Laura. Like Gladstone this town has around 600 people. The first town lots were offered for sale in 1872 with the school opening in 1873, the Wesleyan Church in 1873 and the brewery in 1876. A butter factory opened in 1898. A local land owner Mr H Walter had a private town named North Laura gazetted but it was soon amalgamated back into the government town of Laura. Some of the finest buildings in the town are the Old Court House (now a museum), the old post office and police station and the school. The town’s claim to fame is that the poet C.J Dennis was born in Laura in 1876 but he lived in many SA towns before he left for Victoria. The old brewery was sited on the banks of the Rocky River as a reliable water supply was necessary for successful breweries. Not far away in the hills of the Southern Flinders Ranges is Beetaloo Reservoir which was constructed between 1888 and 1890 to provide fresh water for the copper triangle towns of Moonta, Kadina and Wallaroo. The reservoir has been increased in capacity in 1927 and again in 1979. The town also had an important flour mill from 1874 which burnt down in 1878 and then was re-built. The mill machinery was manufactured in the foundries at Gawler and operated into the 1930s. During World War Two Laura had a flax mill to produce canvas. Crops of flax were grown from Wirrabara to Laura. It closed in 1947. As early as 1891 Laura had a dairy factory to process milk and make butter, some of which was railed to Broken Hill.

 

Laura has been home to Golden North ice cream since 1923. In that year the Laura Ice Company was formed, primarily to supply the local and the Broken Hill trade and the regional city of Port Pirie with ice, milk and ice cream. From 1938 milk was pasteurised at the factory. The brand name Golden North was adopted in 1948. In 1961 the head office was moved from Laura to Clare and the company was taken over by Farmers Union in 1972 which was in turn taken over by National Foods in 1991. Then in 2001 a group of local investors bought the business, and they have since expanded production, including the famous honey ice cream. You can buy Golden North ice cream from the shops in the main street. The company was awarded a state heritage icon award in 2006.

 

German colony Waldheim, German-Palestine Architecture.

 

The settlement was inaugurated on the occasion of Harvest Festival (German: Erntedankfest) on October 6, 1907. Then, the new Waldheimers still lived in the simple clay huts bought from the previous owners. The Haifa engineer Ernst August Voigt presented the plan of the streets and the 16 sites around a central site, reserved for a church. In 1909 the Jerusalemsverein (English: Association of Jerusalem), a Berlin-based organisation supportive of Protestant activities in the Holy Land, contributed money for the development of a water supply. By 1914, the Waldheimers planted vineyards of 5,000 square meters and more than 500 olive trees.[5] In December 1913, the farmers of Waldheim and Bethlehem keeping dairy cattle founded a common dairy cooperative to pasteurise milk and deliver it to Haifa.

 

After 1939, all Germans in Palestine turned into Enemy aliens. Some of the settlers with patriotic feelings went to Germany to join the war. Several were organised in Palestine in Nazi-organisations such as Hitler Youth, but many others were not. The British authorities decided to intern most of the enemy aliens. For this purpose four settlements Sarona, Bethlehem, Waldheim and Wilhelma were converted into internment camps. In summer 1941, 665 German internees, almost all young families with children, were released to Australia, where they could settle again. Many of the remaining Germans were either too old or too sick, to leave for Australia, while a second group did not want to go there. In December 1941 and in the course of 1942 another 400 German internees, mostly wives and children of men, who had followed the calls for recruitment and had left for Germany, were released to Germany on the purpose of Family reunification. By that time, almost all Nazi supporters or partriots among the settlers had left Palestine.

In 1945 the Italian and Hungarian internees were released from Bethlehem and the other camps. But the Britons refused to repatriate the remaining German internees to the British zone in Germany, because the British zone was flooded with millions of war refugees. Also most of the internees did not want to go to Germany, they had their home in Palestine. In 1947 the British authorities and Australia agreed to allow the remaining German internees to emigrate to the fifth continent. The end of the Mandate forced to hurry the resettlement, thus all the internees were first transferred to Cyprus, to a camp of simple tents near Famagusta. The internees of Bethlehem could leave the place safely.

 

On 17 April 1948, armed entities of the Haganah entered Waldheim, with the few British soldiers under camp commander Alan Tilbury unable to impede them, killing two colonists and severely wounding a woman (Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alonei_Abba).

By May 14, 1948, when Israel became independent, only about 50 Gentile Germans, mostly elderly and sick persons, were living in the new state. They voluntarily left the country or were successively expelled by the government.

Officially opened 7 April 1915.

Campaigned for by the Dairy Farmers in the area.

 

Newspaper article...

trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/81855256

 

The current building was built in 1930, taking the place of the original timber factory constructed in 1915.

 

A brick building, approximately 60 feet by 70 feet, which comprised the butter roller, churn room, cold storage room, testing room and a pasteurising room which was not included in the old building. Present churns were utilised as well as installation of a Flash pasteurising system, vats and cream cooler.

 

Spiralling production costs and a decline in dairying forced the closure in 1975. Since then it has been a pottery and in 2005 became an Arts Centre, used for local and touring exhibitions.

noosa.qld.gov.au/cooroy-butter-factory

Today's word-of-the-day is Juxtaposition.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juxtaposition

 

Blacksticks Blue is a farmhouse soft blue veined cheese made from pasteurised milk of the Butlers family herd of pedigree cows. Rightly been depicted as the "daddy of blue cheeses", it is handmade at the Butlers' Inglewhite Dairy in rural Lancashire.

 

The cheese is aged for about eight weeks during which it develops a distinctive amber hue along with a delicious creamy smooth yet tangy taste. It is soft enough to spread on to a slice of bread or cracker as well as used in cooking.

 

www.cheese.com/blacksticks-blue/

German colony Waldheim, German-Palestine Architecture.

 

The settlement was inaugurated on the occasion of Harvest Festival (German: Erntedankfest) on October 6, 1907. Then, the new Waldheimers still lived in the simple clay huts bought from the previous owners. The Haifa engineer Ernst August Voigt presented the plan of the streets and the 16 sites around a central site, reserved for a church. In 1909 the Jerusalemsverein (English: Association of Jerusalem), a Berlin-based organisation supportive of Protestant activities in the Holy Land, contributed money for the development of a water supply. By 1914, the Waldheimers planted vineyards of 5,000 square meters and more than 500 olive trees.[5] In December 1913, the farmers of Waldheim and Bethlehem keeping dairy cattle founded a common dairy cooperative to pasteurise milk and deliver it to Haifa.

 

After 1939, all Germans in Palestine turned into Enemy aliens. Some of the settlers with patriotic feelings went to Germany to join the war. Several were organised in Palestine in Nazi-organisations such as Hitler Youth, but many others were not. The British authorities decided to intern most of the enemy aliens. For this purpose four settlements Sarona, Bethlehem, Waldheim and Wilhelma were converted into internment camps. In summer 1941, 665 German internees, almost all young families with children, were released to Australia, where they could settle again. Many of the remaining Germans were either too old or too sick, to leave for Australia, while a second group did not want to go there. In December 1941 and in the course of 1942 another 400 German internees, mostly wives and children of men, who had followed the calls for recruitment and had left for Germany, were released to Germany on the purpose of Family reunification. By that time, almost all Nazi supporters or partriots among the settlers had left Palestine.

 

In 1945 the Italian and Hungarian internees were released from Bethlehem and the other camps. But the Britons refused to repatriate the remaining German internees to the British zone in Germany, because the British zone was flooded with millions of war refugees. Also most of the internees did not want to go to Germany, they had their home in Palestine. In 1947 the British authorities and Australia agreed to allow the remaining German internees to emigrate to the fifth continent. The end of the Mandate forced to hurry the resettlement, thus all the internees were first transferred to Cyprus, to a camp of simple tents near Famagusta. The internees of Bethlehem could leave the place safely.

 

On 17 April 1948, armed entities of the Haganah entered Waldheim, with the few British soldiers under camp commander Alan Tilbury unable to impede them, killing two colonists and severely wounding a woman. (Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alonei_Abba).

 

By May 14, 1948, when Israel became independent, only about 50 Gentile Germans, mostly elderly and sick persons, were living in the new state. They voluntarily left the country or were successively expelled by the government.

Drinka Pinta

 

Nottinghamshire

 

23rd April 2009.

German colony Waldheim, German-Palestine Architecture.

 

The settlement was inaugurated on the occasion of Harvest Festival (German: Erntedankfest) on October 6, 1907. Then, the new Waldheimers still lived in the simple clay huts bought from the previous owners. The Haifa engineer Ernst August Voigt presented the plan of the streets and the 16 sites around a central site, reserved for a church. In 1909 the Jerusalemsverein (English: Association of Jerusalem), a Berlin-based organisation supportive of Protestant activities in the Holy Land, contributed money for the development of a water supply. By 1914, the Waldheimers planted vineyards of 5,000 square meters and more than 500 olive trees.[5] In December 1913, the farmers of Waldheim and Bethlehem keeping dairy cattle founded a common dairy cooperative to pasteurise milk and deliver it to Haifa.

 

After 1939, all Germans in Palestine turned into Enemy aliens. Some of the settlers with patriotic feelings went to Germany to join the war. Several were organised in Palestine in Nazi-organisations such as Hitler Youth, but many others were not. The British authorities decided to intern most of the enemy aliens. For this purpose four settlements Sarona, Bethlehem, Waldheim and Wilhelma were converted into internment camps. In summer 1941, 665 German internees, almost all young families with children, were released to Australia, where they could settle again. Many of the remaining Germans were either too old or too sick, to leave for Australia, while a second group did not want to go there. In December 1941 and in the course of 1942 another 400 German internees, mostly wives and children of men, who had followed the calls for recruitment and had left for Germany, were released to Germany on the purpose of Family reunification. By that time, almost all Nazi supporters or partriots among the settlers had left Palestine.

 

In 1945 the Italian and Hungarian internees were released from Bethlehem and the other camps. But the Britons refused to repatriate the remaining German internees to the British zone in Germany, because the British zone was flooded with millions of war refugees. Also most of the internees did not want to go to Germany, they had their home in Palestine. In 1947 the British authorities and Australia agreed to allow the remaining German internees to emigrate to the fifth continent. The end of the Mandate forced to hurry the resettlement, thus all the internees were first transferred to Cyprus, to a camp of simple tents near Famagusta. The internees of Bethlehem could leave the place safely.

 

On 17 April 1948, armed entities of the Haganah entered Waldheim, with the few British soldiers under camp commander Alan Tilbury unable to impede them, killing two colonists and severely wounding a woman. (Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alonei_Abba).

 

By May 14, 1948, when Israel became independent, only about 50 Gentile Germans, mostly elderly and sick persons, were living in the new state. They voluntarily left the country or were successively expelled by the government.

© All Rights Reserved - Black Diamond Images

 

trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/133141017?searchTerm=tar...

 

From the 1850's the Manning River saw much boating activity with steamers such as the North Coast Steam Navigation Company's steamer Maianbar regularly servicing the river as far upstream as Wingham. Getting over the bar at Harrington was always a challenge but later with the aid of Tug Boats like the John Gollan, built by Captain Hector Gollan at Tinonee and launched in 1889, quite large boats were able to enter the river.

Of course many did not make it and the list of shipwrecks off the Manning coast and its 2 river bars is long.

This section of river from the old Peters Wharf to the Peeress Wharf is more famous for its rich cream boat history. Both milk factories used cream boats (or milk boats) to service the farms along the river with the milk picked up and transported in stainless steel drums to the two factory wharves and then to the factories for pasteurisation and for cheese making.

Many cream boats would have plied these waters daily. Today the only sound on the river is the odd fishermans tinnie and the sound of pelicans wings taking off near the Fish Co-op.

© All Rights Reserved - Black Diamond Images

 

trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/133141017?searchTerm=tar...

 

From the 1850's the Manning River saw much boating activity with steamers such as the North Coast Steam Navigation Company's steamer Maianbar regularly servicing the river as far upstream as Wingham. Getting over the bar at Harrington was always a challenge but later with the aid of Tug Boats like the John Gollan, built by Captain Hector Gollan at Tinonee and launched in 1889, quite large boats were able to enter the river.

Of course many did not make it and the list of shipwrecks off the Manning coast and its 2 river bars is long.

This section of river from the old Peters Wharf to the Peeress Wharf is more famous for its rich cream boat history. Both milk factories used cream boats (or milk boats) to service the farms along the river with the milk picked up and transported in stainless steel drums to the two factory wharves and then to the factories for pasteurisation and for cheese making.

Many cream boats would have plied these waters daily. Today the only sound on the river is the odd fishermans tinnie and the sound of pelicans wings taking off near the Fish Co-op.

Pam made a great pizza with dough from the breadmaker recipe and a tomato sauce made with tomatos from nans greenhouse, with some pasteurised mozzarella and some pepperoni.

