Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Railway

The Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway ran from Ashcombe Road in Weston-super-Mare to Portishead via Worle, Wick St Lawrence, Clevedon and Walton-in-Gordano.  

A single track branch line from the Great Western Railway at Weston Junction to Weston-super-Mare opened in June 1841 and another from the GWR at Yatton to Clevedon opened in July 1847.  A branch line from Bedminster to Portishead opened in 1867.  A loop line from the main GWR line opened in March 1884 to serve Weston-super-Mare.  However there was no direct link between the growing towns of Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon and Portishead.  

A railway line from Portishead to Clevedon was first proposed in 1865.  In 1884 the Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon & Portishead Tramways Company proposed building a standard gauge tramway to link the three towns.   The Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon & Portishead Tramways Act was passed in August 1885, but work on the Weston-super-Mare to Clevedon section didn't begin until 1887, due to financial and legal problems.  

The original plan was to run from Weston-super-Mare town centre on the street along the Boulevard.   However the track along the Boulevard was taken up before the line opened, due to complaints from the local council and the terminus station in Weston-super-Mare was at Ashcombe Road.  

The 5 years allowed by the 1885 act for the completion of the line expired in 1890 and another act had to be passed to allow a time extension.  The line finally opened from Ashcombe Road to Clevedon on 1st December 1897.  In 1899 the tramway was designated a light railway and the name of the company was changed to the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Light Railway Company.

The extension to Portishead was delayed due to financial constraints and finally opened on 7th August 1907.  There were objections to the extension because the line had to run through the streets in Clevedon.

The 14 mile long line was a standard gauge light railway.  It had 19 stations, but most of them were only halts, with no platforms and only a hut for shelter.  

There was no connection with the main railway line at Weston-super-Mare.  It did connect to the Bristol to Portishead branch via a siding at Portishead and it was also connected to the Great Western Railway's Yatton to Clevedon branch at Clevedon for a few years by a very sharp radius link. 

The WC&PR served Conygar, Nightingale and Black Rock Quarries in the Gordano valley and they each had their own sidings. The gasworks at Clevedon and a nail factory in Portishead also had their own sidings off the WC&PR.  In about 1913 a short branch line was constructed to a wharf on the River Yeo at Wick St Lawrence.

Colonel Holman Frederick Stephens managed the WC&PR from 1911 until his death in 1931.  He was based at Tonbridge in Kent and was known as the Light Railway King, because he also ran several other similar railways.  William Henry Austen was the manager from 1931 until 1940.

In 1919 the WC&PR started to manufacture and use concrete sleepers to replace worn out wooden ones. Concrete sleepers were not widely used by other British railway companies until after the Second World War.  In 1921 the company bought its first petrol railcar.

The WC&PR operated on a shoestring and was rarely profitable.  Most of the engines and carriages used on the line were bought second-hand from other railways.  Only two engines were bought new.

The increasing importance of road transport in the 1930s and the decrease in output from Black Rock Quarry made the line even less profitable and it finally closed on 18th May 1940.  The track was taken up between October 1942 and the end of 1943.

Map of the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Railway

Archway that linked the High Street to the station in Portishead

Former railway offices on Ashcombe Road, Weston-super-Mare

Former trackbed of the railway at Weston-in-Gordano

Colonel Stephens Way, Weston-super-Mare

WC&PR steam engine mural, Salthouse Fields, Clevedon

This mural was painted by local artist Damien Jeffrey.

Further Reading: 

Maggs, Colin G: The Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Light Railway. The Oakwood Press, 1990

Millennium Commemorations

Communities in Somerset chose to mark the year 2000 in a number of ways, including seats, monuments, village signs, sculptures, stained glass windows, sundials, standing stones, woods and even a stone circle.  A quarter of a century later, most of the millennium commemorative items are still extant.

Millennium Window, St Peter & St Paul's Church, South Petherton

Millennium Window, St Martin's Church, Worle

Millennium Window, St Andrew's Church, Old Cleeve

Millennium Window, Church of St John the Evangelist, Staplegrove, Taunton

This window was designed by Henry Haig (1930-2007).

