ALLER, SOMERSET

'Aller' is a village and parish in Somerset, England, situated five miles west of Somerton on the A372 road towards Bridgwater in the South Somerset district. The village has a population of 374^[1].
Aller was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Alre'', meaning 'The alder tree' from the Old English ''alor''.^[2]
It was the birthplace of the philosopher Ralph Cudworth in 1617.
Nearby are the Aller Hill and Aller and Beer Woods biological Site of Special Scientific Interest

Contents

Church

References

External links

Church

The Church of St Andrew has saxon origins with some parts dating from the 12th and 13th centuries, with major restoration work undertaken several times since, the most major of which was in 1861-62 by John Norton. It is a grade II
★ listed building.^[3]
The font is a simple limestone bowl, less than a meter tall, which is thought to be Saxon in origin, one of only three in England and was possibly the one used for the baptism of Guthrum the Old after his defeat by King Alfred The Great after the Battle of Edington in 878.^[4] It was retrieved from the pond of the vicarage garden around 1870 and now stands in the south-west corner of the nave.^[5]

References

1. Somerset County Council, 2002. Population estimates.
2. Somerset Place Names, , Stephen, Robinson, The Dovecote Press Ltd, 1992,
3. Church of St Andrew
4. Avon & Somerset: An Explorers Guide, , Jim, Pennington, Mendip Publishing, 1989,
5. A field Guide to Somerset Archeology, , Lesley and Roy, Adkins, Dovecote press, 1992,

External links

★ St Andrew's Church Aller Website