The settlement was inaugurated on the occasion of Harvest Festival (German: Erntedankfest) on October 6, 1907. Then, the new Waldheimers still lived in the simple clay huts bought from the previous owners. The Haifa engineer Ernst August Voigt presented the plan of the streets and the 16 sites around a central site, reserved for a church. In 1909 the Jerusalemsverein (English: Association of Jerusalem), a Berlin-based organisation supportive of Protestant activities in the Holy Land, contributed money for the development of a water supply. By 1914, the Waldheimers planted vineyards of 5,000 square meters and more than 500 olive trees.[5] In December 1913, the farmers of Waldheim and Bethlehem keeping dairy cattle founded a common dairy cooperative to pasteurise milk and deliver it to Haifa.

 

After 1939, all Germans in Palestine turned into Enemy aliens. Some of the settlers with patriotic feelings went to Germany to join the war. Several were organised in Palestine in Nazi-organisations such as Hitler Youth, but many others were not. The British authorities decided to intern most of the enemy aliens. For this purpose four settlements Sarona, Bethlehem, Waldheim and Wilhelma were converted into internment camps. In summer 1941, 665 German internees, almost all young families with children, were released to Australia, where they could settle again. Many of the remaining Germans were either too old or too sick, to leave for Australia, while a second group did not want to go there. In December 1941 and in the course of 1942 another 400 German internees, mostly wives and children of men, who had followed the calls for recruitment and had left for Germany, were released to Germany on the purpose of Family reunification. By that time, almost all Nazi supporters or partriots among the settlers had left Palestine.

 

In 1945 the Italian and Hungarian internees were released from Bethlehem and the other camps. But the Britons refused to repatriate the remaining German internees to the British zone in Germany, because the British zone was flooded with millions of war refugees. Also most of the internees did not want to go to Germany, they had their home in Palestine. In 1947 the British authorities and Australia agreed to allow the remaining German internees to emigrate to the fifth continent. The end of the Mandate forced to hurry the resettlement, thus all the internees were first transferred to Cyprus, to a camp of simple tents near Famagusta. The internees of Bethlehem could leave the place safely.

 

On 17 April 1948, armed entities of the Haganah entered Waldheim, with the few British soldiers under camp commander Alan Tilbury unable to impede them, killing two colonists and severely wounding a woman. (Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alonei_Abba).

 

By May 14, 1948, when Israel became independent, only about 50 Gentile Germans, mostly elderly and sick persons, were living in the new state. They voluntarily left the country or were successively expelled by the government.

QSA Item ID 1052768

View this and other original records at the Queensland State Archives:

Series ID 82

 

The Anglican Church of St Benedict at Glastonbury within the English county of Somerset was built as a Norman chapel in the 11th century with substantial additions in the 15th and 19th centuries. It is a Grade I listed building.

 

The first church on the site was dedicated to Saint Benignus in the 11th century, possibly due to confusion with the Anglo-Saxon Beonna. The dedication was changed to Saint Benedict in the 17th century.

 

The current building is late medieval although the exact date is unknown. The tower was added in the mid 15th century. Abbot Richard Beere (1493–1524) added the north aisle and porch. The stained glass windows were replaced in the 1840s. In 1862 Benjamin Ferrey added the south chapel. Victorian restoration was carried out by J. D. Sedding in the 1880s. During 2014 extensive renovation work was carried out.

 

The church was a dependent chapel of the nearby Church of St John the Baptist and both were under the control of Glastonbury Abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It is now part of a benefice with St Johns and St Mary's & All Saints Church in the village of Meare within the Diocese of Bath and Wells.

 

The Lias stone church has a four-bay nave, north and south aisles, chancel and clerestory. The three-stage west tower is supported by set back buttresses. It has an embattled parapet. It contains six bells, five of which date from 1776.

 

The interior includes a 13th-century piscina.

 

Glastonbury is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, 23 miles (37 km) south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than 1 mile (2 km) across the River Brue from Street, which is now larger than Glastonbury.

 

Evidence from timber trackways such as the Sweet Track show that the town has been inhabited since Neolithic times. Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village, close to the old course of the River Brue and Sharpham Park approximately 2 miles (3 km) west of Glastonbury, that dates back to the Bronze Age. Centwine was the first Saxon patron of Glastonbury Abbey, which dominated the town for the next 700 years. One of the most important abbeys in England, it was the site of Edmund Ironside's coronation as King of England in 1016. Many of the oldest surviving buildings in the town, including the Tribunal, George Hotel and Pilgrims' Inn and the Somerset Rural Life Museum, which is based at the site of a 14th-century abbey manor barn, often referred to as a tithe barn, are associated with the abbey. The Church of St John the Baptist dates from the 15th century.

 

The town became a centre for commerce, which led to the construction of the market cross, Glastonbury Canal and the Glastonbury and Street railway station, the largest station on the original Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The Brue Valley Living Landscape is a conservation project managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust and nearby is the Ham Wall National Nature Reserve.

 

Glastonbury has been described as having a New Age community, and possibly being where New Age beliefs originated at the turn of the twentieth century. It is notable for myths and legends often related to Glastonbury Tor, concerning Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail and King Arthur. Joseph is said to have arrived in Glastonbury and stuck his staff into the ground, when it flowered miraculously into the Glastonbury Thorn. The presence of a landscape zodiac around the town has been suggested but no evidence has been discovered. The Glastonbury Festival, held in the nearby village of Pilton, takes its name from the town.

 

Glastonbury is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, 23 miles (37 km) south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than 1 mile (2 km) across the River Brue from Street, which is now larger than Glastonbury.

 

Evidence from timber trackways such as the Sweet Track show that the town has been inhabited since Neolithic times. Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village, close to the old course of the River Brue and Sharpham Park approximately 2 miles (3 km) west of Glastonbury, that dates back to the Bronze Age. Centwine was the first Saxon patron of Glastonbury Abbey, which dominated the town for the next 700 years. One of the most important abbeys in England, it was the site of Edmund Ironside's coronation as King of England in 1016. Many of the oldest surviving buildings in the town, including the Tribunal, George Hotel and Pilgrims' Inn and the Somerset Rural Life Museum, which is based at the site of a 14th-century abbey manor barn,[5] often referred to as a tithe barn, are associated with the abbey. The Church of St John the Baptist dates from the 15th century.

 

The town became a centre for commerce, which led to the construction of the market cross, Glastonbury Canal and the Glastonbury and Street railway station, the largest station on the original Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The Brue Valley Living Landscape is a conservation project managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust and nearby is the Ham Wall National Nature Reserve.

 

Glastonbury has been described as having a New Age community, and possibly being where New Age beliefs originated at the turn of the twentieth century. It is notable for myths and legends often related to Glastonbury Tor, concerning Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail and King Arthur. Joseph is said to have arrived in Glastonbury and stuck his staff into the ground, when it flowered miraculously into the Glastonbury Thorn. The presence of a landscape zodiac around the town has been suggested but no evidence has been discovered. The Glastonbury Festival, held in the nearby village of Pilton, takes its name from the town.

 

During the 7th millennium BC the sea level rose and flooded the valleys and low-lying ground surrounding Glastonbury so the Mesolithic people occupied seasonal camps on the higher ground, indicated by scatters of flints. The Neolithic people continued to exploit the reedswamps for their natural resources and started to construct wooden trackways. These included the Sweet Track, west of Glastonbury, which is one of the oldest engineered roads known and was the oldest timber trackway discovered in Northern Europe, until the 2009 discovery of a 6,000-year-old trackway in Belmarsh Prison. Tree-ring dating (dendrochronology) of the timbers has enabled very precise dating of the track, showing it was built in 3807 or 3806 BC. It has been claimed to be the oldest road in the world. The track was discovered in the course of peat digging in 1970, and is named after its discoverer, Ray Sweet. It extended across the marsh between what was then an island at Westhay, and a ridge of high ground at Shapwick, a distance close to 2,000 metres (1.2 mi). The track is one of a network of tracks that once crossed the Somerset Levels. Built in the 39th century BC, during the Neolithic period, the track consisted of crossed poles of ash, oak and lime (Tilia) which were driven into the waterlogged soil to support a walkway that mainly consisted of oak planks laid end-to-end. Since the discovery of the Sweet Track, it has been determined that it was built along the route of an even earlier track, the Post Track, dating from 3838 BC, and so 30 years older.

 

Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village, close to the old course of the River Brue, on the Somerset Levels near Godney, some 3 miles (5 km) north west of Glastonbury. It covers an area of 400 feet (120 m) north to south by 300 feet (90 m) east to west, and housed around 100 people in five to seven groups of houses, each for an extended family, with sheds and barns, made of hazel and willow covered with reeds, and surrounded either permanently or at certain times by a wooden palisade. The village was built in about 300 BC and occupied into the early Roman period (around AD 100) when it was abandoned, possibly due to a rise in the water level. It was built on a morass on an artificial foundation of timber filled with brushwood, bracken, rubble and clay.

 

Sharpham Park is a 300-acre (120-hectare) historic park, 2 miles (3 km) west of Glastonbury, which dates back to the Bronze Age.

 

Glæstyngabyrig. When the settlement is first recorded in the 7th and the early 8th century, it was called Glestingaburg. The burg element is Old English and could refer either to a fortified place such as a burh or, more likely, a monastic enclosure; however the Glestinga element is obscure, and may derive from a Celtic personal name or from Old English (either from a name or otherwise). It may derive from a person or kindred group named Glast. The name however is likely related to an Irish individual named Glas mac Caise 'Glas son of Cas'. Glas is an ancient Irish personal name meaning 'green, grey/green'. It is stated in the Life of St Patrick that he resurrected a swineherder by that name and he went to Glastonbury, to an area of the village known as 'Glastonbury of the Irish' and this could well be referring to the area of Beckery (Little Ireland) where it is believed an Irish Colony established itself in the 10th century and was thus nicknamed 'Little Ireland'. This area was known to the Irish as Glastimbir na n-Gaoidhil 'Glastonbury of the Gaels'. (The Archaeology and History of Glastonbury Abbey - Courteney Arthur Ralegh Radford). This is the earliest source for the name Glastonbury. The modern Irish form for Glastonbury is Glaistimbir.

 

Hugh Ross Williamson cites a tale about St. Collen, one of the earliest hermits to inhabit the Tor before the Abbey was built by St. Patrick, which has the Saint summoned by the King of the Fairies, Gwyn, to the summit of the Tor. Upon arrival there he beholds a hovering mansion inhabited by handsomely dressed courtiers and King Gwyn on a throne of gold; holy water disperses the apparition. This is from Druid mythology, in which the mansion is made of glass so as to receive the spirits of the dead, which were supposed to depart from the summit of the Tor. This was the chief reason why the chapel, and later the church, of St. Michael were built on the high hill; St. Michael being the chief patron against diabolic attacks which the monks believed the Fairy King to be numbered among. Accordingly, Williamson posits that the Tor was named after the glassy mansion of the dead.

 

William of Malmesbury in his De Antiquitate Glastonie Ecclesie gives the Old Celtic Ineswitrin (or Ynys Witrin) as its earliest name, and asserts that the founder of the town was the eponymous Glast, a descendant of Cunedda.

 

Centwine (676–685) was the first Saxon patron of Glastonbury Abbey. King Edmund Ironside was buried at the abbey. The Domesday Book indicates that in the hundred of Glastingberiensis, the Abbey was the Lord in 1066 prior to the arrival of William the Conqueror then tenant-in chief with Godwin as Lord of Glastingberi in 1086.

 

To the southwest of the town centre is Beckery, which was once a village in its own right but is now part of the suburbs. Around the 7th and 8th centuries it was occupied by a small monastic community associated with a cemetery. Archaeological excavations in 2016 uncovered 50 to 60 skeletons thought to be those of monks from Beckery Chapel during the 5th or early 6th century.

 

Sharpham Park was granted by King Eadwig to the then abbot Æthelwold in 957. In 1191 Sharpham Park was gifted by the soon-to-be King John I to the Abbots of Glastonbury, who remained in possession of the park and house until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. From 1539 to 1707 the park was owned by the Duke of Somerset, Sir Edward Seymour, brother of Queen Jane; the Thynne family of Longleat, and the family of Sir Henry Gould. Edward Dyer was born here in 1543. The house is now a private residence and Grade II* listed building. It was the birthplace of Sir Edward Dyer (died 1607) an Elizabethan poet and courtier, the writer Henry Fielding (1707–54), and the cleric William Gould.

 

In the 1070s St Margaret's Chapel was built on Magdelene Street, originally as a hospital and later as almshouses for the poor. The building dates from 1444. The roof of the hall is thought to have been removed after the Dissolution, and some of the building was demolished in the 1960s. It is Grade II* listed, and a scheduled monument. Hospital of St Mary Magdalene, Glastonbury in 2010 plans were announced to restore the building.

