The exciting news is that the definitive local history book, that is gradually covering the whole country, has reached Street. The local section of the Victoria County History, covering Street, Glastonbury and the area around, is to be published very soon.
The Library Committee which met this afternoon decided it would be good to buy a copy, and I for one am looking forward to what it has to say about our village.
The Victoria County History began in 1899 and was dedicated to Queen Victoria. Perhaps when they began it they thought it could be completed in a few years, but ...
Read about this volume below. The text is from Somerset Past. Click on New Publication vol. IX.
New Publication: A History of the County of Somerset Volume IX: Glastonbury and Street
A History of the County of Somerset Volume IX: Glastonbury and Street
This volume covers eleven parishes in the centre of the county including the towns of Glastonbury and Street. Ten parishes occupy a varied, ancient landscape at the eastern end of the Polden Hills between the flat levels of King's Sedgemoor in the Cary valley to the south-west, Queen's Sedgemoor to the north-east, and the Brue valley moors to the north-west and south-east. Podimore Milton lies detached 5 miles from the other parishes between the Cary and Yeo rivers alongside RNAS Yeovilton.
The area is dominated physically by Glastonbury Tor and historically by Glastonbury abbey but this heritage rich and naturally diverse landscape also includes the wooded slopes of Ivythorn Hill, the Hood monument, the Meare fish house by the former mere, Clarks' shoe factory at Street, and important lowland habitats of heath and moor.
The towns of Glastonbury and Street stand in the centre surrounded by a variety of villages from compact settlements and linear villages to areas of scattered hamlets and farmsteads. The west of the area is especially rich in evidence of prehistoric settlement exploiting the wetlands. Much of the area belonged to Glastonbury abbey in the Middle Ages and that was reflected in farming practices including specialised dairies, vineyards, and the movement of livestock like goats and sheep between manors. The inclosure of the moors in the 18th century brought great changes to the area and a decline in the old traditions of fishing and fowling. Livestock farming encouraged leather and parchment production in several parishes. In the 19th century shoemaking emerged as the dominant local industry but the manufacture of rugs, footwear, and clothing from sheepskin was also important. The coming of the railway to Glastonbury in the 19th century enabled both farms and manufacturers to export their products and opened up the area to new products and materials.
Glastonbury, often regarded as the cradle of Christianity in England, was a spiritual as well as an economic and political focus for the area until the Dissolution. From the 17th century nonconformist groups were active in the area, notably the Quakers. A revival of interest in the abbey ruins in the 19th century saw the return of local and national pilgrimages. By the 20th century Glastonbury had also become a centre for alternative forms of spirituality and gave its name to a world famous pop festival, actually held at Pilton 7 miles east of the town.
The volume covers Glastonbury Twelve Hides and part of Whitley Hundred, including articles on Baltonsborough, West Bradley, Butleigh, Compton Dundon, Glastonbury, Meare, West Pennard, Podimore Milton, Street, Walton, and North Wootton. The richly detailed history of these parishes covers everything from early settlement to modern urbanization, agriculture to industry, religion to local government.
74 illustrations and maps, 220pp and index, 30.4 x 20.8
ISBN 1904356230
Price £95
Visit www.boydell.co.uk for ordering information
Another little bit of information: The next event will be the long-awaited publication of the Glastonbury and Street volume this autumn. The book will be published on 21 September and launched in Glastonbury on 31 October.