Millennium Window, St Mary's Church, Stoke St Mary

The window was commissioned by Stoke St Mary Church Committee and Stoke St Mary Millennium Committee and was dedicated on 10th September 2000.  It was made by Patrick Reyntiens (1925-2021), a leading British stained glass artist, who moved to Somerset in 1982. The window depicts the story of St Anne and her husband St Joachim, teaching the Virgin Mary to read.  It was chosen because the window formed part of St Anne's Chapel.  St Anne and Mary are linked by a scroll on which the following verse from Isaiah Ch9 v6 is written in Hebrew: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.

Millennium window, Church of St John the Baptist, Biddisham
On this window it says "Of his kingdom there shall be no end". This is a quotation from the Gospel of Luke Ch1 v33.  The window was made by Gilroy, Bristol Stained Glass.

St Mary's Church, Luxborough

I presume this is a millennium window, as it has the date 2000 on it.  It also says "All generations shall call me blessed.", which is what Mary, the mother of Jesus is quoted as saying in Luke Ch1 v48.  

Church of St Nicholas, Corfe

This millennium window was made by Roy Coomber.

Millennium seat, Chipstable

Millennium Bench, Kingston St Mary

Deer on the Kingston St Mary bench

Wool trade and dragon on the Kingston St Mary bench

Bishop's Hull Millennium Mosaic

Peace Stone, Oxhouse Wood, Winford

Oxhouse Wood is owned by the Woodland Trust.  They acquired it in 1998, as part of their Woodlands on your Doorstep millennium project.  The Peace Stone was designed by Winford Parish Council.  The stone was donated by a local quarry and carved by a local craftsman.

Spirit of Clevedon

This sculpture on the seafront at Clevedon was designed by the residents of Clevedon in 2000.  According to the plaque on it, the forward pointing sail shape, port hole rings, plaques and panels represent the pioneering and community spirit of the town and highlights the links with Clevedon's European twin towns of Ettlingen, Middelkerke and Epernay.

Lady Smith Memorial Institute/Parish Rooms, Somerton

This vertical sundial was commissioned by Somerton U3A to mark the new millennium and was unveiled on 8th July 2000.  It was made by Peter Walker and features a dragon at the centre. It shows the hours from 7am to 5pm in hours and half hours.

Ham Hill Stone Circle

This modern stone circle consists of 15 standing stones made of the local Hamstone.  It was erected as a Millennium project to commemorate the many centuries of quarrying that have gone on at Ham Hill and all the men who have worked there.   Pieces of shell and other small fossils can be seen in the stones.  Grid reference: ST 478 171.

Othery's millennium village sign

Millennium Glass Doors, The Minster, Ilminster

Angel Gabriel and Mary on the Millennium Doors

Village sign, Shapwick

Burrington Millennium Stone

This stone has the latitude and longitude of the village (51° 19.8 North, 02° 44.9 West), its altitude (68 metres) and population (448) carved on it.

Millennium stones in the Old Station Millennium Garden, Winscombe

Standing stones, Millennium Green, Congresbury

There is an inscription on one of the standing stones, which says "Forever Green, Sue Grant, Her Vision".  The late Sue Grant was Clerk to Congresbury Parish Council in the 1990s and she was instrumental in making the millennium green project happen.  The two halves of the village are now joined by the Millennium Bridge over the River Yeo.

Footbridge, Millennium Green, Congresbury

Millennium Sculpture, Yatton

This 6 metre high metal arch sculpture is located at the start of the Strawberry Line next to Yatton Station. It depicts a cyclist, a rambler, a dragonfly, a fox, a rabbit, a cow, a squirrel, a heron, a frog, a butterfly, a woodpecker, some flowers, a tree (possibly an apple tree) and of course some strawberries.  It was made by blacksmith Alan Cooper of Engine Forge, Winscombe.  It was funded by grants from North Somerset Council, the Countryside Agency and the Forest of Avon.

Ash Millennium Wood

This wood is owned by Ash Parish Council.  It was established as a community wood to mark the Millennium.  Local parishioners planted 150 trees (including ash trees!).  Volunteers have planted many more trees since then and also set up a wildflower plot.

Millennium Garden, Higher Road, Woolavington

The Parish Council has gone for a "natural" look in 2025.

Lily Crucifix, Church of St John the Baptist, Wellington

St John the Baptist's Church in Wellington has a rare lily crucifix.  Jesus is depicted being crucified on a cross budding into five lilies.  The five lilies represent the five wounds of Christ on the cross: nails in his hands & feet and a mark on his torso where a Roman centurion thrust in a spear.

