 2009, a number of roads on a new housing development were given names taken from Ankh-Morpork, such as Peach Pie Street and Treacle Mine Road , after a short-list was voted upon by fans. There are shops in the town selling Discworld-related goods. In 2015 the Uncle Tom's Cabin pub unveiled a sign by Discworld illustrator Richard Kingston referencing The Mended Drum . Pratchett and Kingston were regulars. The other Pratchett connection
376-575: A market and fair charter until 1556. The town was the scene of one of the few armed skirmishes in England during the Revolution of 1688 . In the Wincanton Skirmish a troop of Horse Guards under Patrick Sarsfield , loyal to James II , defeated an advance party of troops fighting for William of Orange , on 20 November 1688. A great part of the town was destroyed by fires in the years 1707 and 1747. In
423-453: A sixth added. The additional carving and north porch were added in subsequent years. The churchyard includes a self-designed monument to the local architect Nathaniel Ireson who died in 1796. Because of the state of the roofs, which are under repair, the church is included on the Heritage at Risk Register . The Roman Catholic Church and Presbytery of St Luke and St Teresa was built in 1881 by
470-576: A two-tier arrangement. Non-metropolitan districts with borough status are known as boroughs , able to appoint a mayor and refer to itself as a borough council. Some shire counties now have no sub divisions so are a single Non-metropolitan district such as Cornwall. Typically a district will consist of a market town and its more rural hinterland. However districts are diverse with some being mostly urban such as Dartford, and others more polycentric such as Thurrock. Non-metropolitan districts are subdivisions of English non-metropolitan counties which have
517-461: A two-tier structure of local government. Two-tier non-metropolitan counties have a county council and several districts, each with a borough or district council. In these cases local government functions are divided between county and district councils, to the level where they can be practised most efficiently: Many districts have borough status , which means the local council is called a borough council instead of district council and gives them
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#1732852424540564-966: Is divided into wards, which are ancient and very long-standing sub-divisions of the city. The Council of the Isles of Scilly is also a sui generis unitary authority, and has five wards, each returning either 1 or (in the case of St Mary's ) 12 councillors to the Council of the Isles of Scilly. Civil parishes in England are sometimes divided into wards for elections to the parish council (or town / city council ). They need not bear any relation to wards or electoral divisions at district level, but often do. The four most northerly ancient counties of England – Cumberland , Westmorland , County Durham and Northumberland – were historically divided into administrative units called wards instead of hundreds or wapentakes , as in other counties. Wards were areas originally organised for military purposes, each centred on
611-541: Is in the neighbouring parish of Charlton Musgrove . Wincanton has a Non-League football club Wincanton Town F.C. who play at the Wincanton Sports Ground on Moor Lane. The Sports Ground in Moor Lane also provides facilities for tennis and bowls . Wincanton Sports Centre was opened in 2001, funded by a National Lottery grant. The cricket club, which plays in the recreation ground, has two Saturday teams and
658-584: Is less clear. It is first attested in a fourteenth-century copy of a charter from 956, where it appears in the forms Cawel and Wricawel , the latter of which is agreed to be a scribal error for *Wincawel . The leading suggestion for the origin of this name is that cawel is the Brittonic word, meaning "basket", found in Cornish as cawal and Welsh as cawell (borrowed from the Latin word * cavellum 'basket'). If so,
705-533: Is responsible for running the largest and most expensive local services such as education, social services, the library, roads, public transport, trading standards and waste disposal. It is part of Glastonbury and Somerton , a constituency of the House of Commons . The current member of parliament is the Liberal Democrats politician Sarah Dyke . Prior to Brexit in 2020, residents of Wincanton also formed part of
752-634: Is to be found in Cale Park. A new bridge was built over the River Cale from the main park to the Children's recreation area. The name 'Troll Bridge' was chosen by the public from a list of nominations. This refers to a short story written by Terry Pratchett and a short film of the same name made by Snowgum Films. Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom The wards and electoral divisions in
799-584: The District Councils' Network , special interest group which sits within the Local Government Association . The network's purpose is to "act as an informed and representative advocate for districts to government and other national bodies, based on their unique position to deliver for local people." This is a list of two-tier non-metropolitan counties and their districts. All unitary authorities are also non-metropolitan districts, which, with
846-469: The Isle of Wight and Shropshire Councils ) instead use the term electoral division . In non-metropolitan county areas with both wards (used for district council elections) and electoral divisions (used for county council elections), the boundaries of the two types of divisions may sometimes not coincide, but more often the county electoral divisions will be made up of one or more complete wards. In urban areas,
893-484: The Local Government (Boundaries) (NI) Order 1972 (No. 131) and DEAs were first created by the Local Government (District Electoral Areas) Regulations 1973 (No.94) Non-metropolitan district Non-metropolitan districts , or colloquially " shire districts ", are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties (colloquially shire counties ) in
940-464: The Mendip TV transmitter. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Somerset on 95.5 FM, Heart West on 102.6 FM, Greatest Hits Radio South West (formerly The Breeze ) on 106.6 FM, Abbey104 on 104.7 FM and Radio Ninesprings, a community based station which broadcast to the town on 104.5 FM. The town is served by the local newspaper, Western Gazette which publishes Thursdays. Primary education up to
