The Chilcompton Twinning Association
Chilcompton has, since 1991, been formally twinned with Montsurs in France. Montsurs is a community of about 1700 people in Mayenne, some 100 miles south of Caen.
The aim of the twinning is to encourage the development of knowledge about France and the French and, of course, vice versa. There has been a series of annual reunions alternately in each country, hosting in private homes with some communal activity as well. Some warm friendships have been formed and developed so that individual families have felt able to call on their hosts at different times and for different purposes, to learn more of attitudes in Europe, to practise their language and simply to enjoy their company.
A small minority of participants on both sides of the Channel are reasonably fluent in both languages. For the most part, hosts and guests have quite limited knowledge of the language and even those who speak none rise to the challenge of communicating extraordinarily well. There is a small annual fee, currently £5 per family and fund raising events are held throughout the year to help in the entertainment of visitors.
Those who have an interest in things French are welcome to join the Association, whether they can host or not.
Epworth House - was the old Methodist Chapel.
Chilcompton Methodist chapel was closed in 2001 and is now residential and named Epworth House.
It was built in 1854 and in the early days ladies sat on one side of the aisle and men on the other.
In 1917, the organ blower received 10 shillings per year and the Chapel Keeper had £10 per annum.
Plummer & Hockey renovated the chapel in 1935 for £341 and new leaded windows in 1936 cost £52.
Bill Sheppard was organist for more than 50 years, while Minnie Bryant and Violet Gilson were caretakers for many years.
There were 137 seats including 32 in the gallery. A prefabricated schoolroom was linked to the chapel on the north side and was regularly used by village groups and clubs in the past. This schoolroom was removed when the Chapel was converted to Epworth House.
(extracts taken from Meandering through Chilcompton by David Strawbridge.)
[Back to the top]Blacker and Werret Charity
James Blacker of Binegar bequeathed £40 to Chilcompton Parish the interest there from to be given to the poor twice a year in bread on Christmas Eve and Good Friday. This Will is undated.
Henry Werret of Shepton Beauchamp in his Will dated 16th April 1681 left to the Parish of Chilcompton for ever the sum of £100 directing that the yearly income of interest thereof be employed in binding out poor children apprentices twice a year at the Feast of John the Baptist and the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord.
In the recent past the interest of about £20 per year was given to pensioners, but in 1998 the Trustees and Charity Commissioner agreed to wind up the charity and transfer the assets of approximately £75 to the Recreation Project, where it will continue to benefit parishioners.
[Back to the top]Chilcompton Recreation Project
Over the last 5 years the Recreation committee has worked hard to get this much needed sporting and leisure facility going. Despite the huge amount of research and effort needed to make two lottery applications, both were refused
The parish council has been extremely supportive, acquiring the new field at Bennell for £70,000. Fund raising continues and the committee is determined to go ahead with as much development as can be afforded. The youth football teams are now using the pitch and fund raising events currently take place there.
During October 2001, a new entrance was made, the hedge line moved into the field to give better access and the car park laid with hard core. A skateboard area was also provided. More>>
[Back to the top]The Chilcompton Society Emblem
You may have wondered how we decided upon the logo appearing on Chilcompton Society stationery and notices and, of course, on the front cover of this web site (and the Chilcompton Society Newsletter), adopted by the Society on its formation in 1980.
It is the shape of a Brass Emblem which belonged, originally, to the Chilcompton Friendly Society (1862 - 1890), which met at the Britannia Inn. The average membership was 60 and they had an annual feast day in June. The Society also owned land for allotments at Catshill and held procession and club days, when local children had a half-day holiday from school.
There are four brass emblems known to be in existence, owned at present by the Chilcompton Society, Chris Howell, Wells Museum and the Museum of Agriculture at Reading University
The purpose of such friendly societies, apart from the social activities, was to look after people in need or sickness and were, in fact, a forerunner of the later sick clubs and eventually the National Health Service.
