Somerton, Somerset

The station

Our cottage in West Street used to almost back on to the railway line. We lived next door to Mr and Mrs Dummet (Aunty Mable and Uncle Ern) next door again was the telephone exchange (I think a boy called Michael Elliot lived there) then there was Station Lane then the Alms Houses. I remember when we moved up to... [more]

Brown's Fields

We knew this spot as Brown's Fields.  Farmer Brown had the dairy in Broad Street and used to drive his cows down the lane by the Lynch. In summer time we used to go down to the river to play and have picnics. In the winter time it was a great place to use your sledge.  We often used to sit... [more]

I used to live here

I grew up living in a cottage on West Street (just out of shot on the left) Next door to Mr and Mrs Vincent. Mr Vincent had the garage over the road... I remember that he had a penny farthing bike in the window.

The Cooper's had a fish shop in the Triangle there was a... [more]

Langport Road and the School

Mr Bryant had a hardware shop (on the right) I seem to remember Mrs Bryant had a Corgi dog (I was always quite scared of it) Up the road a bit on the right I’m sure Mr Garland had a little shop – he was a boot maker.

On the corner you can see the Infant’s School.... [more]

Post Office and Boy's School

The Red Lion Building used to be a Post Office run by Mr and Mrs Salter. Next door to was the Boy's School. The boys and girls went to separate schools in those days – the girls were taught by Miss Bibby at Monteclefe and the boys by Miss Lacy at the Boy’s School. I think I’d been at... [more]

Gran and Grandpa Lazenby's Shop

Gran and Grandpa Lazenby had a grocery shop here. I believe they also had a café next door but I can’t remember that. I do remember looking through the window in the back of the shop and seeing my Mum slicing bacon on a big red machine.

Mum tells me her worst job was to... [more]

The Market Square

The Library was in the building on the left – I was a real book worm so I loved being able borrow new books every week. We used to go to Sunday school at the church. Reverend Hayter was our vicar (daughters Pauline and Janet) and Mrs Leach used to teach us. She had children about my age... [more]

Somerset Photographic Memories

Heading back north, we cross the River Yeo and reach Somerton, another medieval market town, this time on a ridge in the Polden Hills and on the south bank of the River Cary, which weaves through the hills on its way to Sedgemoor. As befits its status, it has a Market Cross, rebuilt in 1673, incorporating most of the medieval masonry. In a... [more]

Somerset Photographic Memories

West of the Market Square the road divides: the left hand road goes to Long Sutton, the right fork heads for Langport. J Manning's Posting Establishment, Cycle Depot and Fancy Stores, the centrepiece of this view, is now Tony's Fish and Chips, with a modern two-storey wing at the side. The thatched house in Langport Road was rebuilt in about 1910. Everything somehow looks... [more]

Somerset Photographic Memories

Broad Street is a later medieval planned extension of the market place, which is beyond the end houses. Oblong in shape, it is a fine wide street, its qualities emphasised by the lime trees along each side. Linden House, a later 19th- century insertion on the right with gabled upper windows, dwarfs the late 18th-century cottages to its right. On the left, the mullioned... [more]