Aller is a village and parish in Somerset, England, situated west of Somerton on the A372 road towards Bridgwater in the South Somerset district. The village has a population of 410. The parish includes the hamlet of Beer (sometimes Bere or Bere Aller) and the deserted medieval village of Oath on the opposite bank of the River Parrett. History Aller was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Alre, meaning 'The alder tree' from the Old English alor. The parish of Aller was part of the hundred of Somerton. Most of the valuable meadows had been enclosed by 1577, but the surrounding fields were not enclosed until 1797. Between 1614 and 1616 there was a struggle between the lord, Sir John Davis, who had recently purchased the manor, and the tenants over the building of hedges and gates to increase the value of the remaining of common ground. The meadows remained open and Davis sold the manor to John Stawell of Cothelstone in 1623. Oath Lock marks the tidal limit of the River Parrett. It was added when it was realised that the locks at Stanmoor, Langport and Muchelney, with a half-lock at Thorney, would not provide the depth of water specified in the Act of Parliament of 4 July 1836 which authorised the building of the navigation. Church The Church of St Andrew has Saxon origins with some parts dating from the 12th and 13th centuries, with restoration work undertaken several times since, the most major of which was in 1861–62 by John Norton. It is a Grade II* listed building. English Heritage has included it in the Heritage at Risk Register. The font is a simple limestone bowl, less than a metre tall, which is thought to be Saxon in origin, one of only three in England and was possibly the one used for the baptism of Guthrum after his defeat by King Alfred The Great after the Battle of Ethandun in 878. It was retrieved from the pond of the vicarage garden around 1870 and now stands in the south-west corner of the nave. A copy of the font was made by a stonemason in Corvallis, Oregon, in the 1880s, to memorialise the son of the rector of Aller, Rev. J.Y. Nicholson. The copy of Aller's historic font was in the Episcopalian Church of the Good Samaritan. Present The social centres of the village are St