 

During the Middle Ages the town largely depended on the abbey but was also a centre for the wool trade until the 18th century. A Saxon-era canal connected the abbey to the River Brue. Richard Whiting, the last Abbot of Glastonbury, was executed with two of his monks on 15 November 1539 during the dissolution of the monasteries.

 

During the Second Cornish Uprising of 1497 Perkin Warbeck surrendered when he heard that Giles, Lord Daubeney's troops, loyal to Henry VII, were camped at Glastonbury.

 

In 1693 Glastenbury, Connecticut was founded and named after the English town from which some of the settlers had emigrated. It is rumored to have originally been called "Glistening Town" until the mid-19th century, when the name was changed to match the spelling of Glastonbury, England, but in fact, residents of the Connecticut town believe this to be a myth, based on the Glastonbury Historical Society's records. A representation of the Glastonbury thorn is incorporated onto the town seal.

 

The Somerset town's charter of incorporation was received in 1705. Growth in the trade and economy largely depended on the drainage of the surrounding moors. The opening of the Glastonbury Canal produced an upturn in trade, and encouraged local building. The parish was part of the hundred of Glaston Twelve Hides, until the 1730s when it became a borough in its own right.

 

By the middle of the 19th century the Glastonbury Canal drainage problems and competition from the new railways caused a decline in trade, and the town's economy became depressed. The canal was closed on 1 July 1854, and the lock and aqueducts on the upper section were dismantled. The railway opened on 17 August 1854. The lower sections of the canal were given to the Commissioners for Sewers, for use as a drainage ditch. The final section was retained to provide a wharf for the railway company, which was used until 1936, when it passed to the Commissioners of Sewers and was filled in. The Central Somerset Railway merged with the Dorset Central Railway to become the Somerset and Dorset Railway. The main line to Glastonbury closed in 1966.

 

In the Northover district industrial production of sheepskins, woollen slippers and, later, boots and shoes, developed in conjunction with the growth of C&J Clark in Street. Clarks still has its headquarters in Street, but shoes are no longer manufactured there. Instead, in 1993, redundant factory buildings were converted to form Clarks Village, the first purpose-built factory outlet in the United Kingdom.

 

During the 19th and 20th centuries tourism developed based on the rise of antiquarianism, the association with the abbey and mysticism of the town. This was aided by accessibility via the rail and road network, which has continued to support the town's economy and led to a steady rise in resident population since 1801.

 

Glastonbury received national media coverage in 1999 when cannabis plants were found in the town's floral displays.

 

Glastonbury is notable for myths and legends concerning Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail and King Arthur as recorded by ancient historians William of Malmesbury, Venerable Bede, Gerald of Wales and Geoffrey of Monmouth. Many long-standing and cherished legends were examined in a four-year study by archaeologists, led by Professor Roberta Gilchrist, at the University of Reading, who, amongst other findings, speculated that the connection with King Arthur and his Queen, Guinevere, was created deliberately by the monks in 1184 to meet a financial crisis caused by a devastating fire. Other myths examined include the visit by Jesus, the building of the oldest church in England, and the flowering of the walking stick. Roberta Gilchrist stated, "We didn't claim to disprove the legendary associations, nor would we wish to". The site of King Arthur's supposed grave contained material dating from between the 11th and 15th centuries. Gilchrist said, "That doesn't dispel the Arthurian legend, it just means the pit [20th century archaeologist Ralegh Radford] excavated he rather over-claimed." The study made new archaeological finds; its leader found Glastonbury to be a remarkable archaeological site. The new results were reported on the Glastonbury Abbey Web site, and were to be incorporated into the Abbey's guidebook; however, the leader of the study, who became a trustee of Glastonbury, said "We are not in the business of destroying people's beliefs ... A thousand years of beliefs and legends are part of the intangible history of this remarkable place". Gilchrist went on to say, "archaeology can help us to understand how legends evolve and what people in the past believed". She noted that the project has actually uncovered the first definitive proof of occupation at the Glastonbury Abbey site during the fifth century—when Arthur allegedly lived.

 

The legend that Joseph of Arimathea retrieved certain holy relics was introduced by the French poet Robert de Boron in his 13th-century version of the grail story, thought to have been a trilogy though only fragments of the later books survive today. The work became the inspiration for the later Vulgate Cycle of Arthurian tales.

 

De Boron's account relates how Joseph captured Jesus's blood in a cup (the "Holy Grail") which was subsequently brought to Britain. The Vulgate Cycle reworked Boron's original tale. Joseph of Arimathea was no longer the chief character in the Grail origin: Joseph's son, Josephus, took over his role of the Grail keeper. The earliest versions of the grail romance, however, do not call the grail "holy" or mention anything about blood, Joseph or Glastonbury.

 

In 1191, monks at the abbey claimed to have found the graves of Arthur and Guinevere to the south of the Lady Chapel of the Abbey Church, which was visited by a number of contemporary historians including Giraldus Cambrensis. The remains were later moved and were lost during the Reformation. Many scholars suspect that this discovery was a pious forgery to substantiate the antiquity of Glastonbury's foundation, and increase its renown.

 

An early Welsh poem links Arthur to the Tor in an account of a confrontation between Arthur and Melwas, who had kidnapped Queen Guinevere.

 

Joseph is said to have arrived in Glastonbury by boat over the flooded Somerset Levels. On disembarking he stuck his staff into the ground and it flowered miraculously into the Glastonbury Thorn (also called Holy Thorn). This is said to explain a hybrid Crataegus monogyna (hawthorn) tree that only grows within a few miles of Glastonbury, and which flowers twice annually, once in spring and again around Christmas time (depending on the weather). Each year a sprig of thorn is cut, by the local Anglican vicar and the eldest child from St John's School, and sent to the Queen.

 

The original Holy Thorn was a centre of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages but was chopped down during the English Civil War. A replacement thorn was planted in the 20th century on Wearyall hill (originally in 1951 to mark the Festival of Britain, but the thorn had to be replanted the following year as the first attempt did not take). The Wearyall Hill Holy Thorn was vandalised in 2010 and all its branches were chopped off. It initially showed signs of recovery but now (2014) appears to be dead. A new sapling has been planted nearby. Many other examples of the thorn grow throughout Glastonbury including those in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey, St Johns Church and Chalice Well.

 

Today, Glastonbury Abbey presents itself as "traditionally the oldest above-ground Christian church in the world," which according to the legend was built at Joseph's behest to house the Holy Grail, 65 or so years after the death of Jesus. The legend also says that as a child, Jesus had visited Glastonbury along with Joseph. The legend probably was encouraged during the medieval period when religious relics and pilgrimages were profitable business for abbeys. William Blake mentioned the legend in a poem that became a popular hymn, "Jerusalem".

 

In 1934 artist Katherine Maltwood suggested a landscape zodiac, a map of the stars on a gigantic scale, formed by features in the landscape such as roads, streams and field boundaries, could be found situated around Glastonbury. She held that the "temple" was created by Sumerians about 2700 BC. The idea of a prehistoric landscape zodiac fell into disrepute when two independent studies examined the Glastonbury Zodiac, one by Ian Burrow in 1975 and the other by Tom Williamson and Liz Bellamy in 1983. These both used standard methods of landscape historical research. Both studies concluded that the evidence contradicted the idea of an ancient zodiac. The eye of Capricorn identified by Maltwood was a haystack. The western wing of the Aquarius phoenix was a road laid in 1782 to run around Glastonbury, and older maps dating back to the 1620s show the road had no predecessors. The Cancer boat (not a crab as in conventional western astrology) consists of a network of 18th-century drainage ditches and paths. There are some Neolithic paths preserved in the peat of the bog formerly comprising most of the area, but none of the known paths match the lines of the zodiac features. There is no support for this theory, or for the existence of the "temple" in any form, from conventional archaeologists. Glastonbury is also said to be the centre of several ley lines.

 

The town council is made up of 16 members, and is based at Glastonbury Town Hall, Magdalene Street. The town hall was built in 1814 and has a two-storey late Georgian ashlar front. It is a Grade II* listed building.

 

For local government purposes, since 1 April 2023, Glastonbury comes under the unitary authority of Somerset Council. Prior to this, it was part of the non-metropolitan district of Mendip, which was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, having previously been part of Glastonbury Municipal Borough.

 

The town's retained fire station is operated by Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service. Police and ambulance services are provided by Avon and Somerset Constabulary and the South Western Ambulance Service. There are two doctors' surgeries in Glastonbury, and a National Health Service community hospital operated by Somerset Primary Care Trust which opened in 2005.

 

There are 4 electoral wards within Glastonbury having in total the same population as is mentioned above.

 

Glastonbury falls within the Wells constituency, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The Member of Parliament is Conservative, James Heappey, who replaced Tessa Munt of the Liberal Democrats in the 2015 general election.

 

Glastonbury is twinned with the Greek island of Patmos, and Lalibela, Ethiopia.

 

The walk up the Tor to the distinctive tower at the summit (the partially restored remains of an old church) is rewarded by vistas of the mid-Somerset area, including the Levels which are drained marshland. From there, on a dry point, 158 metres (518 ft) above sea level, it is easy to appreciate how Glastonbury was once an island and, in the winter, the surrounding moors are often flooded, giving that appearance once more. It is an agricultural region typically with open fields of permanent grass, surrounded by ditches with willow trees. Access to the moors and Levels is by "droves", i.e., green lanes. The Levels and inland moors can be 6 metres (20 ft) below peak tides and have large areas of peat. The low-lying areas are underlain by much older Triassic age formations of Upper Lias sand that protrude to form what would once have been islands and include Glastonbury Tor. The lowland landscape was formed only during the last 10,000 years, following the end of the last ice age.

 

The low-lying damp ground can produce a visual effect known as a Fata Morgana. This optical phenomenon occurs because rays of light are strongly bent when they pass through air layers of different temperatures in a steep thermal inversion where an atmospheric duct has formed. The Italian name Fata Morgana is derived from the name of Morgan le Fay, who was alternatively known as Morgane, Morgain, Morgana and other variants. Morgan le Fay was described as a powerful sorceress and antagonist of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere in the Arthurian legend.

 

Glastonbury is less than 1 mile (2 km) across the River Brue from the village of Street. At the time of King Arthur the Brue formed a lake just south of the hilly ground on which Glastonbury stands. This lake is one of the locations suggested by Arthurian legend as the home of the Lady of the Lake. Pomparles Bridge stood at the western end of this lake, guarding Glastonbury from the south, and it is suggested that it was here that Sir Bedivere threw Excalibur into the waters after King Arthur fell at the Battle of Camlann. The old bridge was replaced by a reinforced concrete arch bridge in 1911.

 

Until the 13th century, the direct route to the sea at Highbridge was prevented by gravel banks and peat near Westhay. The course of the river partially encircled Glastonbury from the south, around the western side (through Beckery), and then north through the Panborough-Bleadney gap in the Wedmore-Wookey Hills, to join the River Axe just north of Bleadney. This route made it difficult for the officials of Glastonbury Abbey to transport produce from their outlying estates to the abbey, and when the valley of the River Axe was in flood it backed up to flood Glastonbury itself. Some time between 1230 and 1250 a new channel was constructed westwards into Meare Pool north of Meare, and further westwards to Mark Moor. The Brue Valley Living Landscape is a conservation project based on the Somerset Levels and Moors and managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust. The project commenced in January 2009 and aims to restore, recreate and reconnect habitat, ensuring that wildlife is enhanced and capable of sustaining itself in the face of climate change, while guaranteeing farmers and other landowners can continue to use their land profitably. It is one of an increasing number of landscape-scale conservation projects in the UK.

 

The Ham Wall National Nature Reserve, 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of Glastonbury, is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. This new wetland habitat has been established from out peat diggings and now consists of areas of reedbed, wet scrub, open water and peripheral grassland and woodland. Bird species living on the site include the bearded tit and the Eurasian bittern.

 

The Whitelake River rises between two low limestone ridges to the north of Glastonbury, part of the southern edge of the Mendip Hills. The confluence of the two small streams that make the Whitelake River is on Worthy Farm, the site of the Glastonbury Festival, between the small villages of Pilton and Pylle.

 

Along with the rest of South West England, Glastonbury has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of the country. The annual mean temperature is approximately 10 °C (50.0 °F). Seasonal temperature variation is less extreme than most of the United Kingdom because of the adjacent sea temperatures. The summer months of July and August are the warmest with mean daily maxima of approximately 21 °C (69.8 °F). In winter mean minimum temperatures of 1 or 2 °C (33.8 or 35.6 °F) are common. In the summer the Azores high pressure affects the south-west of England, however convective cloud sometimes forms inland, reducing the number of hours of sunshine. Annual sunshine rates are slightly less than the regional average of 1,600 hours. In December 1998 there were 20 days without sun recorded at Yeovilton. Most of the rainfall in the south-west is caused by Atlantic depressions or by convection. Most of the rainfall in autumn and winter is caused by the Atlantic depressions, which is when they are most active. In summer, a large proportion of the rainfall is caused by sun heating the ground leading to convection and to showers and thunderstorms. Average rainfall is around 700 mm (28 in). About 8–15 days of snowfall is typical. November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, and June to August have the lightest winds. The predominant wind direction is from the south-west.

