Watchet, Somerset - West Street Beach - nice Judges real photo postcard c.1930s

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  West Street Beach, Watchet, Somerset - possibly a real photo postcard
• Publisher:  Judges of Hastings
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Watchet is a harbour town and civil parish in the English county of Somerset, with a population of 3,785.^[1] It is situated 15 miles (24 km) west of Bridgwater, 15 miles (24 km) north-west of Taunton, and 9 miles (14 km) east of Minehead. The parish includes the hamlet of Beggearn Huish. The town lies at the mouth of the Washford River on Bridgwater Bay, part of the Bristol Channel, and on the edge of Exmoor National Park.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner was written whilst travelling through Watchet and the surrounding area.

Watchet is believed to be the place where Saint Decuman was killed and the 15th century, Grade I listed, Church of St Decuman is dedicated to him.^[2]

There is no sign locally of Roman occupation, but the Anglo-Saxons took Watchet from the native Britons around AD 680. Under Alfred the Great (AD 871-901) Watchet became an important Saxon port, and the site of a mint with coins found as far away as Copenhagen and Stockholm.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the early port at Watchet being plundered by Danes led by Earl Ottir (Ohtor) and a 'Hroald' (possibly Ottir's king Ragnall) in 987 and 997.^[3] The parish of Watchet was part of the Williton and Freemanners Hundred.^[4]

Watchet developed as a town thanks to its closeness to the minerals within the Brendon Hills, and its access to the River Severn for onward shipping. Aside from local ships plying trade across the river, from 1564 onwards the port was used for import of salt and wine from France.^[5]

In 1643 during the English Civil War, a Royalist ship was sent to Watchet to reinforce for the siege of Dunster Castle. Parliamentarian (Roundhead) Captain Popham ordered his troops into the sea with the tide on the ebb, and with the ship unable to move, attacked the ship with fire from their carbines. Taken by surprise and under heavy attack, the Royalist commander surrendered the ship, resulting in a ship technically at sea being captured by troops on horseback.^[6][7]

The primitive jetty was damaged in a storm of 1659, so that in 1708 lading local wool merchant Sir William Wyndham built a new harbour costing £1,000, with a stronger pier. The main export at this time was kelp, made by burning seaweed for use in glass making.

In the 19th century trade increased with the export of iron ore from the Brendon Hills mainly to Newport for onward trasportation to the Ebbw Vale Steelworks,^[8] paper, flour and gypsum.^[5] Rags imported from France were used in paper making at Wansbrough Paper Mill.^[8]

In 1843 the esplanade was built by the fourth Earl of Egremont, and in 1855 a new harbour was commissioned to cope with increased iorn ore trade. A new east pier and wharf was completed in 1861-62 by James Abernethy. This allowed shipping movement to reach a peak, with over 1,100 ship movements per annum.

Harbour trade was aided by the coming of the railway, with two independent railways terminating at Watchet from the mid 1860s. The West Somerset Mineral Railway ran down from the iron mines on the Brendon Hills, and the West Somerset Railway came up from the Bristol & Exeter Railway at Norton Fitzwarren.^[5]

In 1862, the cast-iron Watchet lighthouse was built by Hennet Spink and Else of Bridgwater. ^[9] In September 2012, Princess Anne unveiled a plaque to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the lighthouse. ^[10]

The mines and West Somerset Mineral Railway closed in 1898. The West Somerset Railway, extended from Watchet to Minehead in 1874, survived as part of British Rail until 1971. Reopened as a heritage railway, it still operates today.

In 1900 and 1903 a series of gales breached the breakwater and East Pier with the loss of several vessels each time and subsequent repairs.^[5]

Before World War II at a site between Watchet and Doniford a gunnery range was established for various army units to practice anti-aircraft gunnery. Unmanned target aircraft were towed by planes from RAF Weston Zoyland and later were fired from catapults over the sea.^[11] Little of the camp buildings survive and it is now the site of a holiday park.^[12]

The port remained open to service the papermills, importing wood pulp and esparto grass from Russia and Scandinavia, using mainly East European registered vessels post WW2. Requiring a return load, the result was that Watchet became a leading UK port for the export of car parts, tractors and other industrial goods. However, with the replacement of coal with oil from the mid-1960s, the port traffic began to terminally decline.

The civil parish of Watchet is governed by a town council, having previously been Watchet Urban District.^[13] Administratively, the civil parish falls within the West Somerset local government district and the Somerset shire county. Administrative tasks are shared between county, district and town councils. In 2011, the parish had a population of 3,785.^[1][14]

Watchet forms part of the Bridgwater and West Somerset county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The current MP is Ian Liddell-Grainger, a member of the Conservatives.^[15]

Residents of Watchet also form part of the electorate for the South West England constituency for elections to the European Parliament.^[16]

type=real photographic (rp)

theme=topographical: british

sub-theme=england

county/ country=somerset

number of items=single

period=inter-war (1918 - 1939)

postage condition=unposted