Editing Somerset (section)

==Culture==
{{Main|Culture of Somerset}}
[[File:Cathedrale de wells front ouest.JPG|thumb|alt=Large ornate grey stone facade of a building. Symmetrical with towers either side.|right|The west front of Wells Cathedral]]
In [[Matter of Britain|Arthurian legend]], [[Avalon]] became associated with [[Glastonbury Tor]] when monks at Glastonbury Abbey claimed to have discovered the bones of King Arthur and his queen.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britainexpress.com/Myths/Glastonbury_King_Arthur.htm |title=King Arthur and Glastonbury |work=Britain Express |access-date=23 October 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071123112749/http://www.britainexpress.com/Myths/Glastonbury_King_Arthur.htm |archive-date=23 November 2007 }}</ref> What is more certain is that Glastonbury was an important religious centre by 700 and claims to be "the oldest above-ground Christian church in the World"<ref name="glastabbey">{{cite web|url=http://www.glastonburyabbey.com/ |title=Glastonbury Abbey's official website |work=Glastonbury Abbey |access-date=23 October 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071020035159/http://www.glastonburyabbey.com/ |archive-date=20 October 2007 }}</ref> situated "in the mystical land of Avalon". The claim is based on dating the founding of the community of monks at AD&nbsp;63, the year of the legendary visit of Joseph of Arimathea, who was supposed to have brought the Holy Grail.<ref name="glastabbey"/>

During the Middle Ages there were also important religious sites at [[Woodspring Priory]] and [[Muchelney Abbey]]. The present [[Diocese of Bath and Wells]] covers Somerset&nbsp;– with the exception of the Parish of [[Abbots Leigh]] with Leigh Woods in North Somerset&nbsp;– and a small area of Dorset. The [[cathedra|Episcopal seat]] of the [[Bishop of Bath and Wells]] is now in the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew in the city of Wells, having previously been at [[Bath Abbey]]. Before the [[English Reformation]], it was a Roman Catholic diocese; the county now falls within the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton]]. The [[Order of Saint Benedict|Benedictine]] monastery Saint Gregory's Abbey, commonly known as [[Downside Abbey]], is at [[Stratton-on-the-Fosse]], and the ruins of the former [[Cistercians|Cistercian]] [[Cleeve Abbey]] are near the village of [[Washford]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

Somerset has traditions of art, music and literature. [[William Wordsworth|Wordsworth]] and [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge]] wrote while staying in [[Coleridge Cottage]], [[Nether Stowey]].<ref name=webbio>{{cite web|url=http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/ww/bio.html |last=Everett |first=Glenn |title=William Wordsworth: Biography |work=The Victorian Web |access-date=7 January 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070104222621/http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/ww/bio.html |archive-date= 4 January 2007 }}</ref> The novelist [[John Cowper Powys]] (1872–1963) lived in the Somerset village of [[Montacute]] from 1885 until 1894 and his novels ''Wood and Stone'' (1915) and ''[[A Glastonbury Romance]]'' (1932) are set in Somerset. The writer [[Evelyn Waugh]] spent his last years in the village of [[Combe Florey]].<ref>{{cite book | last= Waugh | first= Auberon | author-link= Auberon Waugh | title= Will this do? | page= 206 | publisher=Century |date=December 1991 | isbn= 0-7126-3733-8}}</ref>[[File:Tyntesfield 1.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|alt=Yellow stone ornate facade of building with lower arched front to the left. In the foreground could flowers in formal garden.|Tyntesfield]]Traditional folk music, both song and dance, was important in the agricultural communities. Somerset songs were collected by [[Cecil Sharp]] and incorporated into works such as [[Gustav Holst|Holst's]] ''[[A Somerset Rhapsody]]''. [[Halsway Manor]] near [[Williton]] is an international centre for folk music. The tradition continues today with groups such as [[The Wurzels]] specialising in [[Scrumpy and Western]] music.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset/content/articles/2006/06/19/wurzels_big_summer_party_review_feature.shtml |title=Review: The Wurzels' Big Summer Party |work=BBC Somerset |access-date=21 October 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090218174036/http://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset/content/articles/2006/06/19/wurzels_big_summer_party_review_feature.shtml |archive-date=18 February 2009 }}</ref>

The [[Glastonbury Festival|Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts]] takes place most years in Pilton, near Shepton Mallet, attracting over 170,000 music and culture lovers from around the world to see world-famous entertainers.<ref>{{cite web|work=Contact Music |url=http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/extra-glastonbury-tickets-snapped-up_1028793 |title=Extra Glastonbury Tickets Snapped Up |date=22 April 2007 |access-date=22 October 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100330220420/http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/extra-glastonbury-tickets-snapped-up_1028793 |archive-date=30 March 2010 }}</ref>
The [[Big Green Gathering]] which grew out of the Green fields at the Glastonbury Festival is held in the Mendip Hills between [[Charterhouse, Somerset|Charterhouse]] and [[Compton Martin]] each summer.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Mark Adler |date=August 2006 |title=It's my party |journal=Mendip Times |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=14–15 |url=http://www.mendiptimes.co.uk/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070416021759/http://www.mendiptimes.co.uk/ |archive-date=16 April 2007 }}</ref>
The annual [[Bath Literature Festival]] is one of several local festivals in the county; others include the [[Frome Festival]] and the [[Trowbridge Village Pump Festival]], which, despite its name, is held at [[Farleigh Hungerford]] in Somerset. The annual circuit of [[West Country Carnival]]s is held in a variety of Somerset towns during the autumn, forming a major regional festival, and the largest Festival of Lights in Europe.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Evans |first1=Roger |first2=Peter |last2=Nichols |title=Somerset Carnivals: A Celebration of 400 Years |year= 2005|publisher=Halsgrove|location= Tiverton|isbn=978-1-84114-483-2}}</ref>

