Blagdon, United Kingdom

Blagdon is believed to have been the caput of the feudal barony held by Serlo de Burci (died c. 1086), who is recorded as holding the manor in the Domesday Book of 1086. However the caput may have been Dartington. The Domesday Book recorded a land area for Blagdon approximating to 2,000 acres (8 km2), including 200 acres (0.8 km2) of woodland. Serlo left no sons and his daughter Geva was his sole heiress. She married twice: firstly to "Martin" (died before 1086), to whom she bore a son and heir Robert FitzMartin (died 1159), and secondly to William de Falaise. In 1154 Robert FitzMartin gave St Andrew's Church and other land from around the East End of the village to Stanley Abbey in Wiltshire. He also gave land at Blagdon to the Knights Templar which became known as the Temple Hydon Estate. Robert's son was William FitzMartin (1155–1209), whose own son and heir was William FitzMartin (died before 15 February 1216). Next to inherit was Nicholas FitzMartin (1210–1282) whose son Nicholas (died 1260)predeceased him, but had married the sole heiress of the feudal barony of Barnstaple, Maud de Tracy (died before Michaelmas 1279), daughter and sole heiress of Henry de Tracy (died 1274). Nicholas's son William FitzMartin (died 1324) thus inherited Barnstaple from his mother and Blagdon from his grandfather. On the death in 1326 of William's son William without children, his co-heirs were his surviving sister Eleanor and James Audley (died 1386) the son of his deceased sister Joan FitzMartin (died 1322). Eleanor FitzMartin (died 1342) died without children, albeit having married twice. James Audley, 2nd Baron Audley (died 1386) was Joan's son by her second husband Nicholas Audley, 1st Baron Audley (died 1316) of Heleigh Castle, Staffordshire. James Audley thus in 1342 inherited his childless aunt Eleanor's moieties of the two baronies of Barnstaple and Blagdon, thus giving him possession of the whole of each.

In the late eighteenth century, the famous writer and educational pioneer Hannah More, shocked at the poverty and ignorance to be found in Mendip villages, was active establishing schools in the area. In 1795 she founded a Sunday School in Blagdon, in the building now called Hannah More House. About this time she wrote to William Wilberforce, the anti-slavery campaigner, about her school, "Several of the grown-up youths had been tried at the last assizes; three were children of a person lately condemned to be hanged — many thieves! Of this banditti we have enlisted one hundred and seventy; and when the clergyman, a hard man, who is also the magistrate, saw these creatures kneeling around us, whom he had seldom seen but to commit or punish in some way, he burst into tears".

However, Mr Bere, the curate referred to in this letter, soon became implacably opposed to the school and after years of pressure it was forced to close. Nevertheless, the furor created made the "Blagdon Controversy" a milestone of national importance in the development of education for the labouring classes.

There are several houses in the village dating from medieval times and earlier. The houses facing on to Bell Square in the north corner of the West End date from the fourteenth century. The shape of some of the existing fields suggest they are of medieval origin.

In 1901 the Wrington Vale Light Railway reached Blagdon. It closed to passengers just 30 years later in 1931. Part of the line remained for freight only, but this closed in 1962.