Watchet

Watchet is a harbour town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is situated west of Bridgwater, north-west of Taunton, and east of Minehead. The town lies at the mouth of the Washford River on Bridgwater Bay, part of the Bristol Channel, and on the edge of Exmoor National Park. At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 3,948.

The original settlement may have been at the Iron Age fort, Daw's Castle. It then moved to the mouth of the river and a small harbour developed. After the Saxon conquest of the area the town developed, becoming known as Weced or Waeced, and was attacked by Vikings in the 10th century. Trade using the harbour gradually grew, despite damage during several severe storms, with import and exports of goods including those from Wansbrough Paper Mill until the 19th century when it increased with the export of iron ore, brought from the Brendon Hills via the West Somerset Mineral Railway, mainly to Newport for onward transportation to the Ebbw Vale Steelworks.

The West Somerset Railway also served the town and port bringing goods and people from the Bristol and Exeter Railway. The iron ore trade reduced, finally ceasing in the early 20th century. The port continued a smaller commercial trade until 2000 when it was converted into a marina. In 2016, Watchet joined the rest of West Somerset in receiving 'Opportunity Area' status.

The church is dedicated to Saint Decuman who is thought to have died here around 706. An early church was built near Daw's Castle and a new church was erected in the 15th century. It has several tombs and monuments to Sir John Wyndham and his family who were the lords of the manor. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which was written in the area, is commemorated by a statue on the harbourside.

East Quay Watchet is a purpose-built art gallery and arts centre that opened in 2021.

Etymology The name of Watchet is attested in a number of charters and in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle during the tenth century, in the Old English forms weced, wæced, and wæcet. It appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Wacet. Twenty-first-century authorities mostly agree that the name comes from the Common Brittonic words that survive in modern Welsh as - ("under-") and ("woodland"). Thus the name once meant "under the wood"., s.v. Watchet..

History Daw's Castle (Dart's Castle or Dane's Castle) is an Iron Age sea cliff hill fort about to the west of the town. It was built and fortified, on the site of an earlier settlement, as a burh by Alfred the Great, as part of his defences against Viking raids from the Bristol Channel around 878 AD. It is situated on an east–west cliff about above the sea, on a tapering spur of land bounded by the Washford River to the south. Its ramparts would have formed a semicircle backing on to the sheer cliffs, but only about are visible today. A Saxon mint was established here in 1035, probably within the fort. It is a scheduled monument.

There is no sign of Roman occupation, but the Anglo-Saxons took Watchet from the native Britons around AD 680. Under Alfred the Great (AD 871−901) Watchet became an important port, and coins minted here have been found as far away as Copenhagen and Stockholm. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the early port being plundered by Danes led by Earl Ottir and a 'Hroald' (possibly Ottir's king Ragnall) in 987 and 997.

Watchet is believed to be the place where Saint Decuman was killed around 706 and its parish church is dedicated to him. At the time of the Domesday Book Watchet was part of the estate held by William de Moyon.

In the 15th century, a flour mill was established by the Fulford and Hadley families near the mouth of the Washford River. By 1587 the Wyndham estate had established a fulling and grist mill to the south west. With access to wood from the Quantock Hills, records show that paper making was established by 1652, when the mill had started to produce paper. In 1846 business partners James Date, William Peach and John Wansbrough bought the business and introduced mechanised-production using a water wheel-powered pulley system.

In the 1860s, the factory was converted to steam power and the local harbour was used to import raw materials and export finished goods. Most of the mill was destroyed by fire in 1889, but it was rebuilt, and less than ten years later five paper-making machines were operating. The mill became the largest manufacturer of paper bags in the UK. In 1896, the business became the Wansbrough Paper Company, a limited liability company, and the building became known as the Wansbrough Paper Mill. With an annual capacity of 180,000 tonnes of product and employing 100 people, it was the UK's largest manufacturer of coreboard, and also produced containerboard, recycled envelope, bag and kraft papers. In December 2015 the paper mill ceased production and closed. The mill buildings were destroyed by fire in an arson attack on June 2nd 2026.

Harbour

Watchet developed as a town thanks to its closeness to the minerals within the Brendon Hills, and its access to the River Severn for onward shipping. Aside from local ships plying trade across the river, from 1564 onwards the port was used for import of salt and wine from France.

In 1643 during the English Civil War, a Royalist ship was sent to Watchet to reinforce for the siege of Dunster Castle. Parliamentarian (Roundhead) Captain Popham ordered his troops into the sea with the tide on the ebb, and with the ship unable to move, attacked the ship with fire from their carbines. Taken by surprise and under heavy attack, the Royalist commander surrendered the ship, resulting in a ship technically at sea being captured by troops on horseback.

