Chairman’s Letter
I am pleased to introduce the Spring edition of our newsletter.
The committee has continued to be busy on a range of projects and various members have contributed updates for you. We realise that many of you are unable to attend our evening meetings so this is a way to show you the contribution your membership of The Street Society makes.
Due to unforeseen circumstances this edition has not been published until April; many thanks to those who have still made it possible and in particular we owe a special debt of gratitude to Sarah Atkins who contributes to and edits our newsletter.
The topic at the March meeting of vernacular buildings and how to date your house proved a popular one and we publicised it as much as possible.
It is pleasing to find that non-members also come along and some then join as a result of seeing what we do.
Our April meeting, ‘Street; A new Somerset Town?’ will hopefully be another topic that will be of a wide interest, and should make an appropriate follow-on from last month.
The Street Society was invited to a presentation on 30th March about the proposal to set up a new archive facility for papers and shoes from Clarks at The Grange, and details of this request for our consultation were given to those members present in March. A report on this should appear in the next newsletter.
Members who would like to be contacted in future about such events are encouraged to give us their email address as a quick and efficient way to pass on information. Of course, as a society we do recognise that not all our members have access to the internet but perhaps they have a friend who could pass things on to them. We really do try to keep everyone “in the loop”.
April is the last evening meeting before our AGM in September. We now change to our summer programme of outdoor events, details of when and where they take place are in this newsletter.
Best wishes and thank you for your continued support.
Nina Swift
Hill House gardens
Tuesday, May 25th, 2pm
A chance to tour the gardens of Ralph and Barbara Clark’s home on Slugg Hill.
Please give your name to Hilary Napper at the April meeting or call her on 445648.
Fairfield House
Wednesday, June 16th, 2.30pm
A tour of the home of Lady Gass, Lord Lieutenant of Somerset.
£5 per person.
More details at the April meeting or from Muriel Mudie on 448034.
Coombe House gardens
Tuesday, July 20th, 2.30pm
Local councillor Alan Gloak invites us to explore his beautiful garden.
Note: there is no parking available at the house.
More details at the April meeting or from Muriel Mudie on 448034.
Somerton Town Walk
We are currently arranging an evening’s guided walk of Somerton during June or July. If you would like details when they become available please leave your name with Deanne Silmon, 443284.
LOCAL LISTING
– A PROGRESS REPORT
The list of Street’s ‘heritage assets’ is making good progress. Members have been coming forward with plenty of nominations and the background information, as well as some splendid photographs, to justify them.
We are fortunate to have work done by Michael McGarvie, Caroline Gould and Mendip District Council in the past to help with describing the majority of them. We are however enlisting some professional assistance with putting our efforts into shape. The next stages of submission, consultation and final adoption have yet to unfold, as this is a ‘first’ for Mendip.
A forum for the five towns to compare notes is to be held in Shepton Mallet on May 13th; a useful deadline for a first draft.
In the meantime I remain your Local Manager of what our Chairman has described as ‘Local Listening’ and would be pleased to hear from anybody else who would like to contribute.
We have been having some interesting times.
Sue Monaghan
448108
For those of you who haven’t made it to the monthly meetings here’s a glimpse of what you’ve missed…
CHRISTMAS MEAL
Our Christmas Meal was held in The Street Inn on December 15th and it seemed appropriate that we would be treated to a short history of the building by Muriel Mudie (reproduced in this newsletter).
The meal was very enjoyable and ended with some rousing carols, the singing of which even brought the cooks from the kitchen and woke Deanne’s grandson.
Thanks Muriel, as you changed our meal into an event.
Nina Swift
JANUARY
At the January meeting the speaker was Chris Smith of Pennard Plants in East Pennard.
He took over the walled garden in 2001 and called his talk ‘Secrets of a Victorian Walled Garden’, describing a way of life now long gone, when labour was cheap and gardening was done on a grand scale.
He gave a very interesting talk including glimpses into the everyday life of the Victorian garden where the Head Gardener ruled the roost. Exotic fruits were grown, the pineapples in a special house that was heated by steam piped in from nearby manure heaps. Another speciality was grapes and the bunches could be put in bottles designed for the purpose if ripening was slow.
The walled garden now houses a remarkable collection of beautiful plants and has gained many RHS medals.
Although not normally open to the public there will be an Open Day on Saturday, 17th July. For more information visit his website:
www.pennardplants.com.
Marion Hicks
FEBRUARY
February saw us enjoy a musical evening with Muriel Mudie on the theme of ‘Organs, Organists and Others’.
The meeting moved into the Methodist Church and started with Muriel playing the Trumpet Voluntary on the organ. She gave a potted history of famous organs and told us that St John’s in Glastonbury dates from 1440. Muriel played this organ at the wedding of the Lady Archdruid. As the organist of Meare Church she included snippets of services including a Chief Constable’s funeral with 100 policemen in uniform. Her anecdotes were interspersed with playing, including I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles, and finished with Jerusalem which everyone joined in with.
