Pilton, Somerset

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pilton






Statistics
Population:	1028<ref>Mendip Parish Population Estimates 2002. Somerset County Council. Retrieved on 2006-11-25.</ref>
Ordnance Survey
OS grid reference:	ST595405
Administration
District:	Mendip
Shire county:	Somerset
Region:	South West England
Constituent country:	England
Sovereign state:	United Kingdom
Other
Ceremonial county:	Somerset
Historic county:	Somerset
Services
Police force:	Avon and Somerset
Fire and rescue:	Somerset
Ambulance:	South Western
Post office and telephone
Post town:
Postal district:
Dialling code:
Politics
UK Parliament:	Wells
European Parliament:	South West England
Image:Flag of England.svg

Pilton (grid reference ST590408) is a village in Somerset, England, situated on the A361 road in the Mendip district, three miles south west of Shepton Mallet and six miles east of Glastonbury. The village has a population of 1030 (2002 estimate).

Pilton is now almost 20 miles from the sea but sits on the edge of the Somerset Levels, an area which has now been drained but was once a shallow tidal lake. In Saxon times Pilton, then known as Pooltown, was a harbour and according to legend it is where Joseph of Arimathea landed in Britain in the 1st century.

Pilton is famous as the location of the Glastonbury Festival.

[edit] Church

The present Norman and Medieval village church, deciated to St John the Baptist, may stand on the site of an earlier wattle and daub church built by the early missionaries. It is a Grade I listed building (Church of St John the Baptist at Images of England)