The name is believed to come from the Carthusian order of Chartreuse in France, which was established in Witham (near Frome) in 1181 and formed a cell at Charterhouse in 1283 with a grant to mine lead ore.[2][3][4]
There is evidence, in the form of burials in local caves, of human occupation since the late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age.[5]
The lead and silvermines at Charterhouse were first operated on a large scale by the Romans, from at least AD 49.[6] At first the lead/silver industries were tightly controlled by the Roman military, but within a short time the extraction of these metals was contracted out to civilian companies, probably because the silver content of the local ore was not particularly high.[7] There was also some kind of 'fortlet' here in the 1st century, and an amphitheatre.[8] The Roman landscape has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.[9]
Charter-House-on-Mendip was an extra-parochial ville,[11] from 1858 Charterhouse was a civil parish in its own right, on 1 April 1933 the parish was abolished and merged with Blagdon and Cheddar.[12]
There is further evidence of mine workings in the medieval and Victorian periods,[13][14] some of which survives within the Blackmoor Nature Reserve owned by Somerset County Council. There is also evidence of a rectangular medieval enclosure.[15]
The Church of St Hugh was built in 1908 by W.D. Caroe, on the initiative of the Rev. Menzies Lambrick,[16] from the former welfare hall for the lead miners. It is a Grade II* listed building.[17] A cross in the churchyard[18] and the churchyard wall[19] are also listed buildings.
The roof-truss, screen, rood, and altar are all made of carved whitened oak.[16]
