Old Cleeve
village and civil parish in Somerset, England, UK
Old Cleeve is a village 5 miles (8 km) south east of Minehead in Somerset, England, and also a civil parish.
The civil parish of Old Cleeve covers an area of 2,092 hectares (5,170 acres) and includes the villages of Old Cleeve, Roadwater and Washford as well as hamlets such as Bilbrook, Chapel Cleeve, Golsoncott and Leighland Chapel. Approximately half the parish lies within the Exmoor National Park. The remaining half is on the southern edge of Exmoor. The village has been in existence since the early 13th century. The village held its first council meeting in 1711. By the 1720s the parish had several churches, in which to meet. The town hall was built in 1727. The first church here was built in 1694, built by the Eastern Christian Society. This church was destroyed in a fire in 1847, and has been rebuilt and restored.
“Old Cleeve” enters the record as village and civil parish in Somerset, England, UK. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Cleeve, village and civil can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Old Cleeve” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Cleeve, village and civil provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 11, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2080750. Authority coordinates are 51.168, -3.375. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1711, 1727, 1694 and 1847.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Old Cleeve”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Old Cleeve primary sources, Old Cleeve archive and Cleeve research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Old Cleeve”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Old Cleeve” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.