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 Starting
at Carrington Way car park turn left at the Police Station and head
downhill towards Les Rosiers Grove. Follow the Coneygore Footpath
sign and head up through Les Rosiers Grove where you will come to
a pathway. Follow the path and head down the sloping steps towards
the wrought iron gates at the bottom of the path. Pass through the
side gate and you are now in North Street.
On the right hand side is Shatterwell House (private residence).
It has a lovely waterfall in the garden, which you can see from
the road. Cross the road and heading right, walk up to the junction
and on the wall opposite is Shatterwell Shoots. For many years the
town water cart filled up here and the troughs were used for watering
animals. It was rebuilt in 1865. Go back along North Street and
once past Shatterwell Villas turn into Waterside Road. Follow the
path along by the river which leads to a couple of cottages, turn
right and head through the alleyway where you will come out at the
bottom of Mill Street. Mill Street was one of the main roads into
Wincanton. Many of the houses in Mill Street were thatched but over
the years the thatch has been removed and replaced by tiles or slates.
On the right hand side is Travis Perkins, this stands on the site
of Town Mills, now demolished, which was once home to Stacey and
Co Boot and Shoe Manufacturers and also a grain merchants wh ere
corn was ground until the early 1970s’. On the left hand side
is the former George Inn.
Continue to the bottom of Mill Street. At the junction turn left,
walk along Silver Street, and facing you is the Parish Church of
St Peter and St Paul. Papers discovered under the foundation stone
on the present building suggest that the Church was first built
around 1313 but the present building is largely Victorian. In 1793
the tower was raised by 12ft making it 50ft high, five bells were
cast and a sixth added. The double balustrades date from its main
restoration of 1887-1889. The highly carved North Porch was added
to the Church in 1892. It shows the statues of St Peter and St Paul,
together with the central figure representing Our Lord, emblems
of The Passion, Fall and Redemption, together with the monograms
and arms of the late Miss Julia Chafyn Grove, benefactor to the
church. The dimensions of the church are east to west 96 feet, north
to south 62 feet with sitting room for 699 persons.
In the entrance to the North Porch is a stone carving known as the
Donkey Stone. This carving represents St Eligius, a seventh century
patron saint of blacksmiths. St Eligius is seen holding the fourth
leg of a horse that is to be shod before being replaced on the horse.
The stone was found lying on its face in the wall of the South Aisle,
where it had probably lain from the time of the rebuilding of that
aisle in 1735. It was reset into the North Porch in 1892.
Heading up Church Street, on the right is the Masonic Hall, reputed
to have been a silk factory where Napoleonic prisoners worked in
the 19th Century. Further up, a lane runs off to the right. On its
higher side, the dentists’ surgery, the shop, and the house
running back along the lane once formed a single house, dating from
the early 15th Century and is said to be the oldest building in
Wincanton. The shops opposite were formerly The Temperance Hotel.
No 1 Church Street was the Baptist Manse.
In the Market Square, the steep road down the right-hand side of
the Post Office is Mill Street. Mill Street was once full of shops,
and on, market days, the overspill of stalls from the Square. The
Post Office was formerly an inn. In 1710 it was known as The Hare
and Hounds, in 1774 it was known as The Five Bells and after being
rebuilt in 1796 it was called The Trooper. 
Through the Market Square, on the corner is the Town Hall with its
clock. The site of our Town Hall can be traced back to 1644. On
this spot stood several cottages and an inn called The Kings Head.
On Wednesday 4th November 1767, the Market House near to the present
Town Hall was in such a ruinous condition that a group of people
pulled it down. For two years there was no Market House and then
in 1769 several cottages were taken down and a new Market House
with the Town Hall over it was erected at a cost of £400.
Petty Sessions and County Courts were held in the Town Hall. A fire
destroyed the Market House on 9th August 1877 and the present red
brick Town Hall replaced the buildings with a clock tower in 1878.
From the Market Square turn right into South Street, where you will
find St Luke’s Carmelite Priory and Roman Catholic Church.
In 1881 a small group of Catholics purchased Acorn House and stables
as a centre for a Catholic mission in the town. On 18th October
1881, the feast of St Luke, the inauguration of the new mission
took place and on 7th May 1888 work began on St Luke’s Carmelite
Priory. The architect was Canon Scoles and the builder was Mr Kitch
who both came from Bridgwater. The foundation stone was laid on
16th July 1888, and it was completed on 18th August 1889. On 29th
December 1902 the Priory became a training place for Noviates. With
a growing congregation new premises were needed and in 1908 the
present Roman Catholic Church was built on the site of Acorn House,
St Luke and St Teresa Roman Catholic Church was opened on 19th November
1908.
Opposite is the Community Church, once the town’s cinema.
Next door to the cinema is ‘The Dogs’. This striking
residence was once The Old Manor House. The Prince of Orange stayed
overnight here whilst on his march to London in 1688. In the Orange
Room are some wall paintings done by French captives of war 1805-1815.
