It’s 75 years since the worst blitz bombings devastated areas of Weston-super-Mare on 28 and 29 June 1942. The Weston Mercury this week features and articles and pictures showing the impact on the town. See the article for more details here .
All posts by Discover North Somerset Team
For the first time, historical maps of North Somerset are now freely available online thanks to the Know Your Place West of England project, supported by the National Lottery.
From the coastal communities of Portishead, Clevedon and Weston, further inland to Blagdon and Leigh Woods, you can now discover how North Somerset has been transformed over time. Five historic map layers of North Somerset are now online, allowing you to explore some of the most famous natural and man-made landmarks, from Uphill to Wrington Vale, and Royal Portbury Docks to the famous Grand Pier at Weston. Alongside historic maps you can freely explore data from the Historic Environment Record for North Somerset.
You will also be able to upload and share your own information about the area straight onto Know Your Place helping to build a rich and diverse community map of local heritage for everyone – from schoolchildren to family historians and planners to enthusiasts of community heritage.
More than 50 project volunteers are working hard to prepare further historic maps, which will be added onto Know Your Place North Somerset over the coming months. South West Heritage Trust in Taunton supplied many of the original maps. In addition, collections from museums are featured in a touring exhibition that will visit North Somerset libraries in the coming months.
Cat Lodge, Archaeologist at North Somerset Council, said: “We are grateful for the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund in facilitating such an exciting project which will enable residents of North Somerset to better interact with and explore the history and heritage of their local areas. Through the use of digital mapping, users are able to see how their communities have developed over time and add to the historical knowledge of those places.
“Know Your Place is a valuable resource which will not only aid community historical and archaeological groups and schools in local research, but also contribute to adding new information to North Somerset Council’s Historic Environment Record and raise the profile of heritage in the district.”
Nerys Watts, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund South West, said: “Know Your Place West of England is a fantastic resource, bringing together the history of this area so people can discover the ever-changing make-up of the places where they live and work. If you have bought a National Lottery ticket recently, you have helped to support these types of projects that are preserving the precious heritage of our communities for future generations. Thank you.”
Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, the Know Your Place West of England project was awarded £379,800 by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), with generous match-funding and in-kind support from local authorities and heritage groups in the region, including £5,000 match-funding from lead partner South Gloucestershire Council.
You can start exploring North Somerset’s maps and heritage information at the project’s website www.kypwest.org.uk .
Vote for your favourite blue plaque
The Weston Mercury are inviting readers to vote for their favourite blue plaque in Weston-super-Mare. The town’s heritage is being celebrated with 13 blue plaques dedicated to prominent people from the town’s past. The first – for Olympian Paulo Radmilovic – has already been installed by Weston Town Council. But now you have a chance to vote which plaques you would like to see go up next, subject to the agreement of the building’s owner. Simply read the biographies of these 12 people, then vote for your favourites in the poll on the website.
New heritage walk in Clevedon
Marlens have compiled a new walk covering the Clevedon seafront heritage trail .
The trail begins at the pier’s toll house in Marine Parade and leads walkers to the other side of the seafront, along Poet’s Walk before ending at St Andrew’s Church in Old Church Road. The route also passes a number of interesting and historical landmarks and buildings along the way including the bandstand, Marine Lake and Clevedon Hall.
Talks for 2017
The Weston-Super-Mare Archaeological and Natural History Society (WAHNS) plan to host some new talks this spring for members and non-members. Recommended to check with the group before attending.
Tuesday 11th April 2017:
“The Archaeology of Cross Rail, Western Section”
Vix Hughes, Project Officer, Oxford Archaeology.
Tuesday 9th May 2017: “Rock End and the lost cottages of Cheddar”
Susan Shaw, Somerset Vernacular Buildings Research Group.
Meetings will be held at Victoria Methodist Church Hall, Station Road, Weston-Super-Mare, BS23 1XU
Doors open at 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start. Parking behind church after 7pm.
Refreshments are free and will be served during the meetings.
Members £1, visitors £2.50.
Windmills
Windmills
At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 there were about 370 mills in Somerset but these were all water powered or driven by animals. The earliest reference to a windmill in Somerset was at Seavington near Ilminster in around 1212. References to windmills became more common from the 13th century onwards. Many of the early windmills were erected on land which belonged to Glastonbury Abbey e.g. the Polden Hills, which had good soil for growing corn.
The earliest windmills were post mills. These continued to be used until the 19th century. Post mills consist of a timber body containing the machinery and carrying the sails, which pivots around a single massive vertical timber post, so that the sails can be turned to face the wind. The post is held in position by 4 diagonal quarter bars, which are in turn fixed to 2 timbers known as cross trees at ground level. Post mills were often set upon specially constructed artificial mounds or sometimes made use of existing round barrows (ancient burial mounds).
