List of civil parishes in Somerset

Parishes arose from Church of England divisions, and were given their current powers and responsibilities by the Local Government Act 1894.

[1] The Local Government Act 1972 retained civil parishes in rural areas.

These unitary authorities include areas that were part of Somerset before the creation of Avon in 1974.

Areas of the city that were formerly within the Bath County Borough are now unparished, but the rest of the authority is divided into 49 parishes.

All of North Somerset, the other unitary authority, is covered by its 39 parishes ranging from the village Loxton with a population of 192,[4] to the town of Weston-super-Mare with 76,143 inhabitants.

Every adult inhabitant of the parish was obliged to work four days a year on the roads, providing their own tools, carts and horses; the work was overseen by an unpaid local appointee, the Surveyor of Highways.

[17] Urban civil parishes continued to exist, and were generally coterminous with the Urban District, Municipal Borough or County Borough in which they were situated; many large towns contained a number of parishes, and these were usually merged into one.

[19] Recent governments have encouraged the formation of town and parish councils in unparished areas, and the Local Government and Rating Act 1997 gave local residents the right to demand the creation of a new civil parish.