In our previous newsletter the Society was excited to be launching their first book in collaboration with member and local author Muriel Mudie.
Looking Back at Street reproduced articles from Muriel’s regular column in the Fosse Way Magazine and gave readers an insight into not only Muriel’s childhood but Street in the previous century.
It was released in time for Christmas and has proved very popular but don’t worry if you missed out. Copies are still available from the Street Tourist Information Centre in Clarks Village.
Also still available from the TIC are The Street Society notelets, depicting four images of Street.
Society members
Deanne Silmon, Muriel Mudie, Nina Swift and
Mary Hecks
The earliest record of this inn seems to date from 1767, making it nearly 250 years old. For some time it doubled as a farmhouse and inn, and is known to have been owned by the Gould family until 1881, when a brewer acquired it. It was at least partly rebuilt early in the 19th century.
The Street Inn’s heyday was in the days of coaching and posting, when up to 14 different routes came through.
Coaching inns stood around 8 to 10 miles apart, the distance horses ran freshly. At each of these “stages” coaches rolled in, changed horses and drivers, or put down passengers to stay overnight before travelling onwards.
They were the Travelodges of the day, where passengers fed and slept and the “engines” (horses) were filled up with hay, as a car is now filled with petrol.
The next stage would be the Piper’s Inn at Ashcott, but there was the equivalent of a request stop at West End. There, the writer’s great, great grandfather hailed the coach bound for Taunton; but the vehicle met disaster somewhere on the Levels, one of the last stage coach accidents (1838).
Just some of the routes stopping at the Street Inn included Falmouth, Bath, Exeter, London, Bristol, Bridgwater, Weymouth and Lyme Regis.
Sometimes the Cross must have been much noisier than today, with all the rattling of harnesses, grinding wheels, shouting ostlers and horses on poorly made roads.
Once in a while the Prisoners’ coach came through, from the Assizes at Wells to the gallows at Taunton.
One local carrier had up to 100 horses stabled, opposite the Inn.
On St Thomas’ Day (December 21st) the Inn was even more crowded and noisy when the annual fair happened outside, dealing in cattle, other livestock, and rough entertainment.
Specially well remembered was a famous riot of 1838 when election fever and the demon-drink met up in a huge battle. After voting, a party of Tories settled down to supper at the Street Inn, soon to be stopped when a mob of Whigs marched past and a few roughs with pokers and poles grabbed from the Inn set about them. Once a few Whigs had been dragged off their carts and smashed up by the drunken Tory element, a full-scale riot quickly developed. All the way from the Cross to Clark’s, fists flew, strong words were bawled, further weapons were taken from the factory and the supposed ring-leader was thrown over. He was no less than one of the organists at Wells Cathedral!
The Street Inn had a special place for troops during World War 2. Thousands were billeted around here for training periods before going across into Europe: Poles, Canadians, New Zealanders and Americans. Not surprisingly, the “world’s oldest profession” was rumoured to be practised by a few local ladies. One of them was suspected by her neighbours because of the odd underwear on her washing line!
On Victory Night in 1945 celebrations culminated in a huge bonfire on Ivythorn Hill where a whole cart-load of free cider was drunk dry. Finally near midnight, everyone trooped back down Somerton Road, to pack the bars and sing for joy.
Much more recently the Inn briefly made the national press and the TV news after a triple shooting in 2005. Two men were shot outside this pub before the assassin drove off and later shot himself dead.
Fortunately however such scenes are rare hereabouts and the Street Inn simply concentrates on doing the same as it did for our ancestors in coaching days: offering a warm retreat, a drink or three and time socialising before travelling onwards.
Muriel. V. Mudie. 2009
IT SUPPORT
Like many local interest groups we have a website which tells the public who we are and what we do. We are regularly contacted by people interested in joining us or looking for more information.
But unfortunately our website is currently out of date and we urgently need some technical support.
If you have any experience with maintaining websites or have a keen interest to learn please get in touch. Whether you can offer regular support or a one-off session to get us up and running again we would appreciate your help.
Telephone Catherine Atkins or email the society (details below).
Can you help?
GET INVOLVED
The committee welcome the involvement of all members, whether on a formal or adhoc basis.
Come along to a committee meeting and find out what is on the agenda. There is no need to make a regular commitment or hold a post.
Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday, 5th May 2010 at 10.00am at 33 Brooks Road, Street.
YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS
Items for the newsletter are always welcome; long or short, informative or anecdotal. Please email them (address below) or post them to The Street Society Newsletter Editor, 12 Green Lane, Street, BA16 0QL.