987-486: The South Western Ambulance Service . Wincanton is situated on the northeast edge of Blackmore Vale , 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Yeovil , and 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Shaftesbury on the extreme southeast of Somerset close to the borders of Dorset and Wiltshire . Along with the rest of South West England , Wincanton has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than
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#17328524245401034-637: The single transferable vote , most wards elect either three or four councillors. Starting from the 2022 Scottish local elections , the Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020 , allows electoral wards to have between one and five councillors. Districts in Northern Ireland are divided into electoral areas, with each electing between five and seven councillors by single transferable vote. These are themselves sub-divided into wards, but these wards have no official function. Post-1973 wards were first created by
1081-534: The International Trade category The Dogs (also called The Old House) was built around 1650, and was reshaped internally by Nathaniel Ireson in 1740–50. It is a grade I listed building . Wincanton Town Hall , the third on its site, was completed in 1878. The town had a railway station on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway but this closed on 7 March 1966. The town is north of the A303 road , one of
1128-780: The Selwood Ridge. Prior to the Norman Conquest Wincanton was frequently the scene of battles between the Britons , Danes and Saxons . During the reign of Edmund Ironside , the English, under his command, defeated the Danes, forcing them to leave England. Cockroad Wood Castle , which is now in the parish of Charlton Musgrove , was a motte and bailey castle, probably built after the Norman conquest of England of 1066. The castle sits close to
1175-518: The UK. An average area of wards or electoral divisions in the United Kingdom is 28.109 km (10.853 sq mi). The London boroughs , metropolitan boroughs and non-metropolitan districts (including most unitary authorities ) are divided into wards for local elections. However, county council elections (as well as those for several unitary councils which were formerly county councils, such as
1222-588: The United Kingdom are electoral districts at sub-national level, represented by one or more councillors . The ward is the primary unit of English electoral geography for civil parishes and borough and district councils, the electoral ward is the unit used by Welsh principal councils , while the electoral division is the unit used by English county councils and some unitary authorities . Each ward/division has an average electorate of about 5,500 people, but ward population counts can vary substantially. As of 2021 there are 8,694 electoral wards/divisions in
1269-561: The age of 11 is offered by Wincanton Primary School and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Primary School. The history of Wincanton Primary began in 1833 when an appeal was launched to provide a National school in Wincanton and after a number of difficulties the school was built in North Street in 1838, although this had very few pupils. A school board was formed in 1871 and opened a school in the former National school buildings with over 200 pupils. In 1875 there were 206 children attending. In 1894
1316-449: The areas for Wales and England had been enacted separately and there were no Welsh metropolitan areas, the term 'non-metropolitan district' does not apply to Wales. A similar system existed in Scotland , which in 1975 was divided into regions and districts, this was also abolished in 1996 and replaced with a fully unitary system . In England most of the district councils are represented by
1363-501: The baskets were perhaps fish-traps , and the river was named for their use in it. The win- element is the Brittonic word meaning "white", and was not necessarily used literally: different arms of the same river were regularly distinguished by being labelled "white" and "black" (as in the rivers Whiteadder and Blackadder ). Windmill Hill was the site of a Bronze Age Beaker culture burial, and contemporary artefacts have been found on
1410-479: The board raised money for a new school to accommodate 445 children, which opened in South Street in 1897. Wincanton has one secondary school , King Arthur's School , which is Somerset's first specialist Sports College . The Balsam Centre is a Healthy Living Centre and also a Children's Centre. Since 2005 it has received grants for the re-fitting of the training kitchen and construction and refurbishment to create
1457-494: The contemporary Norman castles of Ballands and Castle Orchard, and may have been built as part of a system of fortifications to control the surrounding area. By 1086 the surrounding land was held by Walter of Douai , although no documentary evidence of the castle remains. The parish of Wincanton was part of the Norton Ferris Hundred . Wincanton was probably the site of a market in the medieval period but did not gain
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1504-421: The council's operating costs and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The town council evaluates local planning applications and works with the local police, district council officers, and neighbourhood watch groups on matters of crime, security, and traffic; their role also includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, as well as consulting with the district council on
1551-571: The early 19th century Wincanton was a depot for French officers, during the Napoleonic Wars. By 2010 there had been an influx of foreign nationals, especially Portuguese and Polish citizens. Wincanton is within the area of Somerset County Council and the Non-metropolitan district of South Somerset , with its own town council . The town council has responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept (local rate) to cover
1598-681: The electorate for the South West England constituency for elections to the European Parliament . Wincanton Community Hospital in Dancing Lane was formerly known as Verrington Hospital and in March 2015 had 28 beds on two wards plus intermediate care unit. It opened as an Isolation Hospital in September 1910 for patients with scarlet fever . The Balsam Centre is a Healthy Living Centre and also
