Off the Beaten Track in Somerset

A very ordinary looking field in the village of Kenn near Clevedon was the site of what was possibly the last public hanging in England to t...

John Walford was born in Over Stowey in 1762.  His parents were William and Ann Walford and they lived in Bincombe.  His father was a self-...

11 or 12 year old Mary Bridge was living with her family in Westonzoyland in July 1685 at the time of the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth a...

Road Hill House in the village of Rode was the scene of a murder on the night of 29th/30th June 1860. Three year old  Francis Saville Kent ...

Shepton Mallet House of Correction was built on the site of Cornhill House in the town c1625.   Houses of correction housed vagrants, begga...

Wheal Eliza was a copper mine on the banks of the River Barle about a mile downstream from Simonsbath.  It opened in 1845 and was initially...

In 2006 the 306 British and Commonwealth soldiers who were executed mainly for desertion during the First World War were finally pardoned by...

Animal pounds were secure enclos ed areas where trespassing animals (usually cattle, horses, pigs or sheep) were impounded until their ow...