Winscombe is a large village in the North Somerset unitary district of Somerset, South West England, close to the settlements of Axbridge and Cheddar, on the western edge of the Mendip Hills, southeast of Weston-super-Mare and southwest of Bristol. The Parish of Winscombe and Sandford, centred on the Parish Church of Church of St James the Great, includes the villages/hamlets of Barton, Hale, Oakridge, Nye, Sidcot and Woodborough. Winscombe has a few shops and businesses focused in the centre of the village, along Woodborough Road and Sandford Road. There is a doctor's surgery in the village, a vet and two dentists. West of the village is the Max Bog biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. History It has been suggested that the name means a valley belonging to a Saxon named Wine. The parish was part of the Winterstoke Hundred. Winscombe was the subject of a historical and archaeological study led by Professor Mick Aston, published in the Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society. Governance From 1894 to 1974 Winscombe was part of the Axbridge Rural District. When this was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972 it became part of the Woodspring district in the new county of Avon. In 1996 this became the North Somerset unitary authority, which remains part of the ceremonial county of Somerset. The MP for the Weston-super-Mare parliamentary constituency is John Penrose of the Conservative Party, who first won the seat in the 2005 General Election and has retained it subsequently. Geography Slader's Leigh is a local nature reserve. It is a wildflower meadow with plants including devil’s-bit scabious, cowslip, betony, common spotted orchid and tormentil which provide a habitat for a range of butterflies. Transport Winscombe grew in the 19th century with the arrival of a branch of the Great Western Railway, opened in 1869. This was the Cheddar Valley line, also known as the Strawberry Line, which ran from Yatton to Wells via Cheddar. The railway was closed in 1963, and today the route is a public footpath and cycle track; the site of the former Winscombe railway station is now the Millennium Green. It is possible to walk, or cycle, from the railway station to the coast at Clevedon via Sandford, Congresbury and Yatton, and in the opposite direction through the railway tunnel at Shute Shelve Hill to Axbridge and Cheddar. The railway station was originally named Woodborough,