We are all probably familiar with the nursery rhyme
'Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water .
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after'
But it's origins are, as a lot of nursery rhymes, surrounded in mystery, however, if you gone to the village of Kilmersdon, near Radstock, in Somerset you will find a plaque (see my pic) at the foot of Jack and Jill hill commemorating the event.
The story goes like this....
In 1697 a local unmarried woman named Jill became pregnant. One day the presumed father, Jack, was hit by a boulder from nearby Badstone Quarry and died. Jill went on to have the child, but she herself died not long afterwards. Villagers raised the boy, ‘Jill's son', and this is supposedly where the common local surname Gilson comes from.
Who know's, but there always appears to be an element of truth in these stories handed down.