Timeline of Stockmoor (the modern housing area south of North Petherton) and the land it sits on:
- Prehistory–Roman era: The surrounding Somerset Levels were seasonal wetlands used and crossed by prehistoric trackways; Romans exploited the drained margins.
- Saxon period (7th–11th c.): North Petherton formed the centre of a large royal estate and later a hundred; the parish extent included the moorland later known as “Stock Moor.”
- 12th–13th c.: Royal deer park and forest of Petherton Park established/extended east of the town under Henry II; royal administration of the wider landscape shapes settlement and land management.
- 1391–1400: Poet Geoffrey Chaucer serves as a (deputy) forester of Petherton Park, tying the area to royal oversight.
- 16th–17th c.: The park begins to be broken up and leased; by the later 1600s it is divided among multiple holdings as the medieval royal landscape fragments.
- 1693: The Alfred Jewel—a late-9th-century Anglo-Saxon masterpiece—is found within Petherton Park lands (a core part of the local landscape that includes today’s Stockmoor/Wilstock area).
- 18th–19th c.: Enclosure and drainage works accelerate across the nearby moors; the wider parish develops with turnpike routes (1730s) and, later, canal/rail links serving Bridgwater and North Petherton.
- 1970s: Opening of the M5 near Junction 24 drives commuter growth and the creation of new estates around North Petherton.
- 2007–2010s: Stockmoor Village is laid out as a major new community (part of the wider Wilstock/Stockmoor growth area) with c. 1,500 homes, a neighbourhood centre, apartments above shops, and consent for a care home; HDD acquires and develops the core mixed-use site from 2007.
- 2010s: Primary education within/serving the estate is centred on nearby Somerset Bridge Primary School (Stockmoor Drive), as the neighbourhood fills out.
- 2018–2019: Local forums and Town Council minutes discuss finalising the green infrastructure between Wilstock and Stockmoor and issues like parking and adoption of estate roads—marking the shift from build-out to place-management.
- By early 2020s: The 42-hectare Wilstock & Stockmoor Country Park (grassland, ponds, rhynes) is in use between the two communities, managed by Somerset Council’s Green Estates team.
- 2022–2025: Further phases/adjacent schemes (e.g., BoKlok/Vistry applications) continue to plug gaps and connect to the Country Park and wider walking/cycling network.