MIDSOMER NORTON GREEN SPACES

MID SOMER NORTON GREEN SPACES

idsomer Norton Town Council started fresh back in May 2011. The newly elected M councillors were provided with a booklet titled “The Good Councillor’s Guide”, a very useful little publication. At the back, just before the index, is a section called ‘What Can Local Councils Do?’ and it would appear from the list that we have a huge range of powers available to us and duties that we must undertake. From the very beginning we saw increasing the provision of open green spaces and leisure areas as a priority.

Today, almost a decade later, the list is impressive including:

West Clewes (North Road) – The Town Council holds this in charitable trust under the West Clewes Recreation Ground Trust. It’s where Welton Rovers play but it’s also open to the general public and as well as improving the car park with new tarmac in 2011, there is a new utility block and ticket office. Improvements have been made to the children’s play area and an the outdoor gym has been installed. The Town Council also worked with Welton Rovers to replace their old wooden stand with a new one. Garden of Friendship (just off the High Street across the alleyway from NatWest Bank) – The Town Council holds a lease from Downside Abbey on this garden. After some deliberation we decided to call it the Garden of Friendship and it is where the Wassailing ceremony starts every January; but it is also an area of quietude, where a person can take a rest in the middle of our town – sitting on the new benches installed by the Town Council. Also in here is one of the town’s original red phone boxes, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott who also oversaw the conversion of the Tithe Barn, built by Augustinian Monks, into the Catholic Church.

St Chad’s Well (at the top of The Island, if one turns left and crosses the brook by the bridge there) – this area was acquired from Somervale School and the Town Council holds this in

charitable trust under the Midsomer Norton Town Trust. This is another quiet area with the monument to Lt. Frederick Stukeley Savage. This monument is one of only three in the country that are known to remember casualties from the Crimean War – although he died sometime after returning from the war. The garden and well

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were erected by his mother when the site was part of the Regency Mansion called Norton House in order to provide a source of fresh water at a time before water was piped to every house.

Wellow Brook Walk (running between Thicket Mead and the rear of the Welton Bag site). The

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Town Council hold a lease on this land from the Duchy of Cornwall who own it. It had been leased by a farmer, but the land is difficult to farm being uneven and very wet. We knew that it was a popular walk connecting Northmead Road, by the traffic lights, and the footpath between Clevedon Road and The Greenway so we arranged a lease from the Duchy. It is a “project in progress” at present while we work out the best way to utilise it and at the same time retain its wild nature.

Silver Street Nature Reserve (off Silver Street). Owned by B&NES and looked after by the Friends of Silver Street Nature Reserve – its future looked uncertain when the Somerset & Dorset Railway got a new lease. However, the Town Council stepped in and an Asset Transfer was arranged for the Town Council to hold this much loved oasis of nature by the Midsomer Norton Town Trust. The Friends have now become part of the Trust and the future of the site is assured.

Town Park (Gullock Tyning). Now our greatest asset, the cherry on our cake, the knees of our bee, has to be the Town Park. The provision of a Town Park for Midsomer Norton had been an aspiration for more than 40 years before this Town Council was formed and the fact that it is now a reality is proof that a little dedication and persistence works wonders. The project is still being developed but is fully useable and includes not just wonderful walks but also an amphitheatre, Sensory Garden, Celebration Meadow for town events, a river walk, Wild Meadow, walks up the Norton Hill batch and links to the cycleway. Overall, the town now has a wonderful range of green spaces and we hope that many of you visit, and explore and enjoy them.