Watchfield

Watchfield is a village in the civil parish of Burnham Without, which lies east of Burnham-on-Sea and north and north-east of Highbridge. The parish had 796 residents in 2011 and was created in 1896, when the rural areas around Highbridge were separated from the town itself. Since 1 April 2023 it has come under Somerset Council. The land here is mostly drained, low-lying agricultural land between the coast and Brent Knoll, an Iron Age hill fort. Brent Knoll rises 137 metres (449 ft) and can be seen for many miles, so it makes an easy landmark when walking the lanes. Brent Knoll Camp has multiple ramparts that follow the hill’s contours, and because the hill stands alone on the flat Levels it dominates the landscape.

Highbridge, the nearest town, is a market town on the edge of the Somerset Levels near the mouth of the River Brue, about 7 miles north of Bridgwater. It was the seaward end of the Glastonbury Canal, which opened in 1833, and the canal’s 1801 clyce (sluice) still stands there. Highbridge station was opened by the Bristol & Exeter Railway in 1844. Highbridge and Burnham-on-Sea are neighbours and share a town council, and the seaside town is covered at Burnham-on-Sea.