 

Glastonbury is a centre for religious tourism and pilgrimage. As with many towns of similar size, the centre is not as thriving as it once was but Glastonbury supports a large number of alternative shops.

 

The outskirts of the town contain a DIY shop, a former sheepskin and slipper factory site, once owned by Morlands, which is slowly being redeveloped. The 31-acre (13 ha) site of the old Morlands factory was scheduled for demolition and redevelopment into a new light industrial park, although there have been some protests that the buildings should be reused rather than being demolished. As part of the redevelopment of the site a project has been established by the Glastonbury Community Development Trust to provide support for local unemployed people applying for employment, starting in self-employment and accessing work-related training.

 

According to the Glastonbury Conservation Area Appraisal of July 2010, there are approximately 170 listed buildings or structures in the town's designated conservation area, of which eight are listed grade I, six are listed grade II* and the remainder are listed grade II.

 

The Tribunal was a medieval merchant's house, used as the Abbey courthouse and, during the Monmouth Rebellion trials, by Judge Jeffreys. It now serves as a museum containing possessions and works of art from the Glastonbury Lake Village which were preserved in almost perfect condition in the peat after the village was abandoned. The museum is run by the Glastonbury Antiquarian Society. The building also houses the tourist information centre.

 

The octagonal Market Cross was built in 1846 by Benjamin Ferrey.

 

The George Hotel and Pilgrims' Inn was built in the late 15th century to accommodate visitors to Glastonbury Abbey, which is open to visitors. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building. The front of the 3-storey building is divided into 3 tiers of panels with traceried heads. Above the right of centre entrance are 3 carved panels with arms of the Abbey and Edward IV.

 

The Somerset Rural Life Museum is a museum of the social and agricultural history of Somerset, housed in buildings surrounding a 14th-century barn once belonging to Glastonbury Abbey. It was used for the storage of arable produce, particularly wheat and rye, from the abbey's home farm of approximately 524 acres (2.12 km2). Threshing and winnowing would also have been carried out in the barn, which was built from local shelly limestone with thick timbers supporting the stone tiling of the roof. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building, and is a scheduled monument.

 

The Chalice Well is a holy well at the foot of the Tor, covered by a wooden well-cover with wrought-iron decoration made in 1919. The natural spring has been in almost constant use for at least two thousand years. Water issues from the spring at a rate of 25,000 imperial gallons (110,000 L; 30,000 US gal) per day and has never failed, even during drought. Iron oxide deposits give the water a reddish hue, as dissolved ferrous oxide becomes oxygenated at the surface and is precipitated, providing chalybeate waters. As with the hot springs in nearby Bath, the water is believed to possess healing qualities. The well is about 9 feet (2.7 m) deep, with two underground chambers at its bottom. It is often portrayed as a symbol of the female aspect of deity, with the male symbolised by Glastonbury Tor (however, some consider Glastonbury Tor to be a 'hugh bounteous female figure'). As such, it is a popular destination for pilgrims in search of the divine feminine, including modern Pagans. The well is however popular with all faiths and in 2001 became a World Peace Garden.

 

Just a short distance from the Chalice Well site, across a road known as Well House Lane, can be found the "White Spring", where a temple has been created in the 21st century. Whilst the waters of the Chalice Well are touched red with iron, the water of the latter is white with calcite. Some people consider the red water of Chalice Well to have male properties, whilst the white water of White Spring has female qualities. Both springs rise from caverns underneath the Tor and it is claimed that both have healing in their flow.

 

The building now used as the White Spring Temple was originally a Victorian-built well house, erected by the local water board in 1872. Around that time, an outbreak of cholera in the area caused great concern and the natural caves were dug out, and a stone collection chamber was constructed to ensure the flow of a quality water supply. Study of the flow of water into the collection chamber has shown that the builders also tapped into other springs, besides the White Spring and judging from the high iron content of one of these springs, it appears that a small offshoot of Chalice Well finds its way under Well House Lane to emerge beside the White Spring. However, after building the reservoir, the water board soon discovered that the high calciferous content of the water caused pipes to block and by the end of the 19th century water was piped into Glastonbury from out of town. After lying derelict for many years, the water board sold off the well house, which is now maintained by a group of volunteers as a "water temple". On the outside of the building is a tap where visitors and locals can collect the water of the White Spring.

 

The Glastonbury Canal ran just over 14 miles (23 km) through two locks from Glastonbury to Highbridge where it entered the Bristol Channel in the early 19th century, but it became uneconomic with the arrival of the railway in the 1840s.

 

Glastonbury and Street railway station was the biggest station on the original Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway main line from Highbridge to Evercreech Junction until closed in 1966 under the Beeching axe. Opened in 1854 as Glastonbury, and renamed in 1886, it had three platforms, two for Evercreech to Highbridge services and one for the branch service to Wells. The station had a large goods yard controlled from a signal box. The site is now a timber yard for a local company. Replica level crossing gates have been placed at the entrance.

 

The nearest railway station is at Castle Cary but there is no direct bus route linking it to Glastonbury. There are convenient bus connections between Glastonbury and the railway stations at Bristol Temple Meads (over an hour travelling time) and at Taunton. It is also served by Berrys Coaches daily 'Superfast' service to and from London.

 

The main road in the town is the A39 which passes through Glastonbury from Wells connecting the town with Street and the M5 motorway. The other roads around the town are small and run across the levels generally following the drainage ditches. Local bus services are provided by Buses of Somerset (part of First), First West of England, Frome Bus & Libra Travel. The main routes are to Bristol via Wells, to Bridgwater, to Yeovil via Street and to Taunton.There is also a coach service to London Victoria provided by Berrys.

 

Television programmes and local news is provided by BBC West and ITV West Country from the Mendip TV transmitter.

 

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Somerset on 95.5 FM, Heart West on 102.6 FM, Greatest Hits Radio South West on 102.4 FM, Worthy FM on 87.7 FM which broadcast during The Glastonbury Festival and GWS Radio on 107.1 FM, a community radio station.

 

The town’s local newspapers are the Mid Somerset Series, Western Daily Press, Somerset County Gazette and Somerset Live.

 

There are several infant and primary schools in Glastonbury and the surrounding villages. Secondary education is provided by St Dunstan's School. In 2017, the school had 327 students between the ages of 11 and 16 years. It is named after St. Dunstan, an abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, who went on to become the Archbishop of Canterbury in 960 AD. The school was built in 1958 with major building work, at a cost of £1.2 million, in 1998, adding the science block and the sports hall. It was designated as a specialist Arts College in 2004, and the £800,000 spent at this time paid for the Performing Arts studio and facilities to support students with special educational needs. Tor School is a pupil referral unit based on Beckery New Road, which caters for 14-16-year-old students who have been excluded from mainstream education, or who have been referred for medical reasons.

 

Strode College in Street provides academic and vocational courses for those aged 16–18 and adult education. A tertiary institution and further education college, most of the courses it offers are A-levels or Business and Technology Education Councils (BTECs). The college also provides some university-level courses, and is part of The University of Plymouth Colleges network.

 

Glastonbury may have been a site of religious importance in pre-Christian times. The abbey was founded by Britons, and dates to at least the early 7th century, although later medieval Christian legend claimed that the abbey was founded by Joseph of Arimathea in the 1st century. This legend is intimately tied to Robert de Boron's version of the Holy Grail story and to Glastonbury's connection to King Arthur, which dates at least to the early 12th century. William of Malmesbury called this structure "the oldest church in England," and thenceforth it was known simply as the Old Church, inasmuch as it had existed for many years prior to the 7th century as a Celtic religious centre. In his "History of the English Church and People," written in the early eighth century, the Venerable Bede provides details regarding its construction to early missionaries. Glastonbury fell into Saxon hands after the Battle of Peonnum in 658. King Ine of Wessex enriched the endowment of the community of monks already established at Glastonbury. He is said to have directed that a stone church be built in 712. The Abbey Church was enlarged in the 10th century by the Abbot of Glastonbury, Saint Dunstan, the central figure in the 10th-century revival of English monastic life. He instituted the Benedictine Rule at Glastonbury and built new cloisters. Dunstan became Archbishop of Canterbury in 960. In 1184, a great fire at Glastonbury destroyed the monastic buildings. Reconstruction began almost immediately and the Lady Chapel, which includes the well, was consecrated in 1186.

 

The abbey had a violent end during the Dissolution and the buildings were progressively destroyed as their stones were removed for use in local building work. The remains of the Abbot's Kitchen (a grade I listed building.) and the Lady Chapel are particularly well-preserved set in 36 acres (150,000 m2) of parkland. It is approached by the Abbey Gatehouse which was built in the mid-14th century and completely restored in 1810.

 

There is also a strong Irish connection to Glastonbury as it is said to be along a route of pilgrimage from Ireland to Rome. It is supposed that St. Patrick and St. Brigid both came to the area and both Saints are documented by William of Malmesbury as having done so. There are Chapels named after them too - St. Patrick's Chapel, Glastonbury is within the Abbey grounds and St. Brigid's Chapel is at Beckery (Little Ireland).

 

The Church of St Benedict was rebuilt by Abbot Richard Beere in about 1520. This is now an Anglican church and is linked with the parishes of St John's Church in Glastonbury and St Mary's & All Saints Church in the village of Meare as a joint benefice.

 

Described as "one of the most ambitious parish churches in Somerset", the current Church of St John the Baptist dates from the 15th century and has been designated as a Grade I listed building. The church is laid out in a cruciform plan with an aisled nave and a clerestorey of seven bays. The west tower has elaborate buttressing, panelling and battlements and at 134½ feet (about 41 metres), is the second tallest parish church tower in Somerset. Recent excavations in the nave have revealed the foundations of a large central tower, possibly of Saxon origin, and a later Norman nave arcade on the same plan as the existing one. A central tower survived until the 15th century, but is believed to have collapsed, at which time the church was rebuilt. The interior of the church includes four 15th-century tomb-chests, some 15th-century stained glass in the chancel, medieval vestments, and a domestic cupboard of about 1500 which was once at Witham Charterhouse.

 

In the centuries that followed the Reformation, many religious denominations came to Glastonbury to establish chapels and meeting houses. For such a relatively small town, Glastonbury has a remarkably diverse history of Christian places of worship, further enriched by the fact that several of these movements saw break-away factions, typically setting up new meeting places as a result of doctrinal disagreements, leaving behind them a legacy which would require a highly specialized degree of study in order to chart their respective histories and places of practice. Amongst their number have been Puritans/Undetermined Protestants, Quakers, Independents, Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists, Salvationists, Plymouth Brethren, Jehovah's Witnesses and Pentecostals.

 

The United Reformed Church on the High Street was built in 1814 and altered in 1898. It stands on the site of the Ship Inn where meetings were held during the 18th century. It is Grade II listed.

 

Glastonbury Methodist Church on Lambrook Street was built in 1843 and has a galleried interior, typical of a non-conformist chapel of that period, but an unusual number of stained glass windows. Close by the front of the church is an ancient pond, which was later covered to form a brick-arched reservoir. This is mentioned in property deeds of 1821, and is still accessible, containing approximately 31,500 gallons of water.

 

The Methodist Church on Lambrook street was originally the Glastonbury Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. A Primitive Methodist Chapel was built on Northload Street in 1844, with an adjoining house added for a minister in 1869. This chapel was closed in 1968, since which time it has had a number of different uses, being described in 2007 as the Maitreya Monastery, prior to which it had been the Archangel Michael Soul Therapy Centre.

 

The Bove Town Gospel Hall has been a place of worship in the town since at least 1889, when it was listed as a mission of the Plymouth Brethren. Jehovah's Witnesses originally occupied a Kingdom Hall on Archer's Way from 1942. This transferred to Church Lane in 1964, and subsequently to its present site on Old Wells Road. The Gospel Hall was registered for the solemnizing of marriages in 1964

 

The Catholic Church of Our Lady St Mary of Glastonbury was built, on land near to the Abbey, in 1939. A statue based on a 14th-century metal seal was blessed in 1955 and crowned in 1965 restoring the Marian shrine that had been in the Abbey prior to the reformation. The Shrine is now the home of the Community of Our Lady of Glastonbury, a Catholic Benedictine Monastery founded in August 2019.

 

The Glastonbury Order of Druids was formed on Mayday 1988.

