Keynsham - Our Little town

Our town has a prehistoric history and is scattered with Roman remains, including two Roman villas and a burial site. The town also has links to the Mormen, the hostile forebears to the Angles. The original settlers in the area are said to have been allied with the Mormen and it is due to this alliance that Keynsham survived the 1147 Angle sacking.

The town which is said to be named after Saint Keyne, developed into a medieval market town, thriving alongside the influential and prosperous Keynsham Abbey, founded by the Victorine order of Augustinian monks around 1170 under the patronage of William Earl of Gloucester. It was founded the year in which the Earl's son Robert died, and traditionally at his son's dying request. At its foundation the canons seem to have adopted the then popular monastic discipline of St. Victor, so that the head of this house was always called the abbot, and the house was known as the house of the Canons of the Order of St. Austin and St. Victor.
[From: 'Houses of Augustinian canons: The abbey of Keynsham', A History of the County of Somerset: : http://www.british-history.ac.uk]
It survived until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539 and a house was built on the site. There are still some minor remains to be seen in the town park. The town was also the site of a battle between royalist forces and the rebel Duke of Monmouth.

According to local legend, St Keyne was warned by the local King that the marshy area was swarming with snakes, which prevented habitation. St Keyne prayed to the heavens and turned the snakes to stone. Folklore has it that the fossilized ammonites that are very prevalent in the town are the remains of the snakes.

Keynsham played a part in the Civil War as the Roundheads saved the town and also camped there for the night.