Newton St Loe is a small
Somerset village and
civil parish located between
Bath and
Bristol in
England. The majority of the village is owned by the
Duchy of Cornwall. The parish has a population of 631.
History
Newton St Loe takes its name from the first "owner" of the mansion estate "St Loe", which was given to him as a gift by
William the Conqueror. St Loe was born and bred in
France.
There is evidence of a 3rd century
Roman villa on a site between Newton St Loe and Bath on the south side of the
River Avon. It was discovered in 1837 during the cutting of the Bristol-Bath railway line when excavations were carried out and drawings of the site made before much of it was lost in the railway construction. Two
mosaics were removed, one of which, known as the Orpheus Mosaic, is now in the
Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. A further investigation was carried out in 1968 before the widening of the
A4 however it is still the case that little is known about the villa.
The parish was recorded in the
Domesday Book with the name
Niwetone.
There is a history of coal mining in the area as part of the
Somerset coalfield but all mines have now closed. Lower and Middle Coal Measures at depths between 500 and 5,000 feet (152-1,525 m) of the Pensford Syncline, were worked at the Globe Pit in Newton St Loe in the 19th...
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