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Preston Plucknett
Preston Plucknett
	Church of St James, Preston Plucknett
	Preston Plucknett Location within Somerset
OS grid reference	ST535165
Civil parish	Yeovil;
Unitary authority	Somerset;
Ceremonial county	Somerset;
Region	South West;
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	YEOVIL
Postcode district	BA21
Dialling code	01935
Police	Avon and Somerset
Fire	Devon and Somerset
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	Yeovil;
	List of places UK England Somerset 50°56′46″N 2°39′48″W / 50.9460°N 2.6632°W

Preston Plucknett is a suburb of Yeovil in Somerset, England. It was once a small village, and a separate civil parish until 31 March 1930, when it was absorbed into the neighbouring parishes of Yeovil, Brympton and West Coker.^[1] It was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Preston" (Old English: preost tun, "priest farm/settlement") when its lord was Ansger of Montacute (Alfward before 1066). In the 13th century, Alan de Plugenet was lord of the manor and added his surname to Preston. Following the 20th century expansion of Yeovil, Preston Plucknett became little more than a suburb of the town. Throughout the centuries the spelling and pronunciation of the name has changed and evolved until it became the present day "Preston Plucknett." The parish of Preston Plucknett was part of the Stone Hundred.^[2] In 1921 the parish had a population of 591.^[3]

The village church, dedicated to St James, dates from 1420, and has a 20 m (60 ft) tower with six bells. The church was restored and partially rebuilt during the 1860s. A vestry was added in the 1950s and an annexe in 1979, which was expanded in 2001. It became a separate parish church in 1988: until that time, it had been a church of St John’s, the parish church of Yeovil. It has a daughter church, St Peter's, built in the 1930s.

The tithe barn at Preston Plucknett was included in the fifth list of ancient monuments prepared by the Commissioner of Works in 1925.^[4] The Abbey Barn and associated Abbey Farm House are both Grade I listed buildings.^[5]

The still preserved manor house of Preston Plucknett was built in the early 15th century, around 1420, by John Stourton (d. 1438; cousin of his namesake John Stourton, 1st Baron Stourton), a justice of the peace, sheriff, and several times Member of Parliament for Somerset, who, helped by three good marriages, accumulated a respectable wealth. The manor was left to his third and surviving spouse, Katherine Payne, and eventually inherited by his three daughters, one of which, Alice, was married to Sir William Daubeney and was the mother of Giles Daubeney, 1st Baron Daubeney.

The village is included in The Meaning of Liff defined as "a very large string bag made of thin strong cord into which feathers from freshly killed ducks and chickens were stuffed, from Preston in Lancashire".

Notable people

Walter Raymond (1852-1931), the novelist and poet, lived at Sutherland House c.1892-1905.^[6]
John Sowerby (1823-1902), a botanist, writer, and early Alpine Club member, was Preston Plucknett's vicar from 1872 to 1884.

References

^ Vision of Britain website
^ "Somerset Hundreds". GENUKI. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
^ "Population statistics Preston Plucknett CP/Ch through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
^ The Times, 21 August 1925, p. 8.
^ Historic England. "Abbey Farm House (1056512)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 July 2009.
^ "Yeovil's Virtual Museum, the A-to-Z of Yeovil's History - by Bob Osborn". www.yeovilhistory.info. Retrieved 13 September 2023.

S. J. Gunn, "Daubeney, Giles, first Baron Daubeney (1451/2–1508)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 4 Dec 2005
G. L. Harriss, "Stourton family (per. c. 1380–1485)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2005 accessed 4 Dec 2005