CHANNEL 4'S Time Team archaeologists dug up a field near Breamore Mill in 2001, after someone with a metal detector discovered evidence of a burial site dating back to the 6th Century.

More artefacts were found, suggesting a high-status cemetery in the area.

The Saxon settlement of Brumore, consisting of just 12 households, is mentioned in the Domesday Book.

St Mary's Church dates from about this time and the next 200 years saw more expansion, with the building of Breamore Mill and a manor house to accommodate the de Redvers family, who were earls of Devon and lords of the Manor of Breamore, and the founding of a priory on the west bank of the Avon

By the time the village came under the ownership of the Dodington family, most of the tenants worked on the estate, and this remained the case until halfway through the last century.

The past 50 years have seen changes - the railway has come and gone, the horse and cart has been replaced by the motor car and many of the residents now commute out of the village to work.

But, say the authors, "the village has retained much of its 'olde worlde' atmosphere".