History feature:Layout 1
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HISTORY
In the footsteps of Hannah More THESE drama students from Shipham are appearing in a film about the life of Sunday School pioneer Hannah More, being made by Bristol-based Redcliffe Films. The scene was filmed in the 300-yearold Quaker Meeting House in Portishead, a tiny building with a thatched roof, tucked behind a high hedge at the end of the town centre. In the film, Hannah More and her sister Patty, now living at Cowslip Green Cottage, near Wrington, have been offered funds by William Wilberforce to set up Sunday schools in the Mendip area. In August 1789, Wilberforce had made a visit to Cheddar Caves and was shocked
On Nyland Hill
by the poverty and deprivation among the local people, some of whom were living in the caves. He found them ‘wretchedly poor and deficient in spiritual help’ and
‘grateful beyond measure’ for the money he was able to give them. Against opposition from the farmers, the first school was set up in Cheddar. A year, later the sisters opened a school in the combined parishes of Shipham and Rowberrow, at that time two poor and isolated villages high up on Mendip, where the locals mined lapis calaminaris, an ingredient used to convert copper to brass. By this time, the pattern was set up for further schools at Sandford, Banwell, Congresbury, Yatton and Axbridge, and in 1792 a school opened in Nailsea, a coal mining village and an important centre of the Mendip industrial scene. The Shipham students attend a drama group every Thursday with drama teacher Belinda Hill. The group is called Dramtise. Details: 01934 844294. The Quaker Meeting House, Portishead, is open every Sunday, details can found on its website.
To see a trailer of the film visit www.redcliffefilms.co.uk
THE view from Alan Rowntree’s window – towards Nyland Hill - isn’t just beautiful - it has proved to be inspirational. Since he moved to Westfield Barn, in Draycott, from London in 2003, he has written three local history books. He said: “After spending two years enhancing the property and garden, I wanted to find out more about the barn and how it fitted into the village.” The result was his first book, published in 2007, Westfield Barn Draycott & Neighbourhood, which was followed by his second on the history of Rodney Stoke. Now Alan, a former banker, has published his third book, Nyland Hill, tracing the history of Andersey, as it was known in ancient times, through the dissolution of the monasteries, to the early 20th century. It includes a fine collection of photographs, documents and sketches.
The book retails at £15 and is available from Draycott Post Office or from Alan 01934 743063. MENDIP TIMES • MARCH 2014 • PAGE 59