Temple Cloud is a village within the Chew Valley

Chew Valley

The Chew Valley is an area in North Somerset, England, named after the River Chew, which rises at Chewton Mendip, and joins the River Avon at Keynsham...

 in Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

 in the Bath and North East Somerset

Bath and North East Somerset

Bath and North East Somerset is a unitary authority that was created on 1 April 1996 following the abolition of the County of Avon. It is part of the Ceremonial county of Somerset...

 Council area on the A37 road

A37 road

The A37 is a major road in southern England. It runs north from the A35 at Dorchester in Dorset into Somerset through Yeovil and Shepton Mallet before terminating at the Three Lamps junction with the A4 in central Bristol...

. It is located 10 miles from Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

 and Bath, very close to Clutton

Clutton, Somerset

Clutton is a village and civil parish within the Chew Valley in Somerset in the Bath and North East Somerset Council area on the A37 road. It is located 10 miles from Bristol and Bath, very near Temple Cloud. The nearest town is Midsomer Norton...

. The nearest town is Midsomer Norton

Midsomer Norton

Midsomer Norton is a town near the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England, south-west of Bath, north-east of Wells, north-west of Frome, and south-east of Bristol. It has a population of 10,458. Along with Radstock and Westfield it used to be part of the conurbation and large civil parish of Norton...

 [5 miles]. The village of Cameley

Cameley

Cameley is a village and civil parish within the Chew Valley in Somerset in the Bath and North East Somerset Council area just off the A37 road. It is located from Bristol and Bath. The nearest town is Midsomer Norton, which is away. The parish has a population of 1,286 and includes the village...

 is also very close.

The Temple in the place name may relate to the Knights Templar

Knights Templar

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...

. Cloud is thought to come from the personal name Cloda.

There were several coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 mines in and around the village as a part of the Somerset coalfield

Somerset coalfield

The Somerset Coalfield included pits in the North Somerset, England, area where coal was mined from the 15th century until 1973.It is part of a wider coalfield which covered northern Somerset and southern Gloucestershire. It stretched from Cromhall in the north to the Mendip Hills in the south, and...

, but these have all since closed.

Government and politics

Temple Cloud is part of the Mendip Ward, which is represented by one councillor on the Bath and North East Somerset

Bath and North East Somerset

Bath and North East Somerset is a unitary authority that was created on 1 April 1996 following the abolition of the County of Avon. It is part of the Ceremonial county of Somerset...

 Unitary Authority

Unitary authority

A unitary authority is a type of local authority that has a single tier and is responsible for all local government functions within its area or performs additional functions which elsewhere in the relevant country are usually performed by national government or a higher level of sub-national...

, which has responsibilities for services such as education, refuse, tourism etc. The village is a part of the North East Somerset

North East Somerset (UK Parliament constituency)

North East Somerset is a county constituency created by the Boundary Commission for England as the successor seat to the Wansdyke Parliamentary Seat. It came into being at the 2010 general election.- Boundaries :...

 constituency and part of the South West England constituency

South West England (European Parliament constituency)

South West England is a constituency of the European Parliament. For 2009 it elects 6 MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation, reduced from 7 in 2004.-Boundaries:...

 of the European Parliament.

Demographics

According to the 2001 Census, the Mendip Ward (which includes West Harptree and Hinton Blewett), had 1,465 residents, living in 548 households, with an average age of 39.0 years. Of these 79% of residents describing their health as 'good', 22% of 16-74 year olds had no qualifications; and the area had an unemployment rate of 1.5% of all economically active people aged 16-74. In the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004, it was ranked at 25,387 out of 32,482 wards in England, where 1 was the most deprived LSOA and 32,482 the least deprived.

Church

The church is dedicated to St Barnabas. Further information and pictures of the church are available from GENUKI: St Barnabas's Church, Temple Cloud

Grade II listed buildings

• Bridge House
• Prospect House
• Temple Bridge Farmhouse
• Court House and Police Station
• Temple Inn
• Walcott Cottage

The church is also the meeting place for the local St John Ambulance division, Clutton & Timsbury Combined Division.

External links

• Map of Temple Cloud circa 1900