Wellington's lily crucifix is located in the Lady Chapel at the east end of the south aisle.  It is carved into the central mullion of the east window.  It is small, high up and difficult to spot in daylight, which is probably how it managed to avoid being destroyed by the Puritans in the mid 17th century.  

The lily crucifix probably symbolises life in death and may be related to the medieval belief that Jesus was crucified on the same day as the Annunciation (25th March).  The lily symbolises the purity of the Virgin Mary.

There are only a few other lily crucifixes in English churches.  Nearly all of them date from the 14th to the 16th centuries and are found on a variety of items:

• Font (All Saints, Great Glemham, Suffolk) 
• Painted panel (e.g. St Helen's, Abingdon, Oxfordshire)
• Wall painting (All Saints, Godshill, Isle of Wight)
• Misericord (St Bartholomew's Church, Tong, Shropshire), 
• Stained glass windows (e.g. Holy Trinity, Long Melford, Suffolk; St Michael-at-the-North Gate, Oxford and St Mary the Virgin, Westwood, Wiltshire)
• Tomb (e.g. St Mary's Church, Nottingham and St Peter & St Paul, West Wittering, West Sussex)
• Miniature in the Llanbeblig Book of Hours

Lily Crucifix in St John's Church

Wulfric of Haselbury

Wulfric was born in around 1080-1090 in Compton Martin.  He trained to be a priest and initially worked at Deverill in Wiltshire.  He spent much of his time there hunting with hawks and dogs, until a chance encounter with a beggar in the 1120s convinced him that he needed to lead a more spiritual life.  William FitzWalter, who was Lord of the Manor of Compton Martin, recalled him to that village and he became the parish priest there.  

In 1125 Wulfric moved to St Michael & All Angels Church in Haselbury Plucknett, where William FitzWalter was also Lord of the Manor.  Wulfric wanted to live alone in a cell adjacent to the church as an anchorite. His cell was located on the north side of the church where the vestry is now located.  He lived a very austere life and spent much of his time reading the Bible and praying.  He also worked as a bookbinder.  He received gifts of prophecy and healing from God and was involved in many miraculous happenings.  He had a personal servant who attended to his needs and the Cluniac monks of Montacute supplied him with food.  He was not the parish priest of Haselbury Plucknett.

People came to Wulfric for guidance and blessing.  He was visited by King Henry I and King Stephen.  Wulfric prophesied correctly that Henry I would die soon.  

Wulfric died in his cell on 20th February 1154. After his death there was a disagreement between the Cluniac monks of Montacute and the people of Haselbury, as to who had a claim to Wulfric's mortal remains.  The local people saw off the monks.  Wulfric was initially buried in his cell by Robert of Lewes, the 1st Bishop of Bath and Wells.  His tomb was visited by many pilgrims.  However, his body was later moved twice and was eventually interred in a now unknown location to the west of the church.

It is not known whether Wulfric was ever formally canonised, but he has been portrayed as a saint down the ages.  His feast day is 20th February.  

Wulfric is commemorated in a stained glass window in the north aisle of St Michael's Church in Compton Martin.

St Michael & All Angels Church, Haselbury Plucknett

Stained glass window, St Michael's Church, Compton Martin

Wulfric is the figure in the middle

Wells Cathedral Clock

Wells Cathedral clock dates from around 1390 and is located in the north transept. It is believed to be the 2nd oldest working clock in the world and the oldest one to have its original dials. The name of the clockmaker who built it isn't known for certain.  It may have been made by Peter Lightfoot, who was a monk at Glastonbury Abbey or it may have been made by the same person who made one for Salisbury Cathedral at about the same time.  It replaced an earlier clock which pre-dated it by over 100 years.  

The clock has an astronomical 24 hour dial.  Midday is at the top and midnight is at the bottom. The hour hand has a golden sun on it and the whole face represents the universe as it was understood to be in medieval times. The earth is in the middle of the clock face and the background has fixed stars painted on it.  In each of the 4 corners an angel is shown holding a face, which is blowing towards the earth.  These represent the 4 cardinal winds blowing from the 4 compass points.

The minute hand, which is a small star inside the sun, was added in the 18th century. 

