Somerset

Richard Phelps is little known today but was a prolific portrait painter and a designer of follies in West Somerset.

Walking, carefully, on the beach below the cliffs from Watchet's West Beach to Blue Anchor you can see huge falls of rock in which shine bright fra

Many retired master mariners were always designated Captain and no doubt spent their leisure hours down at the harbour reminiscing of their days at

Watchet’s seamen included many characters of whom the fictional Anc

Coastal shipping was the mainstay of the port of Minehead and many ships were owned by Minehead merchants, mariners and others.

The 17th century was a time of prosperity in Minehead as surviving houses of the period attest.

Minehead like most places was affected by the loss of men to the front during the First World War but as a port the town was used to war and its conse

The small parish of Timberscombe in the Avill valley south of Dunster, far away from the theatres of war, showed extraordinary patriotism following

The little river Avill drove a surprising number of corn and fulling mills in the Middle Ages.

The river Avill, famous for the snowdrop valley near its source, is small but significant.