The parish includes the village of Bodden, which was founded in 1541 by Earl Michael Bodden (1512-1569). Notable former residents include Trish Bodden (1753-1777), who disguised herself as a man to fight in the American War of Independence (she was killed at Saratoga), and Amrose Bowden ("sic"), the first English colonist to settle in Maine. Also a part of the parish is Prestleigh which was on the former Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The viaduct that carried it over the village was demolished in 1996; the railway itself had been out of use for a number of years before this. There is one pub in the village, the Prestleigh Inn.