Man's struggle with this varied landscape began many centuries ago: an unfinished Iron Age hill fort at Netherclay and scattered traces of Roman settlement are proof of that, and several local farms, including those at Broughton, Greenway, and Higher Broughton, probably have very early origins. 

Only in the 9th century, however did the landscape first enter the light of recorded history. A Saxon charter dated about the year 854, tells how a West Saxon king called Aethewulf gave lands at 'Stoc' to the minster church of Taunton, mother church of the Vale....................
Tom Mayberry