In the middle of the clock, the number of days (1-30) since the last new moon is shown by a pointer.  This is accurate to one day in 33 months.  A golden moon appears through a round hole in the central disc to reflect its shape in the night sky.  Opposite the moon circle is a small painting of Phoebe.

Every quarter of an hour two knights emerge on a platform above the clock to have a jousting match.  One of them gets knocked off his horse every time he comes round.

Jack Blandiver/Blandifer is located above and to the right of the clock.  He chimes the quarter hours with his hells and strikes the bell in front of him with his hammer on the hour.

There is another face on the external wall of the north transept.  This dates from c1475.   The face, motion, bells, timber jacks and counterweights were cleaned, repaired and restored 2022-2023.  

The clock was wound by hand until 2010 when it was replaced by an electric winding motor, following the retirement of Paul Fisher.  It had been wound by 5 generations of his family.

The clock movement was originally regulated by a foliat mechanism.  This was converted to pendulum regulation after 1657.  The original weight-driven medieval mechanism was replaced in Victorian times.  This operates the astronomical dial and also the outside dial. The original mechanism is now at the Science Museum in London, where it is still in working order.

Wells Cathedral Clock

Location of Wells Cathedral Clock

Jack Blandiver

Outside dial

Close up of the outside dial in 2017 before it was restored

External dial in February 2025 after restoration

West front of Wells Cathedral

General Charles Gordon of Khartoum

Charles George Gordon was born on 28th January 1833 in Woolwich.  His parents were Lieutenant-General Henry William Gordon and his wife Elizabeth (nee Enderby).  He attended Fullands School in South Road, Taunton c1843-1846.  During this time he lodged at a house in Upper High Street.

In around 1846 he attended a military school in Shooters Hill and in 1848 he entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich.  He was commissioned second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in June 1852.  In February 1854 he was promoted to lieutenant and was appointed assistant garrison engineer at Pembroke Dock. While at Pembroke he became a committed Christian.

Charles Gordon volunteered for service in the Crimean War in 1855. He took part in the attack on Redan and the siege of Sevastapol. He was a proficient map maker and in 1856-8, after the end of the Crimean War, he was involved in surveying and delineating the new boundaries between the Russian and Ottoman empires in modern-day Romania and later in Armenia.

In April 1859 Gordon was promoted to the rank of captain and was based at Chatham until June 1860 when he volunteered to fight the Chinese in the Arrow War (also known as the 2nd Opium War).  He remained in China until the end of 1864 and played a part in crushing the Taiping rebellion and in defending Shanghai.  He was given the nickname Chinese Gordon by the British press and public.  

Gordon returned to England in early 1865 and was Commander of the Royal Engineer at Gravesend in Kent. He was given the job of supervising the building of forts at the mouth of the River Thames.  In his spare time he helped local homeless boys and allowed some of them to live in his house.

In 1873 Ismāʿīl Pasha, the Khedive (Viceroy) of Egypt appointed Gordon to the post of Governor of the province of Equatoria in Sudan. From 1874-1876 he mapped the Upper Nile River, set up a line of stations along the river as far as what is now Uganda and suppressed the slave trade in Equatoria.  In 1877 he accepted the post of Governor General of Sudan.  He crushed rebellions and further reduced the slave trade. 

He returned to England in early 1880.  He then served in India, China, Mauritius and the Cape Colony until October 1882.  He spent most of 1883 studying antiquities in the Holy Land.

In 1884 Gordon was sent to Sudan by the British government to evacuate Egyptian troops from Khartoum.  They were under threat of attack by the Mahdists, who were followers of the Sudanese religious leader Muḥammad Aḥmad al-Mahdī.  Gordon arrived in Khartoum in February 1884.  He managed to evacuate 2,000 civilians and 600 soldiers before the Mahdists besieged Khartoum in March 1884.  On 26th January 1885, Mahdists broke into Khartoum and killed Gordon.  A few days later a relief force arrived.  Gordon was hailed as a martyr by the British press and acquired the name Gordon of Khartoum.  His body was never found.

Plaque on house in Upper High Street where Charles Gordon lodged while he was at school in Taunton

House in Upper High Street, Taunton where Charles Gordon lodged

Fullands House, South Road

Fox, Fowler & Co Bank, Wellington

Fox, Fowler & Co was the last private bank in England to issue its own banknotes.  The bank was founded as Fox & Co in 1787 by Quaker Thomas Fox, who had just established a company in Wellington, which made woollen cloth.  The bank was initially used as a way to transfer funds between suppliers and customers.  It was also used by the employees of the woollen mill for their wages and savings.  Fox & Co issued their own banknotes for the first time in 1787.