 

Sufism has been long established in Glastonbury. Zikrs are held weekly in private homes, and on the first Sunday of every month a zikr is held at St Margaret's Chapel in Magdalene Street. A Sufi charity shop was established in Glastonbury in 1999, and supports missionary work in Africa. This shop was opened after Sheikh Nazim came to Glastonbury to visit the Abbey. Here he declared, "This is the spiritual heart of England ... It is from here that the spiritual new age will begin and to here that Jesus will return".

 

The pagan Glastonbury Goddess Temple was founded in 2002 and registered as a place of worship the following year. It is self-described as the first temple of its kind to exist in Europe in over a thousand years.

 

In April 2012, it was reported by The Guardian newspaper that, according to the Pilgrim Reception Centre in the town, Glastonbury had around seventy different faith groups. Some of these groups attended a special ceremony to celebrate this diversity, held in the Chalice Well Gardens on 21 April of that year.

 

The 22nd Jagannatha Ratha-yatra Krishna Festival took place in Glastonbury on Sunday 4 October 2015. Devotees of the Krishna Consciousness movement travelled to the town from London, Bath, Bristol and elsewhere to join with locals in a procession and Kirtan.

 

Glastonbury also headquarters the British Orthodox Church which is independent Oriental Orthodox denomination since 2015

 

Glastonbury has a particular significance for members of the Baháʼí Faith in that Wellesley Tudor Pole, founder of the Chalice Well Trust, was one of the earliest and most prominent adherents of this faith in the United Kingdom.

 

The local football team is Glastonbury F.C. They joined the Western Football League in 1919 and have won the Western Football League title three times in their history. The club are now playing in the Somerset County Football League.

 

Glastonbury Cricket Club previously competed in the West of England Premier League, one of the ECB Premier Leagues, the highest level of recreational cricket in England and Wales. The club plays at the Tor Leisure Ground, which used to stage Somerset County Cricket Club first-class fixtures.

 

The town is on the route of the Samaritans Way South West.

 

In a 1904 novel by Charles Whistler entitled A Prince of Cornwall Glastonbury in the days of Ine of Wessex is portrayed. It is also a setting in the Warlord Chronicles, a trilogy of books about Arthurian Britain written by Bernard Cornwell. Modern fiction has also used Glastonbury as a setting including The Age of Misrule series of books by Mark Chadbourn in which the Watchmen appear, a group selected from Anglican priests in and around Glastonbury to safeguard knowledge of a gate to the Otherworld on top of Glastonbury Tor. John Cowper Powys's novel A Glastonbury Romance is set in Glastonbury and is concerned with the Grail. The historical mystery novel Grave Goods by Diana Norman (writing under the pen name Ariana Frankin) is set in Glastonbury just after the abbey fire and concerns the supposed graves of Arthur and Guinevere, as well as featuring other landmarks such as the Tor.

 

The Children's World charity grew out of the festival and is based in the town. It is known internationally (as Children's World International). It was set up by Arabella Churchill in 1981 to provide drama participation and creative play and to work creatively in educational settings, providing social and emotional benefits for all children, particularly those with special needs. Children's World International is the sister charity of Children's World and was started in 1999 to work with children in the Balkans, in conjunction with Balkan Sunflowers and Save the Children. They also run the Glastonbury Children's Festival each August.

 

The local Brass Band is Glastonbury Brass which is currently placed in the first section for the West of England area. The band was founded in 2017 when the old Yeovil Town Band relocated after running into financial difficulty following a "notice to quit" on its rehearsal facility in September 2016. The band is featured twice on the Haiku Salut album There Is No Elsewhere (2018) and can be heard on the tracks Cold To Crack The Stones and The More And Moreness. In February 2020, the band was involved in the launch of Johnny Mars's "Dare to Dream" project aimed at raising awareness of the effects mankind is having on the world.

 

Glastonbury is the final venue for the annual November West Country Carnival.

 

Glastonbury has been described as a New Age community where communities have grown up to include people with New Age beliefs.

 

The first Glastonbury Festivals were a series of cultural events held in summer, from 1914 to 1926. The festivals were founded by English socialist composer Rutland Boughton and his librettist Lawrence Buckley. Apart from the founding of a national theatre, they envisaged a summer school and music festival based on utopian principles. With strong Arthurian connections and historic and prehistoric associations, Glastonbury was chosen to host the festivals.

 

The more recent Glastonbury Festival of Performing Arts, founded in 1970, is now the largest open-air music and performing arts festival in the world. Although it is named after Glastonbury, it is actually held at Worthy Farm between the small villages of Pilton and Pylle, 6 miles (9.7 km) east of the town of Glastonbury. The festival is best known for its contemporary music, but also features dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and many other arts. For 2005, the enclosed area of the festival was over 900 acres (3.6 km2), had over 385 live performances and was attended by around 150,000 people. In 2007, over 700 acts played on over 80 stages and the capacity expanded by 20,000 to 177,000. The festival has spawned a range of other work including the 1972 film Glastonbury Fayre and album, 1996 film Glastonbury the Movie and the 2005 DVD Glastonbury Anthems.

 

Glastonbury has been the birthplace or home to many notable people. Peter King, 1st Baron King was the recorder of Glastonbury in 1705. Thomas Bramwell Welch the discoverer of the pasteurisation process to prevent the fermentation of grape juice was born in Glastonbury in 1825. The judge John Creighton represented Lunenburg County in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1770 to 1775. The fossil collector Thomas Hawkins lived in the town during the 19th century.

 

The religious connections and mythology of the town have also attracted notable authors. The occultist and writer Dion Fortune (Violet Mary Firth) lived and is buried in Glastonbury. Her old house was home to the writer and historian Geoffrey Ashe, who was known for his works on local legends. Frederick Bligh Bond, archaeologist and writer. Eckhart Tolle, a German-born writer, public speaker, and spiritual teacher lived in Glastonbury during the 1980s. Eileen Caddy was at a sanctuary in Glastonbury when she first claimed to have heard the "voice of God" while meditating. Her subsequent instructions from the "voice" directed her to take on Sheena Govan as her spiritual teacher, and became a spiritual teacher and new age author, best known as one of the founders of the Findhorn Foundation community.

 

Popular entertainment and literature is also represented amongst the population. English composer Rutland Boughton moved from Birmingham to Glastonbury in 1911 and established the country's first national annual summer school of music. Gary Stringer, lead singer of rock band Reef, was a local along with other members of the band. The juggler Haggis McLeod and his late wife, Arabella Churchill, one of the founders of the Glastonbury Festival, lived in the town. The conductor Charles Hazlewood lives locally and hosts the "Play the Field" music festival on his farm nearby. Bill Bunbury moved on from Glastonbury to become a writer, radio broadcaster, and producer for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

 

Athletes and sports players from Glastonbury include cricketers Cyril Baily in 1880, George Burrough in 1907, and Eustace Bisgood in 1878. The footballer Peter Spiring was born in Glastonbury in 1950. Formula 1 driver Lando Norris grew up in Glastonbury.

 

Twin towns

France Bretenoux, France

Greece Patmos, Greece

Ethiopia Lalibela, Ethiopia

 

Freedom of the Town

Michael Eavis: 3 May 2022. The founder of the world-famous Glastonbury Festival has been made a Freeman of Glastonbury. Born in 1935, the celebrated dairy farmer held his first Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton in 1970. 52 years later, Mr. Eavis has been listed by Time magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world.

 

The Key of Avalon

This award was created in 2022 by the Glastonbury Town Council. The first recipient was Prem Rawat, international peace advocate and author, who spoke at the Glastonbury Festival in 1971.

 

Somerset is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east and the north-east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. The largest settlement is the city of Bath, and the county town is Taunton.

 

Somerset is a predominantly rural county, especially to the south and west, with an area of 4,171 km2 (1,610 sq mi) and a population of 965,424. After Bath (101,557), the largest settlements are Weston-super-Mare (82,418), Taunton (60,479), and Yeovil (49,698). Wells (12,000) is a city, the second-smallest by population in England. For local government purposes the county comprises three unitary authority areas: Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, and Somerset.

 

The centre of Somerset is dominated by the Levels, a coastal plain and wetland, and the north-east and west of the county are hilly. The north-east contains part of the Cotswolds AONB, all of the Mendip Hills AONB, and a small part of Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB; the west contains the Quantock Hills AONB, a majority of Exmoor National Park, and part of the Blackdown Hills AONB. The main rivers in the county are the Avon, which flows through Bath and then Bristol, and the Axe, Brue, and Parrett, which drain the Levels.

 

There is evidence of Paleolithic human occupation in Somerset, and the area was subsequently settled by the Celts, Romans and Anglo-Saxons. The county played a significant part in Alfred the Great's rise to power, and later the English Civil War and the Monmouth Rebellion. In the later medieval period its wealth allowed its monasteries and parish churches to be rebuilt in grand style; Glastonbury Abbey was particularly important, and claimed to house the tomb of King Arthur and Guinevere. The city of Bath is famous for its Georgian architecture, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The county is also the location of Glastonbury Festival, one of the UK's major music festivals.

 

Somerset is a historic county in the south west of England. There is evidence of human occupation since prehistoric times with hand axes and flint points from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras, and a range of burial mounds, hill forts and other artefacts dating from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. The oldest dated human road work in Great Britain is the Sweet Track, constructed across the Somerset Levels with wooden planks in the 39th century BCE.

 

Following the Roman Empire's invasion of southern Britain, the mining of lead and silver in the Mendip Hills provided a basis for local industry and commerce. Bath became the site of a major Roman fort and city, the remains of which can still be seen. During the Early Medieval period Somerset was the scene of battles between the Anglo-Saxons and first the Britons and later the Danes. In this period it was ruled first by various kings of Wessex, and later by kings of England. Following the defeat of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy by the Normans in 1066, castles were built in Somerset.

 

Expansion of the population and settlements in the county continued during the Tudor and more recent periods. Agriculture and coal mining expanded until the 18th century, although other industries declined during the industrial revolution. In modern times the population has grown, particularly in the seaside towns, notably Weston-super-Mare. Agriculture continues to be a major business, if no longer a major employer because of mechanisation. Light industries are based in towns such as Bridgwater and Yeovil. The towns of Taunton and Shepton Mallet manufacture cider, although the acreage of apple orchards is less than it once was.

 

The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods saw hunter-gatherers move into the region of Somerset. There is evidence from flint artefacts in a quarry at Westbury that an ancestor of modern man, possibly Homo heidelbergensis, was present in the area from around 500,000 years ago. There is still some doubt about whether the artefacts are of human origin but they have been dated within Oxygen Isotope Stage 13 (524,000 – 478,000 BP). Other experts suggest that "many of the bone-rich Middle Pleistocene deposits belong to a single but climatically variable interglacial that succeeded the Cromerian, perhaps about 500,000 years ago. Detailed analysis of the origin and modification of the flint artefacts leads to the conclusion that the assemblage was probably a product of geomorphological processes rather than human work, but a single cut-marked bone suggests a human presence." Animal bones and artefacts unearthed in the 1980s at Westbury-sub-Mendip, in Somerset, have shown evidence of early human activity approximately 700,000 years ago.

 

Homo sapiens sapiens, or modern man, came to Somerset during the Early Upper Palaeolithic. There is evidence of occupation of four Mendip caves 35,000 to 30,000 years ago. During the Last Glacial Maximum, about 25,000 to 15,000 years ago, it is probable that Somerset was deserted as the area experienced tundra conditions. Evidence was found in Gough's Cave of deposits of human bone dating from around 12,500 years ago. The bones were defleshed and probably ritually buried though perhaps related to cannibalism being practised in the area at the time or making skull cups or storage containers. Somerset was one of the first areas of future England settled following the end of Younger Dryas phase of the last ice age c. 8000 BC. Cheddar Man is the name given to the remains of a human male found in Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge. He is Britain's oldest complete human skeleton. The remains date from about 7150 BC, and it appears that he died a violent death. Somerset is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from about 6000 BCE; Mesolithic artefacts have been found in more than 70 locations. Mendip caves were used as burial places, with between 50 and 100 skeletons being found in Aveline's Hole. In the Neolithic era, from about 3500 BCE, there is evidence of farming.

 

At the end of the last ice age the Bristol Channel was dry land, but later the sea level rose, particularly between 1220 and 900 BC and between 800 and 470 BCE, resulting in major coastal changes. The Somerset Levels became flooded, but the dry points such as Glastonbury and Brent Knoll have a long history of settlement, and are known to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunters. The county has prehistoric burial mounds (such as Stoney Littleton Long Barrow), stone rows (such as the circles at Stanton Drew and Priddy) and settlement sites. Evidence of Mesolithic occupation has come both from the upland areas, such as in Mendip caves, and from the low land areas such as the Somerset Levels. Dry points in the latter such as Glastonbury Tor and Brent Knoll, have a long history of settlement with wooden trackways between them. There were also "lake villages" in the marsh such as those at Glastonbury Lake Village and Meare. One of the oldest dated human road work in Britain is the Sweet Track, constructed across the Somerset Levels with wooden planks in the 39th century BC, partially on the route of the even earlier Post Track.