Continue down South Street and turn left into Balsam Fields, then
left again into Balsam Park. At the top, straight ahead, is a narrow,
high walled lane (Angel Lane). Follow this and it will bring you
to the High Street.
Turn up the hill, looking upwards as you go, to the upper floors
and windows (many of them double ‘weavers’ windows).
Beside the fruit shop look through the little passage which leads
to the old Quaker Meeting House. Next door to the fruit shop is
the Town Museum - well worth a visit.
At right angles to the High Street is Flingers Lane, named after
a 19th century doctor of the town. On its corner is Uncle Tom’s
Cabin; Thomas Green opened it in May 1861. The inn takes its name
from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
which was first published as a serial in an anti-slavery paper in
1851-52.
Notice No 71, a narrow brick cottage amongst the stone of the top
of the town, with its old, uneven windowpanes. Carry on to the end
of the row of houses. Ireson Lane leads to Ireson House, built by
Nathaniel Ireson, an 18th Century architect and businessman who
also built Stourhead House 12 miles away (National Trust), and who
produced Delftware pottery, now much prized. He also designed his
own monument, which can be seen in the Churchyard.
Across the High Street, opposite Ireson Lane, is Turnpike Cottage.
This is the site of the Wincanton Turnpike Trust. Iron gates crossed
the main road and its junction with Common Road (east to south).
Animals passed here on their way to and from markets or fairs. The
gate was fastened a little way apart to allow one animal to pass
through at a time. The tollhouses were abolished and sold in 1874.
Carry on walking back down the High Street and turn left into the
Memorial car park; keep bearing right, past the end wall of the
Dolphin Hotel Garden (one of the old coaching inns, formerly The
Rainbow). Notice the very tall white Pine House away to the right
(this was Wincanton’s second hospital which provided eight
public beds, one private ward and staff accommodation) and carry
on walking until you reach the recycling area - a viewpoint in what
was an old walled garden. From here look at the steep old red roofs
of the High Street, like a Dutch Old Master painting. Down the hill,
through a garden and past the Priory and the Catholic Church, you
can see the Town Hall clock, and open fields beyond.
From the recycling area return to the main car park and cut straight
through again to the High Street. Turn left and continue to walk
down the hill. Number 20 High Street was the town’s Post Office
until February 1974. Number 18 High Street was Wincanton’s
first hospital opened in 1900. Past the façade of the wine
shop, and two brick houses; a little further is an antiques shop,
in the 17th Century yet another inn - The Angel Inn. The last tenant
to hold a license “for people to be drunk on the premises”
was John Way in 1811. This building has had various uses - a school
for young ladies, a drapery store and more recently an Antiques
shop.
Further down the High Street we come to the 17th Century White Horse
- one of the oldest hostelries in the town, first mentioned in 1655
in the possession of John Vining. Cut into the keystone above the
door is the date 1733 and G D - probably rebuilt by Ireson for George
Deane. In 1842 Samuel Sly opened the house as a wine and spirit
merchant. He later married Miss Deane and combined both surnames
to make Deanesly. In 1864 Samuel Deanesly took the business when
his father retired. Behind the White Horse in the late 1800’s
the production of milk powder in this country was started; and Wincanton
became the home of the smiling Cow and Gate baby, and later Unigate.
Just down from The White Horse admire the elegant shop windows of
the chemist - notice above that you are now in Market Place and
the shop next door is in the High Street. Across the road is the
Greyhound. In 1825 Queen Victoria stayed at the Greyhound Hotel
when she was 7 years old. Next-door is The Bear, said to have been
a starting point of the disastrous fire on 13th May 1707, which
ravaged most of the High Street and the centre of town destroying
many of the earlier thatched houses. The Bear Inn was rebuilt in
1720.
Head back up the High Street towards Carrington Way. Houses and
a butchers shop were demolished in 1970 to make way for a new town
library, health centre and police station. Princess Margaret opened
these on 27th June 1973.
If you have more time to explore Wincanton then take a walk up the
High Street past Common Road and on to the memorial plaque, which
is set in the roadside wall of the Highlands on Bayford Hill. This
plaque honours the nine servicemen from the 401st Bombardment Group
of the United States Air Force based at Bassingbourn, Cambridge
who were killed when their B17 Flying Fortress ‘Old Faithful’
crashed in flames at Snag Farm, just south of Wincanton on Sunday
25th June 1944 and was unveiled on 4th July 1954, the tenth anniversary
of the crash.
On Friday 25th June 2004, the 60th Drum Head Service was held. Starting
with a parade from the Memorial Hall Car Park to the Memorial Plaque
on Bayford Hill where a service of remembrance was held. Travelling
from America to take part in the ceremony were Mrs Anne Funk, sister
of the pilot 2nd Lt Peter Mikonis, and Joe Harlick who was a photographer
with the 401st Bombardment Squadron of the 91st Bombardment Group.
On the opposite side of the road is a piece of land known as Bean
Close. This land was given to the town by Richard Deanesly in 1927
to ‘secure for ever the view’. The field is numbered
152 on the Tithe map of the Parish and measures 2 acres, 1 rood
and 7 poles.
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About Wincanton
