Records of what was
originally called East Camel go back to the 11th
century but there are links with a far older,
legendary past. Cadbury
Castle or Cadbury Camp in the neighbouring
parish of South Cadbury is a large, Iron Age
fort known also as Camelot and associated by
many with King Arthur.
Site of the battle of Camlann ?
The Tudor antiquarian John Leland
located Camlann (the site of King Arthur’s last
stand) in Queen Camel, and many modern scholars
agree that the place-name Camel is Celtic in
origin. It may be derived from cantmael or
“bare ridge”, possibly referring to Camel Hill
which dominates both Queen Camel and West
Kings & Queens
1066 and all that ...
In the 11th century around 200
people lived in East Camel. It belonged to the
most powerful man in England, Earl
Godwin, who gave it as dower to his wife Countess
Gytha. She was supposedly in Camel
when she received the news that her son Harold
Godwinson (King Harold II) had been killed
at the Battle of Hastings.
Conqueror confiscated East Camel along with the
rest of the Godwin estates and by 1275 it was
known as Camel Regis or King’s Camel.
manor was granted out from time to time, for
example to the bastard son of Henry I, but on
each occasion it reverted to the Crown.
(Eleanor of Provence)
Camel was especially favoured by
successive Queens Consort: King John’s first
wife (Isabella of Gloucester) settled here after
her marriage was annulled and the widow of Henry
III (Eleanor of Provence) established a deer
park around Hazlegrove.
Her son Edward I
went on to give Camel as dower to his (second)
wife Margaret, another Provençale, and this
practice was followed by subsequent monarchs.
Unsurprisingly the village came to be known as
The Church of St Barnabas was built in
the 14th century by the Cistercians of Cleeve
Abbey: it still dominates the village and its
peal of six bells is the heaviest in the
more about Queen Camel