In the 1870s the banking and woollen cloth parts of the business were separated.  The banking side then expanded and opened branches in towns across Somerset and Devon.  

The Bank Charter Act of 1844 banned new banks from issuing notes.  Those banks already doing so, were allowed to continue, but only up to the amount that they had circulating in 1844.  When banks merged after 1844, they lost the right to issue banknotes.  The number of banks issuing banknotes gradually declined, as banks merged or banks gave up the right to issue banknotes voluntarily.

In 1879 the bank was renamed Fox, Fowler & Co.  It continued to grow and took over several smaller private banks in the south west of England.  In 1885 the Wellington branch moved to a new purpose-built bank in Fore Street.

Fox, Fowler & Co had 55 or 56 branches by 1921.  At this point the Fox family decided to concentrate on their other business interests. They agreed that Lloyds Bank should take over their banking interests and Fox, Fowler & Co lost their right to issue banknotes at this point.  The building at 27 Fore Street in Wellington remained a branch of Lloyds Bank until March 2024, when it was closed down.

Fox, Fowler & Co/Lloyds Bank branch at 27 Fore Street, Wellington

Plaque on 27 Fore Street, Wellington

The Popham Memorial, Church of St John the Baptist, Wellington

The elaborate Popham Memorial in the Church of St John the Baptist in Wellington dates from around 1607.  It was made by Cornelius and William Cure, who were master masons to James I.  They also made the tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots in Westminster Abbey and the tomb of Bishop Montague in Bath Abbey.

The figures on the memorial are as follows:

• The recumbent effigies of Sir John Popham and his wife Amy Adams are on the table.  Sir John is dressed as Lord Chief Justice and he is wearing the collar of S.S. This is an ensign of the office of the Lord Chief Justice.  
• Sir John's parents, Alexander Popham and Joan Stradling, are shown kneeling at the west end of the memorial.  
• Sir Francis Popham, who was the only son of Sir John, is shown kneeling with his wife, Anne Dudley at the east end.  
• The six daughters of Sir John and three ladies' maids are on the south side
• The sons and daughters of Sir Francis Popham are on the north side

Sir John Popham was born at Huntworth near Bridgwater in about 1531.  He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford.  He then went on to the Middle Temple, where he was autumn reader in 1568, lent reader in 1573 and treasurer in 1580. He served as Recorder for Bridgwater and Bristol and he was MP for Bristol in 1571 and 1572.  He was appointed Solicitor-General in 1579.  

Sir John Popham was Speaker of the House of Commons 1581-1583,  Attorney General 1581-1592 and Lord Chief Justice of England 1592-1607. He was involved in the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots at Fotheringay Castle in 1587, which resulted in her execution. He presided over the trials of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603 and the Gunpowder Plot conspirators in 1606.  

Sir John Popham married Amy Adams of Castleton in Glamorgan in around 1556 and they had one son (Francis) and six daughters.  Amy inherited property from her father, Hugh Adams.  Sir John inherited land in Bridgwater and elsewhere from his father.  Sir John became a wealthy man and bought estates at Publow near Keynsham, Littlecote in Wiltshire and Hemyock Castle in Devon.

Sir John Popham built a new mansion for himself in Wellington, but this was destroyed during the English Civil War.  The mansion was located to the north of Mantle Street and the site is now playing fields used by Wellington AFC and Wellington Cricket Club .  

Sir John Popham endowed almhouses in Mantle Street, Wellington in 1606.  These were rebuilt in 1833 and converted into Sir John Fisher Catholic Church in 1936.   

Peter Blundell died in 1601 and in his will he asked Sir John Popham to establish a free grammar school in Tiverton with his bequest of £20,000.  The school opened in 1604 and is still in existence today. 

Sir John Popham died in Wellington on 10th June 1607 and was buried in St John the Baptist's Church in Wellington.

The 6 daughters of Sir John Popham and 3 ladies' maids

Sir Francis Popham, his wife and their children

Sir John Popham's parents

The Popham Memorial