Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Britanniaville, Massachusetts

33 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Taunton City. It lies in ZIP code area 02780. It stands on Prospect Hill. The Survey maps it on the Taunton quadrangle.

Britanniaville within Bristol County

Then and now

1885 to 1987

The same ground, surveyed 102 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Britanniaville, surveyed 1987

Topographic sheet of Britanniaville, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

33 sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Taunton city, The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883 - Taunton City

The Weather

How all the people are enjoying this nice weather we are having! Real summer weather. But to the farmers, or some in certain lines of farming, this moderate weather is "not so good." These premature samples of springtime are unfortunate, especially for the peach orchardist. As every groWar knows, peach trees are susceptible to cold weather, and if it does grow very cold again, and there is every likelihood of it, there will be much wood killed and a very small fruit yield in our section this coming season.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

195,005 words on this township

History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883 names this settlement in its chapter on Taunton City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The high school constitutes the third and last grade of- the system. The course of instruction comprises four steps, each designed for one year. The studies are: English Language, including Grammar, Rhetoric, English Literature, Reading, Writing, Orthography, Orthoepy, Composition, Declamation; Latin, French, Greek ; Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Surveying, Elementary Mechanics, Practical Problems in Arithmetic, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Physiology, Physical Geography, Geology, Botany, Zoology, Astronomy; Intellectual Philosophy, Political Economy, and Constitution of the United States, General History, Ancient Geography, and History ; Free-Hand Drawing ; Vocal Music.

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

Britanniaville. - The location of this prosperous village of industrial enterprise on Mill River, half a mile below Whittenton, was occupied a century and a half ago by a grist-mill, situated on the south of Britannia Street dam, and a saw-mill a few rods below, owned by Capt. James Leonard3 and others. He conveyed his portion of the privilege and mills in 1776, for one hundred and sixty pounds, to John Adam, an enterprising merchant of Taunton, who built a dam, rolling- and slitting-mill, some distance below the above mills, by Danforth Street crossing. There was also a small saw-mill and fulling-mill above this bridge. The enterprise of Mr. Adam did not prove successful. In 1791 he disposed-of the slittingmill, dwelling-house adjoining, privilege and appurtenances (a portion of which he had previously purchased of Abiather and Samuel Leonard) for three hundred and thirty-seven pounds.

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

Hopewell Mills. - About a hundred years ago, a third of a mile below the old grist-mill dam (now Britanniaville), on Mill River, was another dam, and a small "cutting-mill," owned by Samuel Leonard,1 where, a few years later, Joseph Burbank, with a few ancient machines and two or three men, cut nails, such as were headed by hand in those days of simple machinery. It was said to be the first nail-cutting mill in Taunton. The site had no special history ; there was a small waterfall and a rocky ravine. It was the site of the present Hopewell Mills and surrounding buildings. Charles Richmond, with his irresistible energy and enterprise, conceived the plan of building cotton-mills there, in his own emphatic words, "To make Hopewell shine with industry."

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Taunton City - it names this place 1 more 1 time.

Fires near this place

69 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 69 fires within 5 miles of Britanniaville between 2003 and 2020, burning about 48 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	33
Debris and open burning	14
Recreation and ceremony	8
Smoking	7
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Fireworks	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Natural	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
16 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 August 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
28 August 2007	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
15 August 2020	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
13 August 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
13 August 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
11 August 2020	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
10 August 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Bristol County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 1,574 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,574 specimens collected within 10 miles of Britanniaville between 1855 and 1975: 1,018 Animalia, 367 Plantae, 180 Fungi, 6 Chromista, 2 Unrecorded, 1 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A E Schuyler, A. A. Eaton and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Apocynum cannabinum L.	1855	F. C. Seymour	Rehoboth
Astur Lacepède, 1799	1860	C. D. Lincoln	Taunton
Carex panicea L.	1863	J. H. Dean
Carex L.	1864	J. H. Dean	Taunton.
Carex vulpinoidea Michx.	1864	J. H. Dean
Hypoxis hirsuta (L.) Coville	1874	not recorded
Chelidonium majus L.	1875	not recorded
Lygodium palmatum (Bernh.) Sw.	1875	not recorded
Berberis vulgaris L.	1876	not recorded
Empidonax minimus (W.M.Baird & S.F.Baird, 1843)	1877	C.P. Snow	Taunton, North
Chaetura pelagica (Linnaeus, 1758)	1878	C. F. Snow	MASSACHUSETTS: Bristol County; Taunton
Coccyzus erythropthalmus (A.Wilson, 1811)	1878	not recorded	Taunton

All 1,574 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Britanniaville: 4 past producers, 4 producers, 1 unknown. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Taunton Plant	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
King Trucking Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Landfill Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Mc Cabe Sand and Gravel Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Mccabe Sand & Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
Mccabe Sand and Gravel Company Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Raynham Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Raynham Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Bristol County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Whittenton Junction	0.5 miles	33
Whittenton	0.8 miles	33
Taunton	1.5 miles	33
Oakland	1.8 miles	33
Prattville	1.9 miles	33
Weir Village	2.7 miles	33
Raynham	2.7 miles	33
Westville	2.7 miles	33

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikidata item Q122596103

The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 617289. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.