Glastonbury

Glastonbury is a small town in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the Somerset Levels, 30 miles (48 km) south of Bristol. The town has a population of 8,800. It is in the Mendip district.

The town is known for its history, including Glastonbury Lake Village, Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset Rural Life Museum and Glastonbury Tor, the many myths and legends associated with the town, and the Glastonbury Festival which takes place in the nearby village of Pilton.

On the south west of the town centre is Beckery which used to be a village in its own right but is now part of the suburbs. In the c.7th/8th centuries it was occupied by a small monastic community associated with a cemetery.

The Glastonbury Canal ran just over 14 miles (23 km) through two locks from Glastonbury to Highbridge where it entered the Bristol Channel in the early 1800s, however this became uneconomic with the arrival of the railway.

Glastonbury and Street was the biggest station on the original Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway main line from Highbridge to Evercreech Junction until closed in 1966 under the Beeching axe. It was the junction for the short branch line to Wells which closed in 1951.

Road transport is provided by the A39 which passes through Glastonbury from Wells connecting the town with Street and the M5 motorway. The other roads around the town are small and run across the levels generally following the drainage ditches.