The primitive jetty was damaged in a storm of 1659, so that in 1708 leading local wool merchant Sir William Wyndham built a new harbour costing £1,000, with a stronger pier. The main export at this time was kelp, made by burning seaweed for use in glass making. In the 19th century trade increased with the export of iron ore from the Brendon Hills mainly to Newport for onward transportation to the Ebbw Vale Steelworks, paper, flour and gypsum. In 1843 the esplanade was built by George Wyndham, 4th Earl of Egremont, and in 1855 a new harbour was commissioned to cope with increased iron ore trade. The existing harbour was damaged and several vessels wrecked by the Royal Charter Storm on 26 October 1859. A new east pier and wharf was completed in 1861−62 by James Abernethy. This allowed shipping movement to reach a peak, with over 1,100 ship movements per annum. Harbour trade was aided by the coming of the railway, with two independent railways terminating at Watchet from the mid 1860s. The West Somerset Mineral Railway ran down from the iron mines on the Brendon Hills, and the West Somerset Railway came up from the Bristol and Exeter Railway at Norton Fitzwarren. At the peak in the trade during the late 19th century 40,000 tons of ore were exported annually.

In 1862, the cast-iron Watchet Harbour Lighthouse was built by Hennet, Spinks and Else of Bridgwater. In September 2012, Princess Anne unveiled a plaque to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the lighthouse. The mines and West Somerset Mineral Railway closed in 1898. The West Somerset Railway, extended from Watchet to Minehead in 1874, survived as part of British Rail until 1971. Reopened as a heritage railway, it still operates today. In 1900 and 1903 a series of gales breached the breakwater and East Pier with the loss of several vessels each time and subsequent repairs.

After the First World War, the Cardiff Scrap and Salvage company Ltd. took a lease on part of the harbour, from 1920 to 1923. In autumn 1923, the company scrapped the second class protected cruiser HMS Fox of the Astraea-class of the Royal Navy, which at is still the largest vessel ever to enter the harbour. Before the Second World War, a gunnery range was established for various army units to practice anti-aircraft gunnery at a site between Watchet and Doniford. Unmanned target aircraft were towed by planes from RAF Weston Zoyland, and later were fired from catapults over the sea. Little of the camp buildings survives, and it is now the site of a holiday park.

The port remained open to service the papermills, importing wood pulp and esparto grass from Russia and Scandinavia, using mainly East European registered vessels after the Second World War. Requiring a return load, the result was that Watchet became a leading UK port for the export of car parts, tractors and other industrial goods. However, with the replacement of coal with oil from the mid-1960s, the port traffic began to terminally decline. The harbour was in commercial use until 2000, it has now been converted into a marina for pleasure boats. It is surrounded by renovated quaysides and narrow streets. The commercial esplanade has been refurbished with new shelters, information points, and the provision of new paving in some areas, as well as railings, lamps, curved benches, planters and new tree plantings.

There are several museums in the town, including the Market House Museum, which explores the history of the town and its harbour. The building was constructed in 1820 on the site of the previous market house which had been demolished in 1805. It was converted into a museum in 1979. It houses a collection of exhibits about the natural history of Watchet and the surrounding area. The focus is on nautical and maritime history of the port. Artefacts include those relating to: Archaeology, Coins and Medals, Land Transport, Maritime, Natural Sciences, Science and Technology and Social History. At the rear of the museum building is the old town lock-up for the temporary detention of people, often drunks who were usually released the next day or to hold people being brought before the local magistrate. The Watchet Boat Museum, which is housed in the 1862 Victorian architecture former railway goods shed, displays the unusual local flatner boats and associated artefacts.

Lifeboat

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution stationed a lifeboat at Watchet in 1875. The station was closed in 1944 by which time the nearby station at had been equipped with a motor lifeboat that could cover the area around Watchet. The boat was launched from the slipway at the western corner of the harbour, but the boat house was at the southern corner near the railway station and the boat was taken along the quay on a carriage.

The building was gifted to the town in 1951 and opened as a library in May 1953. In 2019 the ownership was transferred from the county council to Watchet town council.

Governance There are two tiers of local government covering Watchet, at parish (town) and unitary authority level: Watchet Town Council and Somerset Council. The town council is based at the Watchet Visitor Centre on Harbour Road.

For national elections, the town forms part of the Tiverton and Minehead constituency.

Administrative history

Watchet historically formed part of the ancient parish of St Decuman's in the Williton and Freemanners hundred of Somerset. The parish was named after its parish church, to the south of Watchet, and also included Williton and surrounding rural areas. When elected parish and district councils were established in 1894, St Decuman's was given a parish council and included in the Williton Rural District. The parish was split in 1902 into two civil parishes called Williton and Watchet, with Watchet also being made its own urban district at the same time. Watchet Urban District Council based itself in a converted 18th-century house at 5 Swain Street.

Watchet Urban District was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, with its area becoming part of the new West Somerset district. A successor parish was created covering the former urban district, with its parish council taking the name Watchet Town Council.