Wraxall is a village in North Somerset, England, about west of Bristol. Until 1811 the parish of the same name also included Nailsea and Flax Bourton. The village is now within the parish of Wraxall and Failand. History The origin of the name Wraxall, which is shared with other villages in Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset, is thought to be "a nook of land frequented by buzzards". Earthworks of an oval defended settlement, surrounded by a bank and ditch, indicated the site of an Iron Age defended settlement south of Manor Farm. Wraxall Court was the original manor house. After the Norman conquest the Manor belonged to the De Wrokeshale family until it passed to the Moreville and then Gorges family by marriage. The parish of Wraxall was part of the Portbury Hundred. In Victorian times the Ford family lived at the Court. it was taken over by the Admiralty during the Second World War and later became a Hall of Residence for Bristol University. Earthworks from a deserted medieval settlement, east-south-east of Wraxall House, indicate houses, enclosures and possibly a watermill which were occupied in the Middle Ages. The only waterwheel still operating on the Land Yeo is at Watercress Farm. The diameter wheel, which was built before 1885 and is housed in a small brick building, is used as a water pump. The other mill in the parish of Wraxall operated in the 18th and 19th centuries. It fell out of use by 1885 and was a ruin by 1950. The mill was demolished in 1961 to allow for the road widening and straightening of Wraxall Score. Today the only remains are crumbling walls by the entrance to Wraxall House. An area known as "The Rocks" stretches north from the Battleaxes to Failand, its many quarries being the source of some of the local building stone (oolitic conglomerate). Failand once had a chapel of ease, but now has the Victorian church of St Bartholomew; the village is relatively modern. The Battleaxes free house, which was previously known as the Widdicombe Arms, was built in 1838 and is a grade II listed building. It was built originally as the meeting house for the workers at Tyntesfield Estate. Wraxall Cross Tree, a large elm, used to be found on in the small triangle of land where Wraxall Hill meets with the Bristol Road (B3130). The original tree had become hollow and