[5] On 12 June 1643 the village was the site of a skirmish in the English Civil War, between Royalist forces led by Robert Dormer, 1st Earl of Carnarvon and the parliamentary forces under William Waller including the cavalry unit of Sir Arthur Haselrig known as Haselrig's lobsters.
[3] The Waldegrave Estate still operates from an office in converted farm buildings in a small business park found on the southern edge of Chewton Mendip.
Harris designed and built steam lorries in 1907/8 that were sold as Mendips; in 1911 petrol engine vans were added to the range.
In March 1914 Harris announced a Light Car completely made by the company; this was sold up to 1916 when war intervened.
There was particular concern about the effect the wind turbine would have on the Mendip Hills AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty).
It is expected to produce an average of 6.7MWh (megawatt hours) of electricity per year from the 2MW generator, enough to power up to 2,000 homes in the area.
The parish council's role also includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning.
Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also the responsibility of the council.
The village falls within the Nedge Ward which is represented by one councillor of Non-metropolitan district of Mendip, which was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, having previously been part of Wells Rural District,[11] which is responsible for local planning and building control, local roads, council housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection and recycling, cemeteries and crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism.
The ward starts in Ston Easton, passes westwards to Chewton Mendip and then continues west to Charterhouse.
[12] It is also part of the Wells and Mendip Hills county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
[14] In the summer the Azores high pressure affects the south-west of England, however convective cloud sometimes forms inland, reducing the number of hours of sunshine.
In summer, a large proportion of the rainfall is caused by sun heating the ground leading to convection and to showers and thunderstorms.
[16] The church includes monuments to Sir Henry Fitzroger and his wife who died in 1388, and to Frances, Lady Waldegrave (1879).
[21] Their description continued "The arrangement of double belfry windows in the two upper stages is unusual, and the conventional lines of the elaborately pierced parapet above are relieved by the projecting stair turret and spirelet.
The chancel contains the only extant specimen in Somerset of a frid stool, a rough seat let into the sill of the N. window of the sacrarium for the accommodation of anyone claiming sanctuary.
Note (1) piscinas of different dates in chancel; (2) change of design in arcading of nave, showing subsequent lengthening of church — the earlier columns stand on Norm.
altar-tomb with recumbent effigies of Sir H. Fitzroger and wife, and a modern mural tablet with medallion to Viscountess Waldegrave.