There are legends of St. Kew at Kewstoke. On the rocky crest of Worle Hill, looking down upon the village, is an ancient excavation of some twenty feet by twelve, popularly known as “St. Kew’s Cell”; and the long rude flight of over two hundred rocky steps towards it is, of course, “St. Kew’s Steps.” But not the most patient archæologist has ever traced any genuine association with St. Kew here. The place-name has, however, a real connection with that so-called “cell” on the height, for the excavation was a part of the elaborate defensive works constructed by ancient peoples on the summit of the Hill: a kind of guard-house situated in a difficult approach, where a small garrison could easily from behind a palisade or stockade hinder the advance of many. It is an ascertained fact that here, at various periods of strife, throughout many centuries, people of widely sundered eras have taken up a defensive position. Among the many curious finds made in or near this pit was an ancient silver fibula, or ring, coeval with the Phœnicians who are traditionally said to have traded to these coasts three thousand years ago; a Saxon knife; coarse early pottery; remains of a fifteenth-century spear, and the hilt of a seventeenth-century sword. [Illustration: RELIQUARY IN KEWSTOKE CHURCH (FRONT).] Although the sea in those times flowed to the very base of this hill, just below where the village church now stands, and submerged the site of the present broad meadowlands, it seems absolutely certain that the name of Kewstoke does not, as so often asserted, derive from the Celtic word “kewch,” or boat; and does not mean “the place of boats.” The hilltop guard-house gave the name, as may clearly be seen in Domesday Book, that valuable sidelight upon place-names, as also upon many other things. There we find “Chiwestock,” the not greatly corrupted version from the original form. It appears to mean “the stockade on the ridge.” The church, dedicated to St. Paul, is a small building, without aisles. Here is a fine Norman south door, but the principal features are Late Perpendicular. The elaborate stone pulpit dates from about 1500. The old churchwardens’ accounts abound with curious items, among them that of 1702. “Item: gave unto 7 poor ship carpenters that had their bones broken at Bristoll, O. I. O.” Doubtless the benevolent churchwardens gave this shilling with strict injunctions to the seven broken-up carpenters not to be so extravagant as to spend it all at once. But whatever they did, it is quite certain that the ratepayers of Kewstoke admonished the churchwardens against this and other reckless charities, and gave them to fully understand that any future benevolences must come out of their own personal pockets. There are no ancient monumental brasses in Kewstoke church; a fact perhaps fully accounted for by the following entry in the accounts: “1748. Item: paid for casting the ould brasses, 23 at 6_d._ ... 11. 6.”