The Little History of Somerset

INTRODUCTION

This book is not intended to be an exhaustive or scholarly tome on the history of Somerset. For anyone wishing to study this fascinating and rewarding county in depth, there are several very comprehensive studies that will enable them to do so, and some of these are listed at the end of this book. My aim here has been to provide a general overview of Somerset’s history from earliest times to the present, in an accessible, readable and (I hope) interesting form. I have tried to cover all the major events, as well as some of the less well-known (but nonetheless important) ones. I’ve also included a few stories and anecdotes that I think help to bring the past to life.

To get to know an area it helps enormously if you know something of its past, and how it came to be the way it is. I hope that this book will help to increase the enjoyment and understanding of those visiting, or passing through, Somerset, as well, perhaps, as some who live here but maybe do not know their county as well as they would like. If it does this, it will have achieved what it set out to do.

1

THE BEGINNINGS OF SOMERSET

THE GROUND BENEATH YOUR FEET

Imagine yourself, about 200 million years ago, standing on the edge of a piece of land roughly where Swindon now stands and looking south-westwards. In front of you lies a large expanse of water, with, here and there, what appears to be a low-lying island sticking up above the surface. What you are looking at will one day be the West Country, and the part nearest to you will be Somerset.

The oldest rocks in Somerset were formed at an even earlier time – more than 400 million years ago. If you look at a geological map of the county you will see that most of its underlying rocks are of the sedimentary kind, such as limestone, sandstone, marl, lias and clay. The sediments of which these rocks are composed were deposited on the seabed during the period, millions of years ago, when what is now the south-western part of Britain was covered by warm, shallow seas. Under pressure, these deposits solidified and became rocks, which later seismic disturbances folded and pushed above the surface of the sea, where they gradually became land. This folding produced the ranges of hills that are such a feature of the county: the Mendips, Quantocks, Poldens and Blackdowns. These sedimentary rocks, because they were not subjected to intense heat, can often contain fossils of the plant and animal life that existed on earth long before the coming of humans. As recently as 2018, a jawbone found on a beach at Lilstock in Bridgwater Bay has been identified as that of a giant ichthyosaur, a creature that lived around 200 million years ago and was almost as large as a blue whale.

The outcome of all this geological upheaval is a county that has a great variety of scenery. It has a coastline that stretches from Avonmouth in the north-east to Sugarloaf Hill in the south-west, a distance of approximately 71 miles (115km) (this refers to the traditional county of Somerset, of which more later). Inland there are moors, hills and valleys, together with wetlands, woodlands and farmland, and the highest inland cliffs in the United Kingdom. The soft limestone rocks contain numerous cave systems and there are also extensive coal measures, laid down during the Carboniferous period (about 300 million years ago). These were created from dead plant matter, overlaid with rock and converted by heat and pressure into carbon deposits. All of these factors have contributed to Somerset’s fascinating history, and form the ‘bones’ of the county.

In the Mendip area, many of the limestone caves were blocked with permafrost during successive Ice Ages, making the limestone temporarily impermeable. Then, when the ice melted, the water was forced to the surface, where it carved out natural features such as the dramatic Cheddar Gorge, with its 500ft (140m) cliffs.

But what about the people?

THE EARLIEST HUMANS

The first evidence we have of human habitation in the area, in the form of flint tools and other artefacts, shows that people may have been living here as long as half a million years ago. These early humans, known as Homo Erectus, were probably ancestors of the Neanderthals, and occupied caves in places such as Cheddar and Burrington, where artefacts such as stone hand axes have been discovered (see illustration). Excavations at a quarry above Westbury-sub-Mendip have produced evidence of some of the earliest human habitation in Britain. These people were hunter-gatherers, foraging for food and hunting animals and birds for survival. Bison, reindeer, bears and smaller animals are known to have roamed the area, providing food, clothing and even primitive tools for these early communities. In Burrington Combe, not far from Cheddar, is a cave known as Aveline’s Hole. Here, in 1797, two men digging for a rabbit discovered a number of skeletons that were dated at more than 10,000 years old, making this the earliest known cemetery in Britain.

About 10,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, forests covered much of the area, except for the higher hills. With the melting of the ice the subsequent rise in sea level caused much of the present Somerset Levels to become waterlogged, creating mudflats and marshes where fish and waterfowl were abundant (even today, some parts of Somerset are below present sea level). From this period comes Cheddar Man, who is sometimes regarded as the first ‘modern’ Briton, and whose skeleton is the oldest complete one to have been found in Britain. It was discovered in Gough’s Cave, Cheddar, in 1903. Damage to the skull suggests that he probably died by violence. Interestingly, recent DNA analysis from the skeleton has thrown up two matches with people living in the village of Cheddar today. It also tells us that these distant ancestors of ours probably had dark skin, blue eyes and dark curly hair.

