Charlcombe
# Charlcombe

Charlcombe est une paroisse civile et un petit village situé au nord de Bath dans le Somerset en Angleterre. Sa population est de 422 habitants et comprend les villages de Woolley et de Langridge. La vallée de Wooley fait l'objet d'une campagne de sauvegarde, la SWAG (Save Woolley Valley Campaign) présidée par Robert $Craven^,.$

## Histoire

Charlcombe est mentionné dans le Domesday Book de 1086 sous le nom de Cerlecume, ce qui signifie en vieil anglais « vallée des ceorls » (hommes libres ou paysans).

En 1848 le comptait 84 habitants pour une superficie de 523 acres.

Texte anglais à traduire : Langridge and Woolley were part of the hundred of Bath $Forum^,,$ while The parish of Charlcombe was part of the hundred of Hampton.

Woolley is one of only 52 Thankful Villages for having lost no soldiers during World War I, and one of only 14 doubly-thankful villages that also did not lose any soldiers in World War II.

## Governance

The parish council has responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept (local rate) to cover the council’s operating costs and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The parish council evaluates local planning applications and works with the local police, district council officers, and neighbourhood watch groups on matters of crime, security, and traffic. The parish council's role also includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, such as the village hall or community centre, playing fields and playgrounds, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning. Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also of interest to the council.

The parish falls within the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset which was created in 1996, as established by the Local Government Act 1992. It provides a single tier of local government with responsibility for almost all local government functions within its area including local planning and building control, local roads, council housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection, recycling, cemeteries, crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism. It is also responsible for education, social services, libraries, main roads, public transport, Trading Standards, waste disposal and strategic planning, although fire, police and ambulance services are provided jointly with other authorities through the Avon Fire and Rescue Service, Avon and Somerset Constabulary and the Great Western Ambulance Service.

Bath and North East Somerset's area covers part of the ceremonial county of Somerset but it is administered independently of the non-metropolitan county. Its administrative headquarters is in Bath. Between 1 April 1974 and 1 April 1996, it was the Wansdyke district and the City of Bath of the county of Avon. Before 1974 that the parish was part of the Bathavon Rural District.

The parish is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom as part of North East Somerset. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It is also part of the South West England constituency of the European Parliament which elects seven MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.

## Geography

### Geology

The local geology of the Swainswick valley around Sopers Wood, in the south Cotswolds, has been investigated because of the presence of landslides since the work of William Smith in 1799. These are caused by the over-steepened topography downslope of the cap rock formed by the Great Oolite where water egresses around the plateau at the junction between the Great Oolite and the Fuller’s Earth formation and through the more permeable limestone bands within the Fuller’s Earth. Known locally as the Woolley Valley, there has been a dispute about development of green belt land.

## Édifices religieux

L'église principale, dédiée à sainte Marie est construite en pierre et date du XIIe siècle. Elle aurait été à une certaine époque l'église paroissiale de la ville de Bath. C'est un bâtiment classé de grade II *. Selon une croyance locale, il y aurait aussi une source sacrée dans les fondations. Selon la tradition, elle était autrefois l'église mère de Bath, et recevait tous les ans un tribut d'une livre de poivre de l'abbaye de cette ville.

L'ếglise de tous les Saints de Woolley date de 1761 et a été construite par John Wood, le Jeune. Elle est classée Grade I.

À Langridge, l'église de Sainte Marie-Madeleine date du XIIe siècle et a été également désignée par l'English Heritage comme monument classé de Grade I.

## Grenouilles et crapauds

Chaque année, en février et mars, Charlcombe Lane est fermé par le conseil municipal pour permettre aux grenouilles et aux crapauds de traverser la route en sécurité. Pendant cette période, les riverains et les volontaires sortent au crépuscule, au moment du plus fort passage des animaux, les récoltent dans des seaux et les déposent de l'autre côté de la route, pour qu'ils puissent poursuivre leur voyage de façon sûre jusqu'à un lac situé dans la vallée de Charlcombe sur un affluent du Lam $brook^,.$

## Lien avec des personnalités littéraires britanniques

Le village de Charlcombe est mentionné dans la correspondance de Jane Austen comme « joliment situé dans un vallon verdoyant, comme il sied à un village portant un tel nom » (« sweetly situated in a little green valley, as a village with such a name ought to be »). C'est à Charlcombe que le romancier Henry Fielding se marie secrètement, en 1734, avec Charlotte Craddock de Salisbury, qui a servi de modèle à Sophia Western, l'héroïne de son chef-d'œuvre Tom Jones.

