BACKWELL, a parish (formerly a market-town) in the hundred of HARTCLIFFE-with-BEDMINSTER, county of SOMERSET, 7i miles (S. W. by W.) from Bristol, containing 863 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Bath, and diocese of Bath and Wells, rated in the king's books af £6. 19. 9., endowed with £400 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Co-heiresses of Mrs. Lox: there is also a sinecure rectory, rated at £11. 16. 3., and in the patronage of the Marquis of Bath. The church is dedicated to St. Andrew. The weekly market, granted by Edward II., has long been discontinued: there is a fair for cattle and pedlary on the 21st of September. A great number of the labouring class is employed in extensive collieries within the parish: there are also quarries which produce a reddish calcareous stone, va-, riegated with blue and white veins, susceptible of a higty polish. A National school is chiefly supported by subscription.