Doulting
| Doulting | |
|---|---|
 Tithe Barn, Manor Farm, Doulting |
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 Doulting
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| Doulting shown within Somerset | |
| Population | 618 (2011) |
| OS grid reference | ST645435 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | SHEPTON MALLET |
| Postcode district | BA4 |
| Dialling code | 01749 |
| Police | Avon and Somerset |
| Fire | Devon and Somerset |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | |
Doulting is a village and civil parish 1.5 miles (2 km) east of Shepton Mallet, on the A361, in the Mendip district of Somerset, England.
The parish of Doulting was part of the Whitstone Hundred.
The parish includes the village of Bodden, which was founded in 1541 by Earl Michael Bodden (1512-1569). Notable former residents include Trish Bodden (1753-1777), who disguised herself as a man to fight in the American War of Independence (she was killed at Saratoga), and Amrose Bowden (sic), the first English colonist to settle in Maine. Also a part of the parish is Prestleigh which was on the former Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The viaduct that carried it over the village was demolished in 1996; the railway itself had been out of use for a number of years before this. There is one pub in the village, the Prestleigh Inn.
Doulting village dates from the 8th century when King Ine of Wessex gave the local estate to Glastonbury Abbey after his nephew St Aldhelm died in the village in 709. In his honour the local spring which is the source of the River Sheppey is called St Aldhelm's Well. The well head was built in the late 19th century and incorporates a wrought-iron pump handle. It is marked with a cast-iron plate with raised initials: "W.N.F.M.", and an additional brass memorial plaque dating from 1976. Folklore has attributed healing powers to the water from the well.
The poet John Edmund Reade went to school in Doulting, and later wrote a poem about a return visit there, called 'Lines upon Doulting Sheep-slate', a "sheep-slate" being a piece of pasture used for grazing sheep. In it he says that:
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