Local History
Note that this group is full - there is a waiting list for new members wishing to join
A friendly and informal group planning visits to local places of historic interest “under the radar” to explore local traditions, families, social development, agro-industrial change. These may be churches, farmsteads, houses of note, mills, hostelries etc. We also want to explore local characters and folklore, legends and rumours. We are keen to hear from Quantock based people of knowledge – and maybe develop some new insights of our own as our learning and knowledge develops. All lubricated with tea, coffee, cakes, occasionally stronger stuff, lively debate, discussion and much laughter!
Please see the Events page for details of upcoming meetings and activities
Some useful links:
| Victoria County History - Somerset | Founded in 1899 and originally dedicated to Queen Victoria, the Victoria County History (VCH) is an encyclopaedic record of England's places and people from earliest times to the present day. It has been described as the greatest publishing project in English local history. This series describes the history of the county of Somerset |
| Somerset Archive Catalogue | This catalogue contains collections held at Somerset Heritage Centre and Bath Record Office |
| Historic newspapers | Access hundreds of historic newspapers from all over Britain and Ireland |
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Quantock u3a Local History Group Meeting: 20th February 2023
East Quay Arts Centre – Watchet’s and East Quay’s history
We are indebted to Jon Turner for organising this months event, and the Onion Collective’s Jessica
Prendergrast and Georgie Grant for their time, insights and amazing achievements with the rest of
their team (more information here: https://www.onioncollective.co.uk/ ). The members of the onion
collective cut their teeth developing the Minehead Eye youth complex – an amazing asset for young
and not so young in Minehead, and in redeveloping the Boat Museum in Watchet.
We had a good turnout of 17. Here is my usual synthesis of some of the information presented. In
some 3 -4 weeks there will be boards up on the quayside with a lot of the information presented
about Watchet’s long maritime and paper-making connections. It is incredible how much has
changed for Watchet so relatively recently – it was a truly industrial hub until under 10 years ago…in
addition we were recommended to explore the Boat Museum and the Market Hall museum in
Watchet as they are both funds of historic information – so we are looking to set up visits to both in
the near and not so near future.
• 3 viking invasion 10th cent. Dors castle – hill fort above town towards Blue Anchor
• Saxon harbour suspected round mill house and inland along the river, rather than where it is
today
• 17th century quayside began to look more like today
• Huge spring tides, lots of mud
• Storm damage repeatedly
• Pirates and smugglers stories abound – find out more at boat and market house museum
• Animation of pirate king from Lundy Isle coming month or so on the East Quay website (see
below)
• White slavery victims picked up from Watchet harbour and taken to colonies
• 1643 ish “only boat ever taken by cavalry”. Royalist boat stuck in mud, parliamentarians took
it with horses
• Poets and painters tied to Watchet, e.g. ancient mariner, Daniel Defoe 1720, JMW Turner
view of Watchet, Capt Thomas Chidgay - pierhead painter
• Heyday 19th c esplanade built, mineral line, wsr introduced.
• East quay built with railway 1862, rubble under current building revealed sidings past
• Railway spurs onto pier and to paper mill
• Lifeboat launched across mud at low tide
• 1900 christmas storm 10 out of 13 ships destroyed
• Flatner boats – see the boat museum – flat bottomed for going over mudflats
• 20th c busy port, esp to Portugal for reasons unknown
• HMS Fox broken up...only one though, it never took off
• Paper mill thrived to 2015 linked to harbour for import and export, and invested in local
infrastructure. Thrived as a port ‘til 80s and this has influenced the culture of the town.
• Port closed to commercial trade in early 90s...long debate about developing marina...split led
to impounding wall...local boats in outer harbour, yachts etc. inside
• Controversial...still challenging
• 250 berths, 70 in currently
• Net 5 tonnes of mud deposited per tide...and unti new owners came in had not been
significantly dredged since opened in 2001
• Wansbrough paper mill...2 rivers hand made has tenuous links (current owner of the 2 rivers
worked at Wansbrough for about 3 years, but spent more time at a paper mill in
Hertfordshire before moving back to Roadwater.
• 300 year paper making history in Watchet. Unusual outlier as a location...geography and
port.
• Papermaking got more concentrated but Watchet survived.
• 3 generations of Wansbrough family over 60 years...so short but local
• Sold Watchet to save mill at Cheddar
• Lot of fires, complete destruction 1899 but rebuilt by Reids...paperbags, later toilet roll
centres
• 600 employees mainly men in the 70s
• 360 years of production ended in 2015 despite investment 2006, 2009 and 2016. Very quick
when it happened, 200 still working there
• Buildings still have abandoned belonging at their desks
Online tour of the wansbrough paper mill: https://www.containsart.co.uk/wansbrough
History of Onion collective (minehead eye, boat museum), challenging journey - harbour wall
collapse, the C19...holding your nerve...making history (see website above for more info.)
Tour of a pod, the current exhibition, 2 rivers paper making demo. Roadwater water mill powering
rag cotton slub making (of course my ears pricked up at the mention of a watermill!).
https://www.eastquaywatchet.co.uk/
https://www.tworiverspaper.com/
Fascinating! Thank you Jon, the Onion Collective and 2 Rivers!
SLH 20/02/23