BRENT (EAST), a parish in the hundred of BRENT-with-WRINGTON,
county of SOMERSET, 4 miles (W.
S.W.) from Axbridge, containing 820 inhabitants. The
living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Wells, and
diocese of Bath and Wells, rated in the king's books
at £30. 11. 3., and in the patronage of the Bishop of
Bath.and Wells. The church is dedicated to St. Mary.
There is a place of worship for Methodists. This appears
to have been the scene of various military transactions
at an early period: on the summit of a lofty
conical hill, termed Brent Knoll, are vestiges of a large
double intrenchment, of an irregular form, within
which, and at the base of the-hill, Roman coins, fibulas,
urns, heads of spears, and other Roman relics, have
been found. The West Saxons are also supposed to
have occupied this position, .in their contests with the
Mercians; and it is related:that Alfred subsequently
defended himself here. against the Danes. A plot of
ground to the south retains the name Battleborough>
probably from some battle having been fought upon it.
Cornua ammonis and other fossils have frequently been
found. Here was anciently a cell to the abbey of
Glastonbury.