Somerset Books

(Maureen Wincott)  The author is a keen local historian, and has explored many topics in and around Somerset. During one of these pieces of research she connected with a previously unknown distant relative in Australia, who shared a letter written…..

(Mick Davis)  This guide to the town’s history starts with a short look at the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age and continues through the centuries right up to 2017, when a famous rock band, Foo Fighters held a ‘secret’ gig…..

(Anne Murch)  The author brings to life what it was really like to be a member of the rural poor during the Georgian period.  Her findings are based on ten years of detailed research from many sources, primarily the accounts…..

(Alastair Macleay)  Situated at the eastern end of the Mendip hills, the Somerset market town of Frome has a wealth of history, much of which lies waiting to be discovered among the architectural gems that line its scenic streets.  Frome…..

(Richard Sims)  Coker Canvas provides the first detailed account of the textile trade in the area around East and West Coker.  Textiles have formed the core of area’s economy from the 17th century and, although not as important as it once…..

(Terry Stevens)  For centuries, Coker has stood as a beacon of craftsmanship, its legacy intricately entwined with the production of Coker Canvas, a fabric renowned for its durability, strength and unparalleled quality. This book delves deeper into the heart the…..

(Robin Ansell)  Henry Stiby was born in 1843 in Sherborne, the youngest son of Robert and Frances (née Brook) Stiby.  He ran a successful ironmongery business in Yeovil, and then a photography business. He later entered civic life, being elected…..

XVII Century, Directory of Somerset (reproduced in 1994 by Harry Galloway Publishing). Lists of the names of all persons paying taxes or exempted from payment (during the 17th Century), copied from the original Lay Subsidy Rolls in the Record Office…..

(Simon Haines) Almost 190 photographs trace some of the many ways in which Minehead and Dunster have changed over the last century. The pictures are arranged in a ‘then and now’ fashion, so that direct comparisons may be made between…..

(Robin Ansell, Allan Collier & Phil Nichols)  This book is a celebration of Somerset’s photographic history, as seen through the lives and work of nearly 800 photographers. Each photographer is listed with details of where he/she was working and when,…..

(ed Joyce Jefferson)  The village of Trudoxhill was once part of the parish of Nunney, until it became a parish in its own right in 1950, hence the inclusion of both places in thus book. This history of the two…..

(Gordon Rendell).  The author, aged three at the start of the war in 1939, experienced the following six years with a sharp intensity.  Having an enquiring mind and time of his hands, he studied the village characters and was often…..

(Clarence Bradley).  The author, who moved to Montacute from Stoke-sub-Hamdon three years after his birth, joined the Air Training Corps in his teens.  This nurtured in him an interest in military aviation and local people’s involvement in the Second World…..

(Jack W Sweet)  A collection of fifty tales of murder, mayhem and mishap, ranging from Mary Adlam killing her drunken husband in Regency Bath, a test flight crash at Yeovil and mine disasters in the Somerset coalfields, to the missing…..

(John Folkes and Clare Bishop)  Using over 200 archive postcards and a few selected photographs, this book reveals the complex social fabric of local life, which has embraced many changes in shops, entertainment and transport, and many events ranging from…..

(Mick Davis & David Lassmam)  The authors have delved into the local records of Frome, historically one of the largest towns in Somerset, to reveal the dark side of life for ordinary people through the ages. The stories include a…..