Facts & Figures



Item Detail
Name: Priston
Meaning: Farmstead near the brushwood or copse
(A Dictionary of English Place-names OUP 1998)
Population 250 (2021 Census), 232 (2011), 252 (2001) , 250 (1991)
Priston People Initial results from 2021 Census for Priston Parish (includes Wilmington): (2011 figures in brackets)
  • Population: 250 (232)
  • Households: 103 (101)
  • Males 130, Females 120
  • No. of households: 103 (101)
  • Age:
    • Under 15: 16.4% (15.1%)
    • 15-64 years: 54% (64.6%)
    • 65 and over: 29.6% (20.3%)
  • Religion:
    • Christian 53.2% (64.2%)
    • No religion 40.9% (29.7%)
    • Other religion: 2.4% (0.9%)
    • Not answered 3.6% (5.2%)
  • Country of birth:
    • UK: 92.1% (94.4%)
    • EU: 1.2% (1.3% excluding UK)
    • Other: 6.7% (3.9%)
  • Ethnic Group:
    • White: 95.6% (98.7%)
    • Other: 4.4% (1.3%)

You can find further 2021 information at https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/maps, and more 2011 information at https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/localarea?compare=E04000985.

See the results of a Village Survey conducted in April 2008.
Landscape & Character See Character Assessments web-page.
Biodiversity See our list of Priston birds and plants.
Geology See Geology of the Priston Area and borehole record.
Broadband quality Copper-based ADSL is available throughout the village from a variety of suppliers, speeds vary from 1-8 Mb/s. Fibre-To-The-Premises (FTTP) ultrafast broadband is also available from TrueSpeed Communications Ltd, giving speeds of up to 100 Mb/s.
Latitude: 51 degrees 20 minutes North
Longitude: 2 degrees 26 minutes West
OS Grid Reference: 36951605 or ST695605
Area:
 750 hectares, or 1850 acres or 2.9 square miles approximately
Height above sea level: 90 metres or 300 feet approx.
Traditions:
Oldest living inhabitant:
 The yew tree  in Priston church yard?
Literary references:

"Priston. Nature has made it lovely and man has made it irresistible."
(The Kings England - Somerset, Arthur Mee, Hodder & Stoughton 1941)

"I drove to Priston [Rectory] to dine with Mr. Hammond . . . and had an entertainment better suited to Grovesnor Square than a clergyman's home - French dishes and French wines in profusion. I hope such feasts will not be repeated often, or I am sure I shall not be one of the guests."
(Journal of a Somerset Rector, John Skinner, 1823)

"These fifty square miles or so of Somerset, bounded by the red-brick villages of Clutton in the west and Combe Hay in the east, Priston in the north and Kilmersdon in the south, lie on top of a score of complex, broken,twisted and contorted seams of coal, which until as late as the 1970s were worked by as independent and militant band of English mining men as might ever have stepped out from beneath the winding-gears of the coalfields of Durham or Lanark."
(The Map That Changed The World, Simon Winchester, 2001)

The picture on page x of Luke Barclay's A Loo with a View was taken from East Barn, looking across Priston High St towards Tunley.
Other Priston's on the Web The Priston Tale is a Full-3D MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) based on the players’ adventures in the continent of Priston.