History Continued

ILOCAL GOVERNMENT
Upton was a tithing in Bruton hundred in 1284-5, was omitted in 1327, and formed part of a tithing with Wanstrow in the 16th and 17th centuries. No records for Upton manor have been found but there was a hayward in the 1280s. Court papers for Batcombe rectory manor survive for 1724-69. The pound was recorded in 1842 and adjoined the churchyard.
In 1835 the parish became part of Shepton Mallet poor-law union and in 1894 of Shepton Mallet rural district. From 1974 it formed part of Mendip district.
CHURCH
The church probably dates from the late 12th century. It appears to have been a chapelry of Batcombe and c. 1985 both became part of the Bruton and District team ministry.
The patronage of Batcombe, held by Glastonbury Abbey until the Dissolution, descended through the Bisse and Brydges families, lords of Batcombe manor, apart from 1742 and 1790 when grantees presented, until the early 19th century when it passed to the Brown family. John Brown (d. 1878) presented himself in 1841 and remained patron, probably until his death, although the advowson was put up for sale in 1876. By 1878 it had been acquired by the Revd. Walter Baker, whose mortgage trustees sold it in 1905 to Admiral Sir George Morant. In 1947 the Revd. George Morant sold it to the Guild of All Souls who are represented on the patronage board of the team ministry.
The chapel was served by curates from Batcombe. In 1649 the income was said to be £13 6s. 8d. but the chaplain received £30 paid by the rector of Batcombe. In 1842 the tithes were commuted for a rent charge of £132 7s.
In 1623 the curate was unlicensed. Em manuel Harford, curate at the age of 20, was ejected in 1662. In the early 18th century one service was held a month and in the 1780s and 1815 every three weeks. By 1843 there was a weekly evening service and communion was celebrated four times a year. Average attendance in 1851 was said to be 50-60. There was a weekly afternoon service in 1870.
The church of ST. MARY MAGDALENE, so dedicated by 1865, had earlier been dedicated to St. Margaret. It is built of coursed rubble with ashlar dressings and has a chancel with north vestry and south chapel, a nave with a short aisle in continuation of the chapel, and a south porch over which there is a saddleback tower. Except for the tower and part of the south chapel it was rebuilt in 1878-80 by R. J. Withers of London. The south chapel was restored externally and the arch to the chancel was retained but the chancel and nave were lengthened and the late-medieval fenestration was reproduced.
The old church is said to have been blown down c. 1600 and to have been in poor condition in the late 18th century, but it was in good repair in 1840. Its surviving south doorway is of the late 12th century, probably the date of the exceptionally small nave and square chancel. The porch and tower were added in the late 13th century and the chapel and aisle in the 15th. An early medieval roundel of the crucifixion, now set in the east wall of the chapel, may be the head of a cross which was in the churchyard in 1791. The font is of the 13th century.
There are two bells without inscription. The plate includes a cup of 1647 given in the 18th century and a silver flagon of 1876 given in 1880. The registers date from 1677 but are evidently incomplete; some Upton entries are to be found in the Batcombe registers.