1645-487: The exception of those of Berkshire , are coterminous with non-metropolitan counties. For a full list of districts of all types including unitary authorities, metropolitan districts and London boroughs , see Districts of England . This is a list of former two-tier districts in England which have been abolished, by local government reorganisations such as the 2009 structural changes to local government in England . It does not include districts that still exist after becoming
1692-507: The forms Wincainietone and Wincautone . In the Domesday Book of 1086, the name is spelled Wincaleton . The town's name comes from the name of the River Cale, which runs through the town and was in Old English called Wincawel , combined with the Old English word tūn , "estate, settlement". It thus once meant "estate on the River Cale". The origin of the name of the River Cale itself
1739-566: The highest mean wind speeds, with June to August having the lightest winds. The predominant wind direction is from the southwest. In the late 1890s the West Surrey Central Dairy Company purchased a local creamery . In 1908, after developing a dried milk baby powder, it changed its name to Cow & Gate . The creamery and dairy products factory had its own sidings from the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway station , providing access for milk trains . In order to cope with
1786-581: The main routes between London and South West England . The nearest railway stations are in neighbouring Templecombe railway station on the Exeter to Waterloo line , and Castle Cary railway station on the Reading to Taunton and Heart of Wessex lines. The town is served twice daily by Berrys Coaches 'Superfast' service to and from London. Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West and ITV West Country . Television signals are received from
1833-530: The maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning. Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also the responsibility of the council. The South Somerset district council is responsible for local planning and building control, local roads, council housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection and recycling, cemeteries and crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism. Somerset County Council
1880-407: The number of hours of sunshine. The average annual sunshine totals around 1,600 hours. Rainfall tends to be associated with Atlantic depressions or with convection. The Atlantic depressions are more vigorous in autumn and winter and most of the rain which falls in those seasons in the southwest is from this source. Average rainfall is about 725 millimetres (28.5 in). November to March have
1927-564: The priest/architect A.J.C Scoles. There are also places of worship for Pentecostals , Methodists , Baptists and Quakers in the town. Wincanton Museum is a small local museum in the High Street which closed in 2010. You can now visit some of the items which were in the museum in the library which is situated in Carrington Way. The cartoonist Tony Weare was born in Wincanton. The town gives its name to Wincanton Racecourse which
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1974-491: The rest of the country. The annual mean temperature is about 10 °C (50 °F ); due to the modifying effect of the sea the range is less than in most other parts of the UK. January is the coldest month with mean minimum temperatures between 1 °C (34 °F) and 2 °C (36 °F). July and August are the warmest months in the region with mean daily maxima around 21 °C (70 °F). Convective cloud often forms inland however, especially near hills, reducing
2021-565: The right to appoint a mayor . Borough status is granted by royal charter and, in many cases, continues a style enjoyed by a predecessor authority, which can date back centuries. Some districts such as Oxford or Exeter have city status , granted by letters patent , but this does not give the local council any extra powers other than the right to call itself a city council . By 1899, England had been divided at district level into rural districts , urban districts , municipal boroughs , county boroughs and metropolitan boroughs . This system
2068-481: The transport problems across its quickly expanding creamery, milk bottling and doorstep delivery network, Cow & Gate formed a dedicated logistics arm in 1920. Spun out in 2002 from successor company Unigate , Wincanton plc is now a major logistics company. The company still has a dairy products base in the town, although its head office function moved to Chippenham, Wiltshire in 2005. In 1999, Unigate sold its remaining dairies to Dairy Crest , which still has
2115-526: The two-tier structure, but reforms in the 1990s and 2009 reduced their number to 192. A further 55 non-metropolitan districts are now unitary authorities, which combine the functions of county and borough/district councils. In Wales , an almost identical two-tier system of local government existed between 1974 and 1996 (see Districts of Wales ). In 1996, this was abolished and replaced with an entirely unitary system of local government, with one level of local government responsible for all local services. Since
2162-558: The wards within a local authority area typically each contain roughly the same number of electors, and each elect three councillors. In local authorities with mixed urban and rural areas, the number of councillors may vary from one to three, depending on the size of the electorate. Where civil parishes exist, a ward can be adjacent with a civil parish or consist of groups of civil parishes. Larger civil parishes (such as Shrewsbury ) can be divided into two or more wards. The City of London has its own sui generis form of local government and
2209-673: Was abolished by the London Government Act 1963 and the Local Government Act 1972 . Non-metropolitan districts were created by this act in 1974 when England outside Greater London was divided into metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan counties. Metropolitan counties were sub-divided into metropolitan districts and the non-metropolitan counties were sub-divided into non-metropolitan districts. The metropolitan districts had more powers than their non-metropolitan counterparts. Initially, there were 296 non-metropolitan districts in
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