One of the objectives of our project is to shine a light on the lives of people who lived and worked in Shepton’s western hamlets of Bowlish, Ham and Darshill. It’s easier said than done though – the raw materials that help us to understand those lives is hard to come by. There’s some in newspaper reports and some in the court cases, Wills and property records held in archives, but we’d like to uncover more, and this is where you may be able to help.
If your ancestors were involved in woollen or silk cloth-making and have diaries, letters, photographs, postcards, family bible notes, deeds, family-related newspaper articles or anything else that gives us a glimpse into how they lived and worked we’d love to hear from you; and the documents need never leave your sight. If you any of these or other items you think would help us, then please get in touch using the Contact Form on this site. We’ll arrange to visit you and photograph what you have. It’s as simple and painless as that.
If you have an artifact or two, such as a cloth marker (a round object usually with a disc in lead – see the one we found in our garden below) or a shuttle or maybe even the remains of a loom or drop spindle – much of our town’s spinning and weaving took place in people’s homes rather than in factories – then please get in touch. We’ll visit and take notes and photographs and log what you have.
