THE HISTORY OF WINSHAM PARISH COUNCIL
Welcome
to the history of Winsham Parish Council....
...and through the eyes of the Parish Council, view the life of our small community since 1894. The full story can only be discovered by reading the Minutes of the hundreds of meetings that have taken place over the years. This can still be done if one visits the County Archive at Taunton. The Winsham Web Museum has done this, through its dedicated researcher Mr Nick George. The work undertaken to produce this history of one of the oldest Parish Councils in Britain has taken hundreds of hours, and spread over several years . It is expected that this gallery will be extended eventually to accommodate a number of interesting areas of research suggested by this initiative. Hand-written Minute Books were used until 1975 .Nick George has sympathetically summarised the main events at each meeting recorded in these hand written books, reducing them skillfully to interesting and easily readable passages, avoiding repetition as far as possible. In doing this he has captured a sense of the cycles and rhythms of village life, and the increase in the tempo of life as the century advanced. We have digitally copied the typed minutes which follow on from 1975. Minutes from 2005 can be found on the Winsham Parish Web site at www.winsham.org.uk The presentation of this work for the Web Museum has involved many people including Stella Abbey, Janet Smart, Oshen Duncan and Tiger, her partner, and Frank Vaughan, the Parish Clerk. The Web Museum Management Committee extends its thanks to all concerned. Five
Generations of effort..... The work it carries out can be divided broadly into two categories. The first is concerned with the regular almost daily tasks and problems which in one form or another are reflected in over a hundred years of Minutes. These include management of the cemetery, the state of the roads, traffic problems ,the condition of the wars' memorial and so on. These tasks are on-going and for many there are no permanent solutions. The second category are the events that have a longer lasting effect on the life of the community. These are fewer, and have a special interest .Solving of Winsham's long running water and sewerage problems and Street lighting are just two such issues. Planning approvals lie somewhere between these two categories, depending on the longer term implications This History attempts to reproduce faithfully the
reports of thousands of hours of deliberation about these matters, carried
out by a diverse group of people over five generations. These reports
provide a fascinating insight to the way of life at the time. Timelines Suggestions as to other events that could be added to these timelines are welcomed. Click HERE to suggest your own important event. RPI Index Click HERE to return to Index |