Minehead, The Parade 1903

Photo ref: 49640

More about this scene

Jurassic 'blue lias' limestone. This has been used in some of the older buildings around North Hill, including the tower of St Michael's church. Some red Triassic mudstone from the Vale of Porlock was used during the 1930s building boom, but proved too porous. In places it was so soft it was worked for brick clay. The town had two brickworks, the one on the Warren operating from 1750 to 1919 and one on the Porlock road operating from 1897 to 1947. They produced more than enough bricks and tiles to supply the boom in building in Minehead with the expansion of the tourist industry and there was considerable export. The economic upheavals of the two world wars subsequently put them out of business. Bratton Water once continued as an open run from what is now the Parade end of the Avenue across what is now Blenheim Gardens to the sea. A track running beside the stream was one of Minehead's original medieval streets. Originally called La Lane, it became known as Water Lane. There was a pleasant walk by the stream but it was liable to flooding and so was enclosed in a culvert in the 1870s, only to continue to flood the new streets above.