Huntspill

Huntspill is a village on the Huntspill Level in Somerset, England. It lies on the A38 road, south of Highbridge. The village is the principal settlement in the civil parish of West Huntspill, which also contains the hamlet of Alstone.The parish of West Huntspill has a population of 1,414.HistoryThe first mention of Huntspill is around 796 AD, when the area was granted to Glastonbury Abbey by Aethelmund, a nobleman under King Offa of Mercia.Huntspill was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Honspil, meaning 'Huna's creek' possibly from the Old English personal name Huna and from the Celtic pwll as used in Welsh, e.g. Pwllheli. An alternative origin is from Hun's Pill in Old English, meaning a port on a tidal inlet, or pill, belonging to a Saxon lord, or hun.The parish of Huntspill was part of the Huntspill and Puriton Hundred,The mouth of the River Brue had an extensive harbour in Roman and Saxon times, before silting up in the medieval period. A new wharf, known as Clyce Wharf, was built on the Huntspill side of the river mouth by 1904, and was used for the import of coal and the export of bricks and tiles and agricultural products. The wharf closed in 1949.