In the 16th century the power of the abbeys and manors began to decline and many windmills were abandoned. By the early 18th century tower mills were replacing post mills in Somerset. They were more stable than post mills and also had more storage and working space in them. In a tower mill only the cap and sails had to be turned to face the wind. In many cases the tower mills were built on sites that had previously been occupied by post mills. No post mills have survived anywhere in Somerset and no windmills remain intact in North Somerset.
Many of Somerset’s windmills ceased to be used by the mid-19th century. After the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, cheap grain imports from the Americas flooded the market and prices dropped. Imported grain was milled close to the ports where it arrived in the country. The decline in Somerset’s windmills was accelerated by a move away from arable to pasture and a series of bad harvests in the 1870s.
The truncated remains of seven windmills still exist in North Somerset: at Portishead, Uphill, Worlebury Hill, Locking, Felton, Brockley Wood and Hutton. There is also a replica windmill tower at Kenn.
Uphill Hill
The windmill on Uphill Hill was probably built in the 1780s. It was derelict by 1829. The tower was rebuilt with a castellated top and internal spiral staircase in 1934 so it could be used as an observation tower. It is still in use for this purpose.
Windmill, Portishead
Portishead Windmill
Portishead Windmill was built by John Nesbitt in 1832. However it had stopped working by 1846 because it was unable to compete with a steam driven mill in the town. Around 1848 the machinery was removed and the mill tower was converted into additional living accommodation for the tenants of Mill Cottage. When a golf course was laid out around it in 1908 the tower was incorporated into the clubhouse. It is currently an integral part of the Windmill Inn public house.
The Observatory on Worlebury Hill
A windmill was first recorded at the east end of Worlebury Hill in 1760. In 1870 an advertisement was placed for the sale or rent of the windmill and its associated bakery business. However it was converted into an observatory not long after and a parapet was added.
Replica windmill at Kenn
A three storey windmill with a thatched cap was built at Kenn in 1821. By around 1883 wind power was being supplemented by a steam engine. The windmill had stopped working by 1900. It was used as a Home Guard lookout during the Second World War. The ruined tower survived until 2003 when it was demolished during the building of Kenn Business Park. A replica mill tower was built on Windmill Road.
It is not known when Brockley Wood Windmill was built but it was in ruins by 1829. Part of the tower is still standing deep in the heart of Brockley Woods.
Vale Mill, Locking
Vale Mill on Moor Lane at Locking was built in around 1813. The windmill stopped working between 1906 and 1910. It stood empty but intact until it was gutted by fire in 1962. It remained derelict until the late 1960s when it was incorporated into a new house.
Hutton Windmill was probably built in the early 19 th century. It had stopped working by 1864 and was derelict by the 1920s. It was rebuilt and used a Royal Observer Corps Post during the Second World War. It is now located in the garden of a private house on Windmill Hill.
Broadfield Mill, Felton
Broadfield Mill on Felton Common was located on the top of a hill, 190 metres above sea level. It is not known when it was built but it ceased to work late in the 1880s and was converted into a house soon afterwards.
Further reading:
Windmills of Somerset and the Men who Worked Them : Alfred J. Coulthard and Martin Watts. The Research Publishing Co., 1978.
Somerset Windmills : Martin Watts. Agraphicus, 1975
Poets’ Walk, Clevedon
The town of Clevedon has connections to two of England’s best known poets.
Poets’ Walk is a popular footpath which runs along the coast and around Wain’s Hill and Church Hill at the southern end of Clevedon. The walk is said to have inspired poets such as Alfred Tennyson , Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Makepeace Thackeray, who visited the town. The formal path which exists today was constructed in 1929. Poets’ Walk was designated as a Local Nature Reserve in 1993.
The Sugar Lookout is a feature on Poets’ Walk. It was built by Ferdinand Beeston in around 1835. It is said to have been used in the mid-19 th century by a family of sugar importers called Finzel to look out for ships sailing up the Bristol Channel, which were carrying sugar from the West Indies. It later fell into ruin but has recently been restored.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his wife Sarah spent the first few months of their married life in a cottage on Old Church Road in Clevedon in 1795.
In the mid-18 th century the author William Makepeace Thackeray was a frequent visitor of the Elton Family, who lived at Clevedon Court. He is best known as a novelist but he did also write some poetry.
Alfred Tennyson had a close friend at Cambridge University called Arthur Hallam. Arthur’s mother was a member of the Elton family of Clevedon Court. Arthur, who was a poet and essayist, was engaged to marry Tennyson’s sister Emily but he died suddenly in Vienna in 1833 at the age of 22. His body was brought back to England and he was buried in the family vault at St Andrew’s Church in Clevedon. In 1850 Tennyson wrote a poem called In Memorium in tribute to his friend. In the same year he made his first visit to Clevedon. The house on Old Church Road in Clevedon, where he is said to have stayed, is called Tennyson House. A nearby road is called Tennyson Avenue.