 

There is evidence of Exmoor's human occupation from Mesolithic times onwards. In the Neolithic period people started to manage animals and grow crops on farms cleared from the woodland, rather than act purely as hunter gatherers. It is also likely that extraction and smelting of mineral ores to make tools, weapons, containers and ornaments in bronze and then iron started in the late Neolithic and into the Bronze and Iron Ages.

 

The caves of the Mendip Hills were settled during the Neolithic period and contain extensive archaeological sites such as those at Cheddar Gorge. There are numerous Iron Age Hill Forts, which were later reused in the Dark Ages, such as Cadbury Castle, Worlebury Camp and Ham Hill. The age of the henge monument at Stanton Drew stone circles is unknown, but is believed to be from the Neolithic period. There is evidence of mining on the Mendip Hills back into the late Bronze Age when there were technological changes in metal working indicated by the use of lead. There are numerous "hill forts", such as Small Down Knoll, Solsbury Hill, Dolebury Warren and Burledge Hill, which seem to have had domestic purposes, not just a defensive role. They generally seem to have been occupied intermittently from the Bronze Age onward, some, such as Cadbury Camp at South Cadbury, being refurbished during different eras. Battlegore Burial Chamber is a Bronze Age burial chamber at Williton which is composed of three round barrows and possibly a long, chambered barrow.

 

The Iron Age tribes of later Somerset were the Dobunni in north Somerset, Durotriges in south Somerset and Dumnonii in west Somerset. The first and second produced coins, the finds of which allows their tribal areas to be suggested, but the latter did not. All three had a Celtic culture and language. However, Ptolemy stated that Bath was in the territory of the Belgae, but this may be a mistake. The Celtic gods were worshipped at the temple of Sulis at Bath and possibly the temple on Brean Down. Iron Age sites on the Quantock Hills, include major hill forts at Dowsborough and Ruborough, as well as smaller earthwork enclosures, such as Trendle Ring, Elworthy Barrows and Plainsfield Camp.

 

Somerset was part of the Roman Empire from 47 AD to about 409 AD. However, the end was not abrupt and elements of Romanitas lingered on for perhaps a century.

 

Somerset was invaded from the south-east by the Second Legion Augusta, under the future emperor Vespasian. The hillforts of the Durotriges at Ham Hill and Cadbury Castle were captured. Ham Hill probably had a temporary Roman occupation. The massacre at Cadbury Castle seems to have been associated with the later Boudiccan Revolt of 60–61 AD. The county remained part of the Roman Empire until around 409 AD.

 

The Roman invasion, and possibly the preceding period of involvement in the internal affairs of the south of England, was inspired in part by the potential of the Mendip Hills. A great deal of the attraction of the lead mines may have been the potential for the extraction of silver.

 

Forts were set up at Bath and Ilchester. The lead and silver mines at Charterhouse in the Mendip Hills were run by the military. The Romans established a defensive boundary along the new military road known the Fosse Way (from the Latin fossa meaning ditch). The Fosse Way ran through Bath, Shepton Mallet, Ilchester and south-west towards Axminster. The road from Dorchester ran through Yeovil to meet the Fosse Way at Ilchester. Small towns and trading ports were set up, such as Camerton and Combwich. The larger towns decayed in the latter part of the period, though the smaller ones appear to have decayed less. In the latter part of the period, Ilchester seems to have been a "civitas" capital and Bath may also have been one. Particularly to the east of the River Parrett, villas were constructed. However, only a few Roman sites have been found to the west of the river. The villas have produced important mosaics and artifacts. Cemeteries have been found outside the Roman towns of Somerset and by Roman temples such as that at Lamyatt. Romano-British farming settlements, such as those at Catsgore and Sigwells, have been found in Somerset. There was salt production on the Somerset Levels near Highbridge and quarrying took place near Bath, where the Roman Baths gave their name to Bath.

 

Excavations carried out before the flooding of Chew Valley Lake also uncovered Roman remains, indicating agricultural and industrial activity from the second half of the 1st century until the 3rd century AD. The finds included a moderately large villa at Chew Park, where wooden writing tablets (the first in the UK) with ink writing were found. There is also evidence from the Pagans Hill Roman Temple at Chew Stoke. In October 2001 the West Bagborough Hoard of 4th century Roman silver was discovered in West Bagborough. The 681 coins included two denarii from the early 2nd century and 8 Miliarense and 671 Siliqua all dating to the period AD 337 – 367. The majority were struck in the reigns of emperors Constantius II and Julian and derive from a range of min

© All Rights Reserved - Black Diamond Images

 

trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/133141017?searchTerm=tar...

 

From the 1850's the Manning River saw much boating activity with steamers such as the North Coast Steam Navigation Company's steamer Maianbar regularly servicing the river as far upstream as Wingham. Getting over the bar at Harrington was always a challenge but later with the aid of Tug Boats like the John Gollan, built by Captain Hector Gollan at Tinonee and launched in 1889, quite large boats were able to enter the river.

Of course many did not make it and the list of shipwrecks off the Manning coast and its 2 river bars is long.

This section of river from the old Peters Wharf to the Peeress Wharf is more famous for its rich cream boat history. Both milk factories used cream boats (or milk boats) to service the farms along the river with the milk picked up and transported in stainless steel drums to the two factory wharves and then to the factories for pasteurisation and for cheese making.

Many cream boats would have plied these waters daily. Today the only sound on the river is the odd fishermans tinnie and the sound of pelicans wings taking off near the Fish Co-op.

(The bacon and cheese would be Group 3: Processed foods)

 

NOVA Food Classification Group 1: Unprocessed or minimally processed foods: “Minimally processed foods are natural foods altered by processes such as removal of inedible or unwanted parts, drying, crushing, grinding, fractioning, filtering, roasting, boiling, pasteurisation, refrigeration, freezing, placing in containers, vacuum packaging, or non-alcoholic fermentation. None of these processes adds substances such as salt, sugar, oils or fats to the original food.”

 

NOVA Food Classification Group 4: Ultra-Processed Foods“industrial formulations made entirely or mostly from substances extracted from foods (oils, fats, sugar, starch, and proteins), derived from food constituents (hydrogenated fats and modified starch), or synthesized in laboratories from food substrates or other organic sources (flavor enhancers, colors, and several food additives used to make the product hyper-palatable). Manufacturing techniques include extrusion, moulding, and preprocessing by means of frying.”

 

Sources: Sources: Monteiro CA, Cannon G, Levy RB et al. NOVA. The star shines bright.[Food classification. Public health] World Nutrition January-March 2016, 7, 1-3, 28-38 l ;https://www.flickr.com/photos/taedc/48514996651/ ; www.flickr.com/photos/taedc/48574958831/

 

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard on December 20, 2018. The National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Law, passed by Congress in July of 2016, directed USDA to establish this national mandatory standard for disclosing foods that are or may be bioengineered.

 

The Standard requires food manufacturers, importers, and certain retailers to ensure bioengineered foods are appropriately disclosed.

 

Source: www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/be

QSA Item ID 1052768

View this and other original records at the Queensland State Archives:

Series ID 82

 

Barkham Blue cheese is produced in Barkham, Wokingham by Two Hoots Farmhouse Cheese. This multi-award winning cheese is made with pasteurised cows' milk and is suitable for vegetarians.

 

The cheese is made in 1.2 kg rounds, and has a natural mould ripened rind. The cheese itself is moist and deep yellow with dark blue-green veins. It has a rich blue taste, a buttery texture and lacks the harshness associated with some blue cheese.

 

The Bull at Barkham features this wonderful cheese in a number of its menu offerings, including this delicious Ploughman's which I've enjoyed on several visits.

  

Glastonbury is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, 23 miles (37 km) south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than 1 mile (2 km) across the River Brue from Street, which is now larger than Glastonbury.

 

Evidence from timber trackways such as the Sweet Track show that the town has been inhabited since Neolithic times. Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village, close to the old course of the River Brue and Sharpham Park approximately 2 miles (3 km) west of Glastonbury, that dates back to the Bronze Age. Centwine was the first Saxon patron of Glastonbury Abbey, which dominated the town for the next 700 years. One of the most important abbeys in England, it was the site of Edmund Ironside's coronation as King of England in 1016. Many of the oldest surviving buildings in the town, including the Tribunal, George Hotel and Pilgrims' Inn and the Somerset Rural Life Museum, which is based at the site of a 14th-century abbey manor barn, often referred to as a tithe barn, are associated with the abbey. The Church of St John the Baptist dates from the 15th century.

 

The town became a centre for commerce, which led to the construction of the market cross, Glastonbury Canal and the Glastonbury and Street railway station, the largest station on the original Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The Brue Valley Living Landscape is a conservation project managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust and nearby is the Ham Wall National Nature Reserve.

 

Glastonbury has been described as having a New Age community, and possibly being where New Age beliefs originated at the turn of the twentieth century. It is notable for myths and legends often related to Glastonbury Tor, concerning Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail and King Arthur. Joseph is said to have arrived in Glastonbury and stuck his staff into the ground, when it flowered miraculously into the Glastonbury Thorn. The presence of a landscape zodiac around the town has been suggested but no evidence has been discovered. The Glastonbury Festival, held in the nearby village of Pilton, takes its name from the town.

 

Glastonbury is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, 23 miles (37 km) south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than 1 mile (2 km) across the River Brue from Street, which is now larger than Glastonbury.

 

Evidence from timber trackways such as the Sweet Track show that the town has been inhabited since Neolithic times. Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village, close to the old course of the River Brue and Sharpham Park approximately 2 miles (3 km) west of Glastonbury, that dates back to the Bronze Age. Centwine was the first Saxon patron of Glastonbury Abbey, which dominated the town for the next 700 years. One of the most important abbeys in England, it was the site of Edmund Ironside's coronation as King of England in 1016. Many of the oldest surviving buildings in the town, including the Tribunal, George Hotel and Pilgrims' Inn and the Somerset Rural Life Museum, which is based at the site of a 14th-century abbey manor barn,[5] often referred to as a tithe barn, are associated with the abbey. The Church of St John the Baptist dates from the 15th century.

 

The town became a centre for commerce, which led to the construction of the market cross, Glastonbury Canal and the Glastonbury and Street railway station, the largest station on the original Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The Brue Valley Living Landscape is a conservation project managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust and nearby is the Ham Wall National Nature Reserve.

 

Glastonbury has been described as having a New Age community, and possibly being where New Age beliefs originated at the turn of the twentieth century. It is notable for myths and legends often related to Glastonbury Tor, concerning Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail and King Arthur. Joseph is said to have arrived in Glastonbury and stuck his staff into the ground, when it flowered miraculously into the Glastonbury Thorn. The presence of a landscape zodiac around the town has been suggested but no evidence has been discovered. The Glastonbury Festival, held in the nearby village of Pilton, takes its name from the town.

 

During the 7th millennium BC the sea level rose and flooded the valleys and low-lying ground surrounding Glastonbury so the Mesolithic people occupied seasonal camps on the higher ground, indicated by scatters of flints. The Neolithic people continued to exploit the reedswamps for their natural resources and started to construct wooden trackways. These included the Sweet Track, west of Glastonbury, which is one of the oldest engineered roads known and was the oldest timber trackway discovered in Northern Europe, until the 2009 discovery of a 6,000-year-old trackway in Belmarsh Prison. Tree-ring dating (dendrochronology) of the timbers has enabled very precise dating of the track, showing it was built in 3807 or 3806 BC. It has been claimed to be the oldest road in the world. The track was discovered in the course of peat digging in 1970, and is named after its discoverer, Ray Sweet. It extended across the marsh between what was then an island at Westhay, and a ridge of high ground at Shapwick, a distance close to 2,000 metres (1.2 mi). The track is one of a network of tracks that once crossed the Somerset Levels. Built in the 39th century BC, during the Neolithic period, the track consisted of crossed poles of ash, oak and lime (Tilia) which were driven into the waterlogged soil to support a walkway that mainly consisted of oak planks laid end-to-end. Since the discovery of the Sweet Track, it has been determined that it was built along the route of an even earlier track, the Post Track, dating from 3838 BC, and so 30 years older.

 

Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village, close to the old course of the River Brue, on the Somerset Levels near Godney, some 3 miles (5 km) north west of Glastonbury. It covers an area of 400 feet (120 m) north to south by 300 feet (90 m) east to west, and housed around 100 people in five to seven groups of houses, each for an extended family, with sheds and barns, made of hazel and willow covered with reeds, and surrounded either permanently or at certain times by a wooden palisade. The village was built in about 300 BC and occupied into the early Roman period (around AD 100) when it was abandoned, possibly due to a rise in the water level. It was built on a morass on an artificial foundation of timber filled with brushwood, bracken, rubble and clay.

