There is evidence of settlement at High Littleton since
Saxon times in the late 7th or 8th century. They called it Lytel tun. Hallatrow may have been much older. In the
Domesday Survey of 1086, each village covered an area of about . In early times the villages would have been almost entirely farmed, mostly
arable farming but with a mixture of
dairy farming and
sheep raising. The parish was part of the
hundred of
Chewton. According to Robinson it is listed in the 1086
Domesday Book as
Liteltone meaning 'The little enclosure' from the
Old English lytel and
tun. The property was owned by the
Bishop of Coutances and sub-let to a tenant named as Ralph Rufus.
Mining and geology Coal mines were established in the area by 1633 because on the
Somerset coalfield the coal seams ran obliquely to the surface. The first deep mine in the parish was Mearns Coalworks which began in 1783. During the 1790s,
William Smith worked extensively in the area as a mine surveyor and as chief surveyor for the
Somerset Coal Canal; and it was during this time that he formulated his ideas of rock stratification. He describes the area as the 'birthplace of geology'. By 1800 the population had grown to about 800; however, many of these may have worked in mines outside the parish. The Greyfield Coal Company did not start until 1833. It received a boost with the opening of the
Bristol and North Somerset Railway in 1873. Greyfield Colliery closed in 1911 and the railway in 1964.
Transport Hallatrow was an important station on the
Bristol and North Somerset Railway, and the junction for the branch line to
Camerton, which opened in 1882 and which was later extended eastwards along the line of the former
Somerset Coal Canal to a junction at
Limpley Stoke with the line from
Bath to
Bradford-on-Avon. In addition to its role as a junction, Hallatrow was also an important goods depot, receiving milk from local farms, printed materials from
Purnells' factory at
Paulton and local coal. The station closed when the Bristol and North Somerset line closed to passenger traffic in 1959; goods services were withdrawn in 1964 and the last train ran in 1968. == Governance ==