Britain became an island about 8,000 years ago, when a further rise in sea level separated us from the rest of Europe. By about 4,500 BC a new wave of people from the Continent had moved into Britain. These Neolithic (or New Stone Age) folk, as we now call them, brought new ideas with them. They were farmers and stockbreeders, growing crops and raising animals in settled communities. They have left us tantalising clues about the way they lived and died, including their burial mounds, standing stones and stone circles, such as the one at Stanton Drew. Archaeologists are still not in complete agreement over the reasons for these stone circles, although it’s thought they were most likely constructed for religious or ritual purposes. These people also produced pottery and other artefacts, and, in Somerset, built wooden trackways to cross the marshy areas, one of which, known as the Sweet Track, dates from about 4,000 BC. It is about 2km in length and is believed to be one of the oldest in Europe. Signs of human activity have been found in places such as South Cadbury, and some caves in the Mendip Hills have shown evidence of occupation at that time.

The people of the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age period produced a distinctive type of pottery used as drinking vessels, which has led to them being known as the ‘Beaker Folk’. The dead would usually be buried in pits, but more important individuals would be interred in long barrows, made of earth and containing wood- or stone-lined chambers, where bones or cremated remains would be deposited. A good example of a long barrow can be seen at Stoney Littleton, near the village of Wellow.

BRONZE AGE SOMERSET (ABOUT 2,500 BC–800 BC)

By the middle of the Bronze Age, ‘villages’ of stone huts with conical thatched roofs were being built, surrounded by a low wall. This more settled existence meant that the villagers had the time and leisure to produce much more elaborate artefacts, and, as the name suggests, they were workers in bronze, which is an alloy of copper and tin, and produced not only weapons but also ornaments, which they could trade with other communities. They also began to divide the landscape around them into small square or rectangular fields separated by low stone banks, traces of which can still be found on Exmoor. Plant and insect evidence tells us that temperatures in this period were, on average, 2–4 degrees cooler in winter and 2–3 degrees warmer in summer than today, which determined what crops they could grow (mostly wheat, barley, oats and pulses). In Somerset, evidence of these Bronze Age settlements has been found at such locations as South Cadbury, Brean Down and on Exmoor.

The dead were buried in smaller, round barrows, sometimes grouped together, as at Priddy Nine Barrows on the Mendips, and there are many other examples on Exmoor, such as Alderman’s Barrow near Exford.

IRON AGE SOMERSET (ABOUT 800 BC–AD 43)

This period saw a significant increase in population and, consequently, a greater demand on available resources. Iron, being harder and more durable, was replacing bronze as the principal material for making weapons and tools. Communities became more territorial, and we see the increasing construction of hill forts, such as those at Brent Knoll, Maesbury and Cadbury Castle. These were constructed on easily defensible positions, with good views all around, and defended by banks and ditches. Some of them were massive constructions that would have needed huge numbers of people to build them, and years to construct. The largest in the county (and one of the largest in Britain) is Ham Hill near Yeovil, which covers an area of 210 acres (85ha) and is 400ft (122m) high. Altogether there are about forty-seven of these hill forts in Somerset, most having been built during the fifth and sixth centuries BC. Hill forts are also known to have been part of a network of trade and exchange. Excavations at sites such as Cadbury Castle have unearthed examples of pottery from Devon and Cornwall and even amber from the Baltic. Late Iron Age smiths were producing beautiful and elaborate bronze and gold objects, which were often buried with important community leaders.

These Iron Age people are also known as ‘Celts’ (the origin of the name is unclear, but might have its origin in Greek, and mean ‘the tall ones’). The three main tribes occupying Somerset during this period were the Durotriges (who occupied the south of the county) the Dobunni in the north, and the Dumnonii in the west. They had a shared culture and seem to have co-existed more or less amicably. According to the Roman Solinus, writing in the third century AD, the Dumnonii did not use coins – none have been found during excavations – preferring to use barter as a means of trading. They would most likely have traded with the Silures of South Wales, who are known to have used the same system. The main religious site was at present-day Bath, where the hot springs were regarded as sacred and under the protection of a deity named Sulis (more will be said about this later, when we deal with the Roman period).

In the low-lying area known today as the Somerset Levels, lake villages were built, the most important being at Glastonbury and Meare. These were built on artificial ‘islands’ and consisted of circular houses with thatched roofs and walls of wattle and daub (this consists of woven branches plastered with a sticky material, usually containing clay, sand, straw and sometimes animal dung). The Glastonbury village had about fifteen houses and a population of around 200, and, being surrounded by water, was easy to defend. However, rising water levels eventually forced the abandonment of these villages, but excavations during the late nineteenth century revealed much evidence, including the remains of a dugout log boat. This, along with many other finds, is on display in the Lake Village Museum in Glastonbury High Street.

The remains of one of the largest Iron Age ‘roundhouses’ in Britain was discovered in 2009, during excavations at the location of a proposed ‘Park and Ride’ site at Taunton. These dwellings were similar in design to the Bronze Age huts, but tended to be larger, and the walls were made of