 

Sharpham Park is a 300-acre (120-hectare) historic park, 2 miles (3 km) west of Glastonbury, which dates back to the Bronze Age.

 

Glæstyngabyrig. When the settlement is first recorded in the 7th and the early 8th century, it was called Glestingaburg. The burg element is Old English and could refer either to a fortified place such as a burh or, more likely, a monastic enclosure; however the Glestinga element is obscure, and may derive from a Celtic personal name or from Old English (either from a name or otherwise). It may derive from a person or kindred group named Glast. The name however is likely related to an Irish individual named Glas mac Caise 'Glas son of Cas'. Glas is an ancient Irish personal name meaning 'green, grey/green'. It is stated in the Life of St Patrick that he resurrected a swineherder by that name and he went to Glastonbury, to an area of the village known as 'Glastonbury of the Irish' and this could well be referring to the area of Beckery (Little Ireland) where it is believed an Irish Colony established itself in the 10th century and was thus nicknamed 'Little Ireland'. This area was known to the Irish as Glastimbir na n-Gaoidhil 'Glastonbury of the Gaels'. (The Archaeology and History of Glastonbury Abbey - Courteney Arthur Ralegh Radford). This is the earliest source for the name Glastonbury. The modern Irish form for Glastonbury is Glaistimbir.

 

Hugh Ross Williamson cites a tale about St. Collen, one of the earliest hermits to inhabit the Tor before the Abbey was built by St. Patrick, which has the Saint summoned by the King of the Fairies, Gwyn, to the summit of the Tor. Upon arrival there he beholds a hovering mansion inhabited by handsomely dressed courtiers and King Gwyn on a throne of gold; holy water disperses the apparition. This is from Druid mythology, in which the mansion is made of glass so as to receive the spirits of the dead, which were supposed to depart from the summit of the Tor. This was the chief reason why the chapel, and later the church, of St. Michael were built on the high hill; St. Michael being the chief patron against diabolic attacks which the monks believed the Fairy King to be numbered among. Accordingly, Williamson posits that the Tor was named after the glassy mansion of the dead.

 

William of Malmesbury in his De Antiquitate Glastonie Ecclesie gives the Old Celtic Ineswitrin (or Ynys Witrin) as its earliest name, and asserts that the founder of the town was the eponymous Glast, a descendant of Cunedda.

 

Centwine (676–685) was the first Saxon patron of Glastonbury Abbey. King Edmund Ironside was buried at the abbey. The Domesday Book indicates that in the hundred of Glastingberiensis, the Abbey was the Lord in 1066 prior to the arrival of William the Conqueror then tenant-in chief with Godwin as Lord of Glastingberi in 1086.

 

To the southwest of the town centre is Beckery, which was once a village in its own right but is now part of the suburbs. Around the 7th and 8th centuries it was occupied by a small monastic community associated with a cemetery. Archaeological excavations in 2016 uncovered 50 to 60 skeletons thought to be those of monks from Beckery Chapel during the 5th or early 6th century.

 

Sharpham Park was granted by King Eadwig to the then abbot Æthelwold in 957. In 1191 Sharpham Park was gifted by the soon-to-be King John I to the Abbots of Glastonbury, who remained in possession of the park and house until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. From 1539 to 1707 the park was owned by the Duke of Somerset, Sir Edward Seymour, brother of Queen Jane; the Thynne family of Longleat, and the family of Sir Henry Gould. Edward Dyer was born here in 1543. The house is now a private residence and Grade II* listed building. It was the birthplace of Sir Edward Dyer (died 1607) an Elizabethan poet and courtier, the writer Henry Fielding (1707–54), and the cleric William Gould.

 

In the 1070s St Margaret's Chapel was built on Magdelene Street, originally as a hospital and later as almshouses for the poor. The building dates from 1444. The roof of the hall is thought to have been removed after the Dissolution, and some of the building was demolished in the 1960s. It is Grade II* listed, and a scheduled monument. Hospital of St Mary Magdalene, Glastonbury in 2010 plans were announced to restore the building.

 

During the Middle Ages the town largely depended on the abbey but was also a centre for the wool trade until the 18th century. A Saxon-era canal connected the abbey to the River Brue. Richard Whiting, the last Abbot of Glastonbury, was executed with two of his monks on 15 November 1539 during the dissolution of the monasteries.

 

During the Second Cornish Uprising of 1497 Perkin Warbeck surrendered when he heard that Giles, Lord Daubeney's troops, loyal to Henry VII, were camped at Glastonbury.

 

In 1693 Glastenbury, Connecticut was founded and named after the English town from which some of the settlers had emigrated. It is rumored to have originally been called "Glistening Town" until the mid-19th century, when the name was changed to match the spelling of Glastonbury, England, but in fact, residents of the Connecticut town believe this to be a myth, based on the Glastonbury Historical Society's records. A representation of the Glastonbury thorn is incorporated onto the town seal.

 

The Somerset town's charter of incorporation was received in 1705. Growth in the trade and economy largely depended on the drainage of the surrounding moors. The opening of the Glastonbury Canal produced an upturn in trade, and encouraged local building. The parish was part of the hundred of Glaston Twelve Hides, until the 1730s when it became a borough in its own right.

 

By the middle of the 19th century the Glastonbury Canal drainage problems and competition from the new railways caused a decline in trade, and the town's economy became depressed. The canal was closed on 1 July 1854, and the lock and aqueducts on the upper section were dismantled. The railway opened on 17 August 1854. The lower sections of the canal were given to the Commissioners for Sewers, for use as a drainage ditch. The final section was retained to provide a wharf for the railway company, which was used until 1936, when it passed to the Commissioners of Sewers and was filled in. The Central Somerset Railway merged with the Dorset Central Railway to become the Somerset and Dorset Railway. The main line to Glastonbury closed in 1966.

 

In the Northover district industrial production of sheepskins, woollen slippers and, later, boots and shoes, developed in conjunction with the growth of C&J Clark in Street. Clarks still has its headquarters in Street, but shoes are no longer manufactured there. Instead, in 1993, redundant factory buildings were converted to form Clarks Village, the first purpose-built factory outlet in the United Kingdom.

 

During the 19th and 20th centuries tourism developed based on the rise of antiquarianism, the association with the abbey and mysticism of the town. This was aided by accessibility via the rail and road network, which has continued to support the town's economy and led to a steady rise in resident population since 1801.

 

Glastonbury received national media coverage in 1999 when cannabis plants were found in the town's floral displays.

 

Glastonbury is notable for myths and legends concerning Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail and King Arthur as recorded by ancient historians William of Malmesbury, Venerable Bede, Gerald of Wales and Geoffrey of Monmouth. Many long-standing and cherished legends were examined in a four-year study by archaeologists, led by Professor Roberta Gilchrist, at the University of Reading, who, amongst other findings, speculated that the connection with King Arthur and his Queen, Guinevere, was created deliberately by the monks in 1184 to meet a financial crisis caused by a devastating fire. Other myths examined include the visit by Jesus, the building of the oldest church in England, and the flowering of the walking stick. Roberta Gilchrist stated, "We didn't claim to disprove the legendary associations, nor would we wish to". The site of King Arthur's supposed grave contained material dating from between the 11th and 15th centuries. Gilchrist said, "That doesn't dispel the Arthurian legend, it just means the pit [20th century archaeologist Ralegh Radford] excavated he rather over-claimed." The study made new archaeological finds; its leader found Glastonbury to be a remarkable archaeological site. The new results were reported on the Glastonbury Abbey Web site, and were to be incorporated into the Abbey's guidebook; however, the leader of the study, who became a trustee of Glastonbury, said "We are not in the business of destroying people's beliefs ... A thousand years of beliefs and legends are part of the intangible history of this remarkable place". Gilchrist went on to say, "archaeology can help us to understand how legends evolve and what people in the past believed". She noted that the project has actually uncovered the first definitive proof of occupation at the Glastonbury Abbey site during the fifth century—when Arthur allegedly lived.

 

The legend that Joseph of Arimathea retrieved certain holy relics was introduced by the French poet Robert de Boron in his 13th-century version of the grail story, thought to have been a trilogy though only fragments of the later books survive today. The work became the inspiration for the later Vulgate Cycle of Arthurian tales.

 

De Boron's account relates how Joseph captured Jesus's blood in a cup (the "Holy Grail") which was subsequently brought to Britain. The Vulgate Cycle reworked Boron's original tale. Joseph of Arimathea was no longer the chief character in the Grail origin: Joseph's son, Josephus, took over his role of the Grail keeper. The earliest versions of the grail romance, however, do not call the grail "holy" or mention anything about blood, Joseph or Glastonbury.

 

In 1191, monks at the abbey claimed to have found the graves of Arthur and Guinevere to the south of the Lady Chapel of the Abbey Church, which was visited by a number of contemporary historians including Giraldus Cambrensis. The remains were later moved and were lost during the Reformation. Many scholars suspect that this discovery was a pious forgery to substantiate the antiquity of Glastonbury's foundation, and increase its renown.

 

An early Welsh poem links Arthur to the Tor in an account of a confrontation between Arthur and Melwas, who had kidnapped Queen Guinevere.

 

Joseph is said to have arrived in Glastonbury by boat over the flooded Somerset Levels. On disembarking he stuck his staff into the ground and it flowered miraculously into the Glastonbury Thorn (also called Holy Thorn). This is said to explain a hybrid Crataegus monogyna (hawthorn) tree that only grows within a few miles of Glastonbury, and which flowers twice annually, once in spring and again around Christmas time (depending on the weather). Each year a sprig of thorn is cut, by the local Anglican vicar and the eldest child from St John's School, and sent to the Queen.

 

The original Holy Thorn was a centre of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages but was chopped down during the English Civil War. A replacement thorn was planted in the 20th century on Wearyall hill (originally in 1951 to mark the Festival of Britain, but the thorn had to be replanted the following year as the first attempt did not take). The Wearyall Hill Holy Thorn was vandalised in 2010 and all its branches were chopped off. It initially showed signs of recovery but now (2014) appears to be dead. A new sapling has been planted nearby. Many other examples of the thorn grow throughout Glastonbury including those in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey, St Johns Church and Chalice Well.

 

Today, Glastonbury Abbey presents itself as "traditionally the oldest above-ground Christian church in the world," which according to the legend was built at Joseph's behest to house the Holy Grail, 65 or so years after the death of Jesus. The legend also says that as a child, Jesus had visited Glastonbury along with Joseph. The legend probably was encouraged during the medieval period when religious relics and pilgrimages were profitable business for abbeys. William Blake mentioned the legend in a poem that became a popular hymn, "Jerusalem".

 

In 1934 artist Katherine Maltwood suggested a landscape zodiac, a map of the stars on a gigantic scale, formed by features in the landscape such as roads, streams and field boundaries, could be found situated around Glastonbury. She held that the "temple" was created by Sumerians about 2700 BC. The idea of a prehistoric landscape zodiac fell into disrepute when two independent studies examined the Glastonbury Zodiac, one by Ian Burrow in 1975 and the other by Tom Williamson and Liz Bellamy in 1983. These both used standard methods of landscape historical research. Both studies concluded that the evidence contradicted the idea of an ancient zodiac. The eye of Capricorn identified by Maltwood was a haystack. The western wing of the Aquarius phoenix was a road laid in 1782 to run around Glastonbury, and older maps dating back to the 1620s show the road had no predecessors. The Cancer boat (not a crab as in conventional western astrology) consists of a network of 18th-century drainage ditches and paths. There are some Neolithic paths preserved in the peat of the bog formerly comprising most of the area, but none of the known paths match the lines of the zodiac features. There is no support for this theory, or for the existence of the "temple" in any form, from conventional archaeologists. Glastonbury is also said to be the centre of several ley lines.

 

The town council is made up of 16 members, and is based at Glastonbury Town Hall, Magdalene Street. The town hall was built in 1814 and has a two-storey late Georgian ashlar front. It is a Grade II* listed building.

 

For local government purposes, since 1 April 2023, Glastonbury comes under the unitary authority of Somerset Council. Prior to this, it was part of the non-metropolitan district of Mendip, which was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, having previously been part of Glastonbury Municipal Borough.

 

The town's retained fire station is operated by Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service. Police and ambulance services are provided by Avon and Somerset Constabulary and the South Western Ambulance Service. There are two doctors' surgeries in Glastonbury, and a National Health Service community hospital operated by Somerset Primary Care Trust which opened in 2005.

 

There are 4 electoral wards within Glastonbury having in total the same population as is mentioned above.

 

Glastonbury falls within the Wells constituency, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The Member of Parliament is Conservative, James Heappey, who replaced Tessa Munt of the Liberal Democrats in the 2015 general election.

 

Glastonbury is twinned with the Greek island of Patmos, and Lalibela, Ethiopia.

