Gurney Slade, Somerset
| Ashwick | |
|---|---|
 St James Church |
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 Ashwick
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| Ashwick shown within Somerset | |
| Population | 1,352 (2011) |
| OS grid reference | ST637484 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Police | Avon and Somerset |
| Fire | Devon and Somerset |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | |
Ashwick is a village in the Mendip district of Somerset, England, about three miles north of Shepton Mallet and seven miles east from Wells. It has also been a civil parish since 1826. The parish had a population of 1,352 according to the 2011 census, and apart from Ashwick village also includes Gurney Slade and Oakhill.
The nearby Maesbury Railway Cutting of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway exposes approximately 135 metres of strata representing the middle and upper Lower Limestone Shales and the basal Black Rock Limestone. Both formations are of early Carboniferous (Courceyan) age.
Although Oakhill is the larger village today, Ashwick is the older settlement, dating back to Anglo-Saxon times. It appears in the Domesday book as a settlement called Escewiche, which translates as 'the hamlet or farmstead by the ash trees'. The Fosse Way passes to the east of the parish.
The parish of Ashwick was part of the Hundred of Kilmersdon,
Anthony Newley's short-lived 1960 ATV series The Strange World of Gurney Slade continues to have a cult following owing to its postmodern premise that the Newley character is trapped inside a television programme. Newley's character is named "Gurney Slade"; in one typically surreal episode, he encounters a signpost that leads him in the direction of a locale called Gurney Slade, where he casually interacts with a talking dog.
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