It is thought there were four emblems because each officer would have held one. Some societies gave one to each member. The Chilcompton Society was lucky to have been offered the emblem by a collector from Chewton Mendip. The activities of the friendly societies were well documented and rigidly controlled by official regulations. (Information supplied by Joan Strawbridge)
[Back to the top]Commander Charles Paget Streeten arrived in Chilcompton in 1894 having bought a house in lower Chilcompton, which he renamed "The Woodlands". He had married the daughter of the Revd. Holland of Camerton and together they were great benefactors of the church and to the village in general. He was a tall man whereas his wife was very short.
One of his first acts of generosity was the erection of the picturesque railings to border the stream from the old post office (Reed House) to Eagle House and in St. John's Path (The Pitching) and Church Walk.
He retired from the navy in 1897 with the rank of Captain, but in the previous year he had been co-opted on to the parish council and had been complimented for having the stream in St. John's Path cleared at his own expense.
In 1911, the parish council accepted Captain Streeten's generous offer of a field for recreational purposes (old playing field) for a nominal fee of one shilling per annum. In the same year Captain Streeten was appointed manager of the new Higher Elementary School at Norton Hill.
In 1912 the new fire-fighting appliances arrived for the village and were housed in Capt. Streeten's premises at The Woodlands.
In 1914 Capt. Streeten gave approximately half of the playing field to the village. He died in 1919 at the age of 69.
In 1925 the other half of the playing field was still being rented from Mrs. Streeten and it was not until 1965 that the parish council finally purchased it from J.A.Smithies Esq.
(Information supplied by David Strawbridge)
[Back to the top]5 March 1966 the last passenger train travelled through the village.
In 1991 on the 25th anniversary, church bells were rung in towns and villages along the route of the line. On that occasion, the late David Mackay recorded these memories of the Somerset and Dorset railway:
“I recall happy schoolboy memories of the 1920s, of racing one another up Norton Down Lane after school, hoping to be in time to see the ‘Pines Express’ emerge from the tunnel in a cloud of smoke and to watch it disappear over Fry’s Well bridge into the cutting before the station…
…of Spring days gathering primroses and violets and searching for skylarks’ nests on the embankments…
… of Summer days, trespassing again, picking moon daisies and cornflowers to take home to grandmother…
… of lazy school holidays spent counting the coal trucks and freight vans on the goods trains – no one’s count ever tallied!..
.... of the Summer holiday trip to Burnham on Sea changing trains at Evercreech Junction and later of teenage trips to Bath (1/6 return) perhaps to be measured for a new suit at the Fifty Shilling Tailors, returning in a couple of weeks to collect it and proudly wearing it to church on Sunday – no open neck shirt, jeans and trainers in those days!.
The trains too, were our clocks and when the ten to ten to Bath came through we knew our day was at an end. Happy days gone forever.”
And from David Strawbridge:
“On Saturday 5 March 1966, I took my wife Audrey and our four children to Shepton Mallet Railway Station and from there we travelled on the last daylight passenger service ever to stop at Chilcompton.
We alighted to a battery of photographers and sightseers, who were all deploring the closure of the line after 92 years. No one in the village could remember when we didn’t have a railway and this loss seemed to have a numbing effect on the village folk.”
January 1940
One of my brother Ron’s memories is of a wintery morning on 28 January 1940, when snow and ice had prevailed in abundance and had been followed by a glazed frost.
To help father, who was the village butcher, Ron aged 13, delivered meat parcels every Tuesday and Thursday at Norton Down, White Post and Stratton on the Fosse, on his way to school at Stockhill Road.
For the purpose he used his sister’s bicycle, made from spare parts, but from the onset on this particular morning, it was a difficult journey. He found he could not climb Norton Down Lane in the slippery conditions with two heavy bags of orders and it was only with the assistance of Edna and Margaret Aspden, who were walking to Midsomer Norton Grammar School, that Ron made it to the top.
With great difficulty, he completed his tasks and left Stratton via Green Lane to arrive at Stockhill school to find that only the headmaster, Mr Joe Dyke, and one other boy had managed to get there.
The boy, Roland Charles, had walked the considerable distance from Lynch Hill and Mr Dyke likewise from the bottom of Stockhill Road. (Roland was later killed in the war.)
Mr Dyke decided it was a ridiculous situation and sent them both home!
David Strawbridge
David is still looking to buy back any of his books no longer wanted to fill outstanding orders. Ring 414295 or 233130.