CLEEVE (OLD), a parish in the hundred of WILLITON-and-FREEMANNERS, county of SOMERSET, Similes (E.S.E.) from Dunster, containing 1251 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, with the perpetual curacy of Leighland annexed, in the archdeaconry of Taunton, and diocese of Bath and Wells, rated in the king's books at £7, endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Rev. John Newton. The church is dedicated to St.. Andrew. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. The parish adjoins the Bristol channel, and is remarkable for its craggy rocks, which abound with alabaster. On the beach a great, quantity of kelp is gathered and burnt, previously to being sold in the market at Bristol; lodging-houses have been recently -erected for the accommodation of persons resorting hither for the benefit of sea-bathing. A Cistercian abbey, in honour of the Virgin Mary, was founded here, in 1188, by William de Romara, the revenue of which, in 1534, was valued at £155. 9. 4.: there are still some remains, part having been converted into a private mansion, called Cleeve Abbey.