Minehead
Minehead photos (161 available)
Minehead maps (2 available)
Map of Somerset
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Minehead books (15 available)
- 9 photos on Minehead appear in 2 Frith books - View photos of Minehead
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Minehead and Somerset
Minehead memories
Read and share memories of Minehead and Somerset inspired by Frith photos
My childhood in Minehead
My auntie Mary used to run the donkeys on the beach. I spent each school holiday in Minehead Swimming Pool and remember the Juke Box in the cafeteria area very well. When I first moved to Minehead in 1953 I lived in the old Gasworks Cottage right on the front down past the harbour. I would be very interested if anyone has a photo of the Old Gasworks before it was demolished in the late fifties early sixties ? I had 10 aunts and uncles in the Webber family , most of whom have passed on now, and several uncles worked voluntarily on the Minehead Lifeboat, with Uncle Alf being coxswain for a number of years and uncles Jack and ...read more here
Contributed by Barry Johns
NAN'S CHRISTENING
MY GREAT GRANDPARENTS THOMAS AND LOUISA SPARKES AND THEIR CHILDREN MOVED FROM MINEHEAD TO CARDIFF.
THEIR YOUNGEST CHILD HILDA WHO WAS MY GRANDMOTHER TOLD STORIES TO MY MOTHER AND ONE OF THEM BEING THAT SHE COULD REMEMBER RUNNING UP THE CHURCH STEPS TO HER CHRISTENING IN 1900 WHEN SHE WAS 4 YEARS OLD.
Contributed by KAY BAKER
School Carol Concert
This was where my mother and father were married in 1937.
I used to walk up to the Church with the whole of Minehead Grammar School for our annual Christmas Carol Service. Our lovely music teacher, Mr Langdon, used to play the organ and I can still hear the bass notes reverberating around the Church while we sang 'God is Love' in Latin.
Contributed by Hilary Moore
pony rides
We used to call this 'the donkey slip'. It was where the Webber family started their donkey and later pony rides.
My friend and I used to be in charge of the pony rides during the summer season sometime in the 50's.
We weren't paid but had the joy of riding the ponies bareback to their field on North Hill at the end of the day, after cleaning the tackle and putting it in the stables.
Contributed by Hilary Moore
wbardry@hotmail.com
P Aden :
I was at Butlins as well. (1962 - 1964)
I remember the big dipper thing; we used to call it The Mouse. I often went up on it.
I wonder what the camp is like now. Horrible dump, blasting out rap music probably.
Contributed by First name Last name
My time at the camp.
I was born in Minehead, and have also lived in Dunster, Williton, Timberscombe and Rodhuish, and attended all the schools. I worked in Butlins Holiday Camp at Minehead from 1962-1963.
This was the first full year that the Camp was opened. Most of the time I was working the rides in the amusement park. I helped build the Big Dipper, which was 70ft high, but is gone now. Some nights I sang on the stage under the name of Elvis the 2nd, singing mostly his and Cliff Richard songs. When I was at the camp there was three Dance Floors, One for Rock & Roll, another for ballroom dancing, which once held the Come Dancing competition for the BBC. And the ...read more here
Contributed by p aden
Extracts From Minehead & Somerset books
Our brief tour of Minehead starts up in Higher Town, the old town. Here the narrow Church Steps wind from
Vicarage Road up steps to the church at the town’s summit. On the left corner is John’s Cottage, a late 16th-century
stone house with a surviving moulded timber mullioned window facing the photographer. The Bridgwater pantiles
have been replaced, and Old Lantern on the right has had its thatch replaced by slates.
An extract from from"Somerset Photographic Memories".
Nestling below the tree
and shrub covered cliffs,
with (on this occasion) sun-
drenched water, this popular
seaside resort has always
attracted not only regular
tourists but, appropriately,
a Sailors’ Home for retired
mariners. The original quay
was built in 1616. Over
the years it was fitted with
vertical and horizontal posts
to protect the jetty from
natural wave erosion, and
both quay and ships against
possible rubbing damage.
Watchet
An extract from from"Picturesque Harbours Photographic Memories".
Quay Town, along the old harbour quays, has been much changed since 1890. To make a promenade, all the cottages
on the sea side of the lane have been demolished: a great loss of character. Of those on the left, only the cottages in
the distance survive; the middle distance cottages were replaced by an Arts and Crafts style pub, The Red Lion, not
long after this view was taken.
An extract from from"Somerset Photographic Memories".
The new seaside resort was mostly laid out south of the old town on
flatter land between the Lower Town, largely destroyed by fire in
1791, and the sea. The branch railway from Taunton spurred the
resort’s growth; the station is now the terminus of the West
Somerset Railway, closed in 1971 but reopened in 1976 as a
preserved line. This view of The Parade, the centre of the new
development, gives an idea of its austere late Victorian qualities,
now much brightened by garish modern shopfronts.
An extract from from"Somerset Photographic Memories".
Redevelopment of the Parade started c1870. Lime
trees were planted in the 1880s to start the Avenue.
The buildings to the left of photograph 31223 had
just been built, replacing houses with walled gar-
dens. The building in the centre of the row, at the
end of Bancks Street, was all that remained of the
older buildings. Then a bank, it is now an estate
agents. The building protruding at the end of the
row, in Wellington Square, is now a bank. Capron’s,
the building on the far left, became a well-known
garage. It was Minehead’s first garage, established
in 1908. Two other garages were established before
the First World War but a petrol shortage during the
First World War meant horse drawn carriages and
bicycles remained popular until the 1920s.
An extract from from"Minehead Town and City Memories".