Penicillin Production in Clevedon
Antibiotics are compounds produced by bacteria and fungi, which are capable of killing or inhibiting the growth of other microbial species. Before their introduction as medicines, there was no effective treatment for infections such as pneumonia, meningitis or rheumatic fever.
In 1928 Alexander Fleming, who was a Scottish bacteriologist working in London, first noticed that the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus wouldn’t grow in the parts of a culture, which had accidentally been contaminated by the green mould Penicillium notatum. He conducted research on the mould and discovered that it produced a substance capable of killing many of the common bacteria, which cause infections in humans. However he was unable to produce a purified form, which was also stable.
Further research was carried out in the late 1930s by British biochemist Ernst Boris Chain , Australian pathologist Howard Florey and others at Oxford University to produce penicillin in a form that could be used as a human medicine. By 1941 they had developed an injectable form of the drug, which was available for use in humans. During the Second World War development of large scale production of penicillin took place in the United States. However it was also produced in Clevedon .
In 1943 the Royal Navy set up their first laboratory in Clevedon at the White House in Highdale Road . However it wasn’t large enough, so the equipment was moved to the house that is now 5 Elton Road , although at this time it was No 4 and was called Eastington House. The rooms in the house were used for research and assay laboratories. The penicillin was produced in a factory built on land behind the house.
Penicillin was produced by growing the Penicillium notatum mould on a culture medium at a controlled temperature. This was done in sterilised milk bottles. 40,000 were used at Clevedon, as each one only produced a very small amount of antibiotic. Many local people were employed in the laboratories, in addition to the Royal Navy staff. The freeze dried powder was packed and distributed to the armed forces and a few civilian establishments. When reconstituted with sterilised water it became injectable.
After the end of the Second World War the Royal Navy sold the Clevedon factory to Distillers Company Ltd. They moved in at the beginning of 1947. They worked on developing new antibiotics but in 1949 the research station was transferred to the Medical Research Council. They continued research in to antibiotic alternatives to penicillin and also manufactured other drugs. The Clevedon site closed in 1961.
Further Reading :
Clevedon Places and Faces: Rob Cambell (editor). Matador, 2010
Clevedon Civic Society History Talks
Clevedon Civic Society Local History Group are hosting a number of history themed talks in 2017, starting with ‘Celtic Legacy’ by Derek Lilly, on 19 January. Details of events can be found on their website . Visitors are welcome to attend for £3.
North Somerset Almshouses
Almshouses are buildings which provide residential accommodation for elderly or frail people. They were established at a time when there was no alternative welfare provision. The earliest almshouses were built by medieval monasteries as buildings from which alms and hospitality could be dispensed. At this time they were also known as hospitals or maison dieu (house of God). The first recorded almshouses were founded in York by King Athelstan in the 10 th century.
By the early 14th century the endowment of almshouses had become a popular form of charitable bequest by rich benefactors, for example kings and queens, aristocrats, bishops and merchants. Many of the benefactors were women. They set out their wishes in a deed, which detailed the eligibility criteria for their almshouses. Entry requirements often stipulated that residents should have lived in a specified place and be of a particular gender, marital status, occupational background, religious denomination or minimum age at admission.
The almhouses, which were sometimes known as bede-houses (bede was the Middle English word for prayer), sometimes included a chapel and the residents were often required to attend regular services to pray for the soul of the benefactor. The residents had to abide by rules and were supervised by a master, chaplain, lecturer, reader, matron or mother. Some almshouses catered for the terminally ill. Sometimes nursing care was provided by fellow residents if they were well enough to do so.
Many almshouses are comprised of a range of houses around a courtyard. This arrangement provided residents with a sense of safety and security. The more generous benefactors established funds to pay for fuel for heating, lighting and cooking; clothing (sometimes a uniform) and food and drink.
Many of the monastic almshouses disappeared at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII (1536-40). However after the Reformation, almshouses continued to be established in many towns and villages. Many almshouses still survive from the 17 th and 18 th centuries and many more were established in the 19 th century. There are currently about 1,700 almshouse charities in the UK, which together provide homes for around 35,000 people. Over 30% occupy listed buildings, many of which are architecturally distinctive.
The historic county of Somerset contains a large number of surviving almshouses. However they are thinner on the ground in North Somerset. There are almshouses in Long Ashton, Churchill, Langford and Yatton.
These almshouses were constructed in 1887 at the expense of Sidney Hill of Langford House.
These almshouses were also paid for by Sidney Hill of Langford House. They were built in 1907 in the Arts and Crafts vernacular style. The plan is a U-shape.
Lady Smyth’s Almhouses, Long Ashton Road, Long Ashton
This row of 8 almshouses was built in 1902 at the expense of Lady Emily Smyth, who lived at Ashton Court.
Lady Florence Stalling, who died in 1621, left money for these almshouses
Further Reading:
Almshouses: Anna Hallett. Shire, 2004
Almshouses : Brian Bailey. Robert Hale, 1988
