Wookey
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Map of Somerset
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Wookey books (7 available)
Wookey memories
Read and share memories of Wookey and Somerset inspired by Frith photos
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Somerset memories
I have just been transported back in time by this photo
I was born in Wells .. and lived and went to school in Westbury.. my grandfather was Joseph Carver and my grandmother Elizabeth Carver (Libby) I used to walk up this hill to my grans cottage which was situated at the top of Westbury (Old Ditch) my Uncle Toms Cottage was to the right (not in picture) and I used to call in and see him on the way past .. alas all three relatives passed away several years ago .. and I now live in Weston-super-Mare .. but have fond memories of the village .. and my ancestry .. the Derricks and the Carvers have lived in the village for centuries ..
read more here
A memory of Westbury Sub Mendip contributed by First name Last name
Rodney Stoke Inn
My great-grandfather, Silvester Hale, ran the Inn from about 1880 until he died in 1911. One of his sons, my great-uncle Reginald, was lost on the Titanic. His body was recovered and I still have a shilling piece which was found in his pocket.
I have many fond memories of holidays in Rodney Stoke from 1949 until 1976. My parents and myself used to stay with Charlie and Queenie Fear at Rosedene in Scaddens Lane. Just left of centre in the picture is the Post Office which was run by Mrs Rhodda during the 1950s. The left turn by the Post Office took you up Scaddens Lane. The right turn opposite the Post Office took you down Stoke Street. My great-uncle ...read more here
A memory of Rodney Stoke contributed by First name Last name
The Roman Way
We moved to Glastonbury in 1994 and left in 2000.
We loved our time there and have wonderful memories of walking our dogs along Wearyall Hill and across the fields at the back of our house then along the banks of the River Brue. We were able to sit up in bed with a cup of tea in the morning and look at the sunrise over Glastonbury Tor. A very special place that we go back and visit often.
A memory of Glastonbury contributed by Beverley Thouless
The Ring o' Bells Public House, Meare
The building on the extreme right of the photograph used to be the Ring o' Bells Public House, owned by my great grandfather, Jesse Laver Difford. It was initially called The Grapevine Inn, or was called that when my grandmother was born there, in 1880 and its name changed to the Ring o' Bells at some time later.
A memory of Meare contributed by Ann Lilly
Extracts From Wookey & Somerset books
This is the oldest part of the cathedral - the stiff-leaf carvings on the capitals of the north-west side are simpler in design
than those east of this point. The bishop’s seat or ‘cathedra’ is on the left.
An extract from from"Wells Photographic Memories".
WE BEGIN the tour of the city by the Dean’s Eye
gate-house, the dropping-off point both for mod-
ern tour coaches and ancient stagecoaches. Until
about 1970, one-way traffic passed under this
gate-house into Sadler Street, the main road from
London and Bath to Exeter. The Dean’s Eye is also
known as Browne’s gate, after a cobbler who lived
alongside it in 1553.
The east side of the street was developed after
1340, but some deeds for the west side date
back as far as 1301. On the west side is the white
Georgian façade of one of the earliest coaching
inns: the Hart’s Head, known as the White Hart
from 1700. It was built on dean and chapter land,
and has been an inn since 1497. The site of the
Hart’s Head first appears in the 1343 Commoner’s
Accounts; it was bequeathed five years earlier in
return for prayers for ‘the repose of the soul of
Ralph de Lullington’.
An extract from from"Wells Photographic Memories".
The frontage of the Swan Hotel hides its 15th- and 16th-century origins. The window to the left of the swan on its plinth
was once a doorway permitting passengers to walk into the hotel from the top of a stagecoach. The little garden was created
in 1869. The Swan Hotel, first recorded in 1422 and rebuilt in the 16th century, hosted a feast in honour of Queen Anne of
Denmark in 1613. The hotel has some theatrical costumes permanently on show on the ground floor; these were worn by
the 19th-century actor Sir Henry (Brodribb) Irving. He was the first actor to receive a knighthood (1895).
An extract from from"Wells Photographic Memories".
The Old Priory Café, the gabled building on the left, now a picture
gallery, has a 17th-century façade and a medieval jettied front
with pargetting (plaster designs). The agricultural merchants B
D Mogg & Sons (left) are still trading - their premises are now on
the northern outskirts of the city. Sadler Street was subject to an
enhancement scheme in 2001, and much of the asphalt road has
been replaced by more picturesque material. Exploration of the
uncharted territory beneath the street was also undertaken, as
the ancient water and drainage pipes needed to be replaced.
An extract from from"Wells Photographic Memories".
In 1451, Bishop Bekynton commissioned his ‘New Works’, which included the Dean’s Eye, or Browne’s Gate, built in 1453,
which connected the cathedral precinct with the city. The Dean’s Eye forms part of Nos 20 and 22 Sadler Street, once called
the Mitre Inn, now known as the Ancient Gatehouse hotel and tea room and the Rugantino restaurant (a narrow, winding
stone staircase inside the hotel leads to the room above the gateway, which is furnished with an antique carved four-poster
bed). In the late 1690s there were about five inns in Sadler Street. The Mitre Inn had occupied three other sites here before
vanishing by the late 19th century with the arrival of the temperance movement. Wells always had a large number of inns,
and by 1900 there were still fifty inns in the city.
An extract from from"Wells Photographic Memories".