The county has several museums; those at Bath include the [[American Museum in Britain]], the [[Museum of Bath Architecture]], the [[Herschel Museum of Astronomy]], the [[Jane Austen Centre]], and the Roman Baths. Other visitor attractions which reflect the cultural heritage of the county include: [[Claverton Pumping Station]], [[Dunster Working Watermill]], the [[Fleet Air Arm Museum]] at Yeovilton, [[Nunney Castle]], [[The Helicopter Museum]] in Weston-super-Mare, [[King John's Hunting Lodge, Axbridge|King John's Hunting Lodge]] in [[Axbridge]], [[Blake Museum]] Bridgwater, Radstock Museum, [[Museum of Somerset]] in Taunton, the [[Somerset Rural Life Museum]] in Glastonbury, and [[Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum]].

Somerset has 11,500 [[listed building]]s, [[Scheduled monuments in Somerset|523 scheduled monuments]], 192 [[Protected area|conservation area]]s,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.somerset-chamber.co.uk/index.php?opt=page&action=overview |title=Overview of Somerset |publisher=Somerset Chamber of Commerce and Industry |access-date=10 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322214242/http://www.somerset-chamber.co.uk/index.php?opt=page&action=overview|archive-date=22 March 2012 }}</ref> 41 parks and gardens including those at [[Barrington Court]], [[Holnicote Estate]], [[Prior Park Landscape Garden]] and [[Tintinhull Garden]], 36 [[English Heritage]] sites and 19 [[National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty|National Trust]] sites,<ref name="rajan"/> including [[Clevedon Court]], [[Fyne Court]], [[Montacute House]] and [[Tyntesfield]] as well as [[Stembridge Mill, High Ham|Stembridge Tower Mill]], the last remaining thatched windmill in England.<ref name="rajan"/> Other historic houses in the county which have remained in private ownership or used for other purposes include [[Halswell House]] and [[Marston Bigot]]. A key contribution of Somerset architecture is its [[Somerset towers|medieval church towers]]. Jenkins writes, "These structures, with their buttresses, bell-opening tracery and crowns, rank with Nottinghamshire alabaster as England's finest contribution to medieval art."<ref>{{cite book |last= Jenkins|first=Simon|title= England's Thousand Best Churches|year= 2000|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn= 0-14-029795-2}}</ref>
[[File:Somerset Flag.svg|thumb|The flag designed to represent the historic county of Somerset in 2013]]
[[Bath Rugby]] play at the [[Recreation Ground (Bath)|Recreation Ground]] in Bath, and the [[Somerset County Cricket Club]] are based at the [[County Ground, Taunton|County Ground]] in Taunton. The county's highest ranked football club is [[Yeovil Town F.C.|Yeovil Town]], currently playing in the [[National League (division)|National League]]. [[Thoroughbred horse racing|Horse racing]] courses are at [[Taunton Racecourse|Taunton]], [[Bath Racecourse|Bath]] and [[Wincanton Racecourse|Wincanton]].

The county is served by the regional ''[[Western Daily Press]]'' and local newspapers including the ''[[Weston & Somerset Mercury]]'', the ''[[Bath Chronicle]]'', ''[[Chew Valley Gazette]]'', ''[[Somerset County Gazette]],'' ''[[Clevedon Mercury]]'' ''[[Mendip Times]]'', and the ''West Somerset Free Press''. Television is provided by [[BBC West]] and [[ITV West Country]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/tv-broadcast-licences/current-licensees/channel-3/htv/ |title=Wales and West ITV |work=Ofcom |access-date=10 July 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119045155/http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/tv-broadcast-licences/current-licensees/channel-3/htv/ |archive-date=19 January 2012 }}</ref> while southwestern parts of the county can receive [[BBC South West]]. Local radio stations are [[BBC Radio Somerset]], [[BBC Radio Bristol]] (in northern parts of the county), [[Heart West]], and [[Greatest Hits Radio South West]] in Yeovil.

A [[Flag of Somerset|flag representing the historic county of Somerset]] was registered with the [[Flag Institute]] following a competition in July 2013.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.flaginstitute.org/wp/flags/Somerset/ |title=Somerset |publisher=Flag Institute |access-date=26 May 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130720090456/http://www.flaginstitute.org/wp/flags/Somerset/ |archive-date=20 July 2013 }}</ref>