STANTON-DREW, a parish in the hundred of
KEYNSHAM, county of SOMERSET, 1 mile (W. by S.)
from Pensford, containing 622 inhabitants. The living
is a discharged vicarage, with the perpetual curacy of
Pensford annexed, in the archdeaconry of Bath, and
diocese of Bath and Wells, rated in the king's books at
£7. 2. 8., and in the patronage of the Archdeacon of
Bath. The church is dedicated to St. Mary. The
river Chew runs through the parish, and is crossed by
a stone bridge. Richard Jones, in 1688, bequeathed
two-fifths of the proceeds of an estate for educating
and apprenticing poor children: the income is.£60 a
year, and about thirty boys have the benefit of it. Six
poor girls are instructed for £ 5 per annum, the gift of
Elizabeth Lyde, in 1772. The neighbourhood abounds
with various objects of interest to the antiquary, the
most prominent of which are, Maes Knoll Tump, a
stupendous barrow, and an extensive Druidical temple
of three circles of stones, whose diameters are respectively
one hundred and twenty, forty-three, and
thirty-two yards, spreading itself over ten acres of
ground; the stones, which are of amazing proportions,
were apparently brought from the neighbouring quarries
5 many of them, however, now lie prostrate on the
ground. The name of Belton, or Belluton, a hamlet
at nearly an equal distance from each of these British
monuments, is thought to be a corruption of Belgeton,
a town of the Belgse, being situated on the line of
Wansdyke, the ancient boundary of their territory.