Speculating on Midsomer Norton's name goes back a long way, John Wesley began it two hundred years ago. After his horse got stuck in a very muddy High Street, he noted in his journal that Midsummer Norton must have got it's name because the swampy conditions made it inaccessible in winter.

In reality, Midsomer Norton was known as the village that since 1248 had held a street fair on 25th April each year until a well-meaning but utterly unromantic local council banished it to Welton Rovers soccer team car park in 1961!

The manorial records of Norton Canonicorum (as the Church of England still likes to call Midsomer Norton) are housed at Christ Church Library, Christ Church University, Oxford. The rectory and manor were part of the endowment given to Christ Church by Henry VIII at it's foundation in 1546, when Henry VIII fell out with the Pope and took it away from the canons of Merton. There are manorial court rolls dating back to 1548 and property records dating to 1550.

Some sixteenth century records refer to Midsomeres Norton. This may be a link to Somerset. Somerset takes it's name from the ancient British tribe based in the Vale of Taunton.

Text written by David Wilshire M.P.