History
The name of Cannington first appeared in Saxon Charters as Cantuctone. Cantuc was a British word for a ridge, ton a settlement hence the meaning of name is Quantock Village; the Quantocks being the nearby range of hills.
Settlement in the Cannington area almost certainly first occurred on Cannington Hill, a limestone outcrop to the north of the present village. The hill is crowned with an Iron Age fort and there is evidence of Romano-British occupancy. Cannington Hill is believed to be the site of a battle in AD 878 when the Saxons under King Odda defeated a force of Danish sea raiders who had landed at nearby Combwich
To the east of the hill was a large Christian burial ground that was completely lost to quarrying in the 1960s. One grave was especially venerated, that occupied by a young girl of about sixteen years of age. Now known as the Child of Cannington her remains have been re-interred in the Parish Church where she is immortalised by a wooden statue.
By Saxon times the settlement had moved to the present village site beside Cannington Brook. No Saxon structures remain, though it is possible the present church is on the site of a wooden Saxon church.
The Norman Invasion of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror led to upheaval across the country. Lands were given to William's followers. Roger de Courseulles was given large areas of Somerset including Cannington, while the De Courci family, lords of nearby Stogursey (Stoke Courcy) established Cannington Priory in about 1138. The priory was very influential in the life of Cannington although records show that by the 14th century there was a degree of corruption and various inquiries revealed misuse of funds and illicit wanderings by the nuns. The Normans built a church on the site now occupied by the present church adjoining the Priory. The present tower was built in the 14th century to compliment the existing Norman church. In the 15th century the Norman church was demolished and the present magnificent building in the Perpendicular style was erected. Intriguingly the church was rebuilt out of line with the tower, possibly so that the church did not encroach into the area of the Priory.
A further transfer of lands followed the Reformation when King Henry VIII dissolved the Catholic Church in England. The church lands returned to the Crown and in due course Henry gave Cannington and all its affairs to an Edward Rogers. Edward Rogers' descendants were influential in Cannington life until the line died out, the last heir provided the Almshouse, which still exists in the centre of the village. King Charles II then granted Cannington to the Clifford family. In the 19th Century the then Lord
Clifford lent Cannington Court (as the former Priory buildings were now called) to a community of Benedictine nuns expelled from France. Cannington College now uses these buildings.
At the beginning of the 20th Century, Cannington was primarily an agricultural community. The First World War took an appalling toll of Cannington's young men in common with all communities across the country. The village population which had peaked in the 1860s fell steadily until the 1930s as the number of jobs on the land reduced. Mobility gradually redressed the balance, the big jump in population occurring the 1960s, partly associated with the building of the nearby Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station.
