Development and local signs

One of the principal legacies of the project was to be a heritage trail which would guide visitors around the three hamlets helping them to share, enjoy and understand what they saw.

Originally our idea was to create a physical trail focused on the woollen and silk milling heritage and considerable initial work was done on sign content and locations. However following a discussion with Shepton Mallet Town Council towards the end of 2020, it became clear that the locality could bring its broader heritage to a wider audience by integrating our knowledge into a series of themed audio trails starting from the Market Place in the town centre. In that way, we would be able to promote our milling heritage alongside other contributions from the locality involving education, religion and people of note, all within the envelope of town-wide trails. It became clear too, that the financial contribution by the project to the town’s audio trails would be less than that originally budgeted for the heritage trail.

To ensure there was a visible legacy of our work in the locality we also decided to put in place two signs, one addressing the middle and lower Darshill milling heritage and the other showing the heritage buildings in upper Darshill, Ham and Bowlish. The latter sign is duplicated in two locations, at Bowlish and Darshill square.

The Middle and Lower Darshill mills sign is:

The heritage buildings in Upper Darshill, Ham and Bowlish sign is: