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.
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.
There has been a church at Huish Episcopi since the 12th century. The parish was a large one including several settlements.
The church of St Michael and All Angels, Somerton was probably built in the 13th century but enlarged in the 14th including the South aisle and its
There is no evidence for the oft repeated claim that Somerton was the capital of Wessex but it was an important town as the Witan met there in 949.
Before the New Poor Law and the establishment of Union workhouses parishes had to take care of their poor in their own homes or in communal accommo
