Odcombe

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Odcombe is a village in south Somerset, England, 3 miles west of the town of Yeovil, with a population of 763 in 1991 though it is sure to have grown since then. The village goes back to Saxon times and literally means "open valley". It is mentioned in the Domesday book where it was owned by Robert, Count of Mortain. In the 1860s the village church was almost totally redeveloped. The village is built predominantly out of the native hamstone still quarried on Ham Hill two miles to the north. The upper part of the village, Higher Odcombe sits on the crest of the hill, while the lower part, Lower Odcombe, is built on its slopes.

Odcombe has suffered the usual plight of villages in developed countries, that of becoming a dormitory settlement for pensioners and commuters to nearby Yeovil as well as suffering rural service decline, most recently losing it's school and post office, though it still has a pub, garden centre and various “cottage industries”. The village seems now in danger of becoming engulfed by the expansion of Yeovil.

Notable residents of the village have been Humphrey Hody the 17th century monk and theologian, George Strong (VC) a 19th century soldier awarded the Victoria Cross in the Crimean war and Thomas Coryat the 17th century traveller and writer who introduced the fork to England and made be the home of the book with possibly the longest title, "Coryat's Crudities Hastily gobbled up in Five Months Travels in France, Savoy, Italy, Rhetia commonly called the Grisons country, Helvetia alias Switzerland, some parts of high Germany and the Netherlands; Newly digested in the hungry aire of Odcombe in the county of Somerset, and now dispersed to the nourishment of the travelling members of this kingdome."

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