 

The walk up the Tor to the distinctive tower at the summit (the partially restored remains of an old church) is rewarded by vistas of the mid-Somerset area, including the Levels which are drained marshland. From there, on a dry point, 158 metres (518 ft) above sea level, it is easy to appreciate how Glastonbury was once an island and, in the winter, the surrounding moors are often flooded, giving that appearance once more. It is an agricultural region typically with open fields of permanent grass, surrounded by ditches with willow trees. Access to the moors and Levels is by "droves", i.e., green lanes. The Levels and inland moors can be 6 metres (20 ft) below peak tides and have large areas of peat. The low-lying areas are underlain by much older Triassic age formations of Upper Lias sand that protrude to form what would once have been islands and include Glastonbury Tor. The lowland landscape was formed only during the last 10,000 years, following the end of the last ice age.

 

The low-lying damp ground can produce a visual effect known as a Fata Morgana. This optical phenomenon occurs because rays of light are strongly bent when they pass through air layers of different temperatures in a steep thermal inversion where an atmospheric duct has formed. The Italian name Fata Morgana is derived from the name of Morgan le Fay, who was alternatively known as Morgane, Morgain, Morgana and other variants. Morgan le Fay was described as a powerful sorceress and antagonist of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere in the Arthurian legend.

 

Glastonbury is less than 1 mile (2 km) across the River Brue from the village of Street. At the time of King Arthur the Brue formed a lake just south of the hilly ground on which Glastonbury stands. This lake is one of the locations suggested by Arthurian legend as the home of the Lady of the Lake. Pomparles Bridge stood at the western end of this lake, guarding Glastonbury from the south, and it is suggested that it was here that Sir Bedivere threw Excalibur into the waters after King Arthur fell at the Battle of Camlann. The old bridge was replaced by a reinforced concrete arch bridge in 1911.

 

Until the 13th century, the direct route to the sea at Highbridge was prevented by gravel banks and peat near Westhay. The course of the river partially encircled Glastonbury from the south, around the western side (through Beckery), and then north through the Panborough-Bleadney gap in the Wedmore-Wookey Hills, to join the River Axe just north of Bleadney. This route made it difficult for the officials of Glastonbury Abbey to transport produce from their outlying estates to the abbey, and when the valley of the River Axe was in flood it backed up to flood Glastonbury itself. Some time between 1230 and 1250 a new channel was constructed westwards into Meare Pool north of Meare, and further westwards to Mark Moor. The Brue Valley Living Landscape is a conservation project based on the Somerset Levels and Moors and managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust. The project commenced in January 2009 and aims to restore, recreate and reconnect habitat, ensuring that wildlife is enhanced and capable of sustaining itself in the face of climate change, while guaranteeing farmers and other landowners can continue to use their land profitably. It is one of an increasing number of landscape-scale conservation projects in the UK.

 

The Ham Wall National Nature Reserve, 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of Glastonbury, is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. This new wetland habitat has been established from out peat diggings and now consists of areas of reedbed, wet scrub, open water and peripheral grassland and woodland. Bird species living on the site include the bearded tit and the Eurasian bittern.

 

The Whitelake River rises between two low limestone ridges to the north of Glastonbury, part of the southern edge of the Mendip Hills. The confluence of the two small streams that make the Whitelake River is on Worthy Farm, the site of the Glastonbury Festival, between the small villages of Pilton and Pylle.

 

Along with the rest of South West England, Glastonbury has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of the country. The annual mean temperature is approximately 10 °C (50.0 °F). Seasonal temperature variation is less extreme than most of the United Kingdom because of the adjacent sea temperatures. The summer months of July and August are the warmest with mean daily maxima of approximately 21 °C (69.8 °F). In winter mean minimum temperatures of 1 or 2 °C (33.8 or 35.6 °F) are common. In the summer the Azores high pressure affects the south-west of England, however convective cloud sometimes forms inland, reducing the number of hours of sunshine. Annual sunshine rates are slightly less than the regional average of 1,600 hours. In December 1998 there were 20 days without sun recorded at Yeovilton. Most of the rainfall in the south-west is caused by Atlantic depressions or by convection. Most of the rainfall in autumn and winter is caused by the Atlantic depressions, which is when they are most active. In summer, a large proportion of the rainfall is caused by sun heating the ground leading to convection and to showers and thunderstorms. Average rainfall is around 700 mm (28 in). About 8–15 days of snowfall is typical. November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, and June to August have the lightest winds. The predominant wind direction is from the south-west.

 

Glastonbury is a centre for religious tourism and pilgrimage. As with many towns of similar size, the centre is not as thriving as it once was but Glastonbury supports a large number of alternative shops.

 

The outskirts of the town contain a DIY shop, a former sheepskin and slipper factory site, once owned by Morlands, which is slowly being redeveloped. The 31-acre (13 ha) site of the old Morlands factory was scheduled for demolition and redevelopment into a new light industrial park, although there have been some protests that the buildings should be reused rather than being demolished. As part of the redevelopment of the site a project has been established by the Glastonbury Community Development Trust to provide support for local unemployed people applying for employment, starting in self-employment and accessing work-related training.

 

According to the Glastonbury Conservation Area Appraisal of July 2010, there are approximately 170 listed buildings or structures in the town's designated conservation area, of which eight are listed grade I, six are listed grade II* and the remainder are listed grade II.

 

The Tribunal was a medieval merchant's house, used as the Abbey courthouse and, during the Monmouth Rebellion trials, by Judge Jeffreys. It now serves as a museum containing possessions and works of art from the Glastonbury Lake Village which were preserved in almost perfect condition in the peat after the village was abandoned. The museum is run by the Glastonbury Antiquarian Society. The building also houses the tourist information centre.

 

The octagonal Market Cross was built in 1846 by Benjamin Ferrey.

 

The George Hotel and Pilgrims' Inn was built in the late 15th century to accommodate visitors to Glastonbury Abbey, which is open to visitors. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building. The front of the 3-storey building is divided into 3 tiers of panels with traceried heads. Above the right of centre entrance are 3 carved panels with arms of the Abbey and Edward IV.

 

The Somerset Rural Life Museum is a museum of the social and agricultural history of Somerset, housed in buildings surrounding a 14th-century barn once belonging to Glastonbury Abbey. It was used for the storage of arable produce, particularly wheat and rye, from the abbey's home farm of approximately 524 acres (2.12 km2). Threshing and winnowing would also have been carried out in the barn, which was built from local shelly limestone with thick timbers supporting the stone tiling of the roof. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building, and is a scheduled monument.

 

The Chalice Well is a holy well at the foot of the Tor, covered by a wooden well-cover with wrought-iron decoration made in 1919. The natural spring has been in almost constant use for at least two thousand years. Water issues from the spring at a rate of 25,000 imperial gallons (110,000 L; 30,000 US gal) per day and has never failed, even during drought. Iron oxide deposits give the water a reddish hue, as dissolved ferrous oxide becomes oxygenated at the surface and is precipitated, providing chalybeate waters. As with the hot springs in nearby Bath, the water is believed to possess healing qualities. The well is about 9 feet (2.7 m) deep, with two underground chambers at its bottom. It is often portrayed as a symbol of the female aspect of deity, with the male symbolised by Glastonbury Tor (however, some consider Glastonbury Tor to be a 'hugh bounteous female figure'). As such, it is a popular destination for pilgrims in search of the divine feminine, including modern Pagans. The well is however popular with all faiths and in 2001 became a World Peace Garden.

 

Just a short distance from the Chalice Well site, across a road known as Well House Lane, can be found the "White Spring", where a temple has been created in the 21st century. Whilst the waters of the Chalice Well are touched red with iron, the water of the latter is white with calcite. Some people consider the red water of Chalice Well to have male properties, whilst the white water of White Spring has female qualities. Both springs rise from caverns underneath the Tor and it is claimed that both have healing in their flow.

 

The building now used as the White Spring Temple was originally a Victorian-built well house, erected by the local water board in 1872. Around that time, an outbreak of cholera in the area caused great concern and the natural caves were dug out, and a stone collection chamber was constructed to ensure the flow of a quality water supply. Study of the flow of water into the collection chamber has shown that the builders also tapped into other springs, besides the White Spring and judging from the high iron content of one of these springs, it appears that a small offshoot of Chalice Well finds its way under Well House Lane to emerge beside the White Spring. However, after building the reservoir, the water board soon discovered that the high calciferous content of the water caused pipes to block and by the end of the 19th century water was piped into Glastonbury from out of town. After lying derelict for many years, the water board sold off the well house, which is now maintained by a group of volunteers as a "water temple". On the outside of the building is a tap where visitors and locals can collect the water of the White Spring.

 

The Glastonbury Canal ran just over 14 miles (23 km) through two locks from Glastonbury to Highbridge where it entered the Bristol Channel in the early 19th century, but it became uneconomic with the arrival of the railway in the 1840s.

 

Glastonbury and Street railway station was the biggest station on the original Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway main line from Highbridge to Evercreech Junction until closed in 1966 under the Beeching axe. Opened in 1854 as Glastonbury, and renamed in 1886, it had three platforms, two for Evercreech to Highbridge services and one for the branch service to Wells. The station had a large goods yard controlled from a signal box. The site is now a timber yard for a local company. Replica level crossing gates have been placed at the entrance.

 

The nearest railway station is at Castle Cary but there is no direct bus route linking it to Glastonbury. There are convenient bus connections between Glastonbury and the railway stations at Bristol Temple Meads (over an hour travelling time) and at Taunton. It is also served by Berrys Coaches daily 'Superfast' service to and from London.

 

The main road in the town is the A39 which passes through Glastonbury from Wells connecting the town with Street and the M5 motorway. The other roads around the town are small and run across the levels generally following the drainage ditches. Local bus services are provided by Buses of Somerset (part of First), First West of England, Frome Bus & Libra Travel. The main routes are to Bristol via Wells, to Bridgwater, to Yeovil via Street and to Taunton.There is also a coach service to London Victoria provided by Berrys.

 

Television programmes and local news is provided by BBC West and ITV West Country from the Mendip TV transmitter.

 

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Somerset on 95.5 FM, Heart West on 102.6 FM, Greatest Hits Radio South West on 102.4 FM, Worthy FM on 87.7 FM which broadcast during The Glastonbury Festival and GWS Radio on 107.1 FM, a community radio station.

 

The town’s local newspapers are the Mid Somerset Series, Western Daily Press, Somerset County Gazette and Somerset Live.

 

There are several infant and primary schools in Glastonbury and the surrounding villages. Secondary education is provided by St Dunstan's School. In 2017, the school had 327 students between the ages of 11 and 16 years. It is named after St. Dunstan, an abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, who went on to become the Archbishop of Canterbury in 960 AD. The school was built in 1958 with major building work, at a cost of £1.2 million, in 1998, adding the science block and the sports hall. It was designated as a specialist Arts College in 2004, and the £800,000 spent at this time paid for the Performing Arts studio and facilities to support students with special educational needs. Tor School is a pupil referral unit based on Beckery New Road, which caters for 14-16-year-old students who have been excluded from mainstream education, or who have been referred for medical reasons.

 

Strode College in Street provides academic and vocational courses for those aged 16–18 and adult education. A tertiary institution and further education college, most of the courses it offers are A-levels or Business and Technology Education Councils (BTECs). The college also provides some university-level courses, and is part of The University of Plymouth Colleges network.

 

Glastonbury may have been a site of religious importance in pre-Christian times. The abbey was founded by Britons, and dates to at least the early 7th century, although later medieval Christian legend claimed that the abbey was founded by Joseph of Arimathea in the 1st century. This legend is intimately tied to Robert de Boron's version of the Holy Grail story and to Glastonbury's connection to King Arthur, which dates at least to the early 12th century. William of Malmesbury called this structure "the oldest church in England," and thenceforth it was known simply as the Old Church, inasmuch as it had existed for many years prior to the 7th century as a Celtic religious centre. In his "History of the English Church and People," written in the early eighth century, the Venerable Bede provides details regarding its construction to early missionaries. Glastonbury fell into Saxon hands after the Battle of Peonnum in 658. King Ine of Wessex enriched the endowment of the community of monks already established at Glastonbury. He is said to have directed that a stone church be built in 712. The Abbey Church was enlarged in the 10th century by the Abbot of Glastonbury, Saint Dunstan, the central figure in the 10th-century revival of English monastic life. He instituted the Benedictine Rule at Glastonbury and built new cloisters. Dunstan became Archbishop of Canterbury in 960. In 1184, a great fire at Glastonbury destroyed the monastic buildings. Reconstruction began almost immediately and the Lady Chapel, which includes the well, was consecrated in 1186.

 

The abbey had a violent end during the Dissolution and the buildings were progressively destroyed as their stones were removed for use in local building work. The remains of the Abbot's Kitchen (a grade I listed building.) and the Lady Chapel are particularly well-preserved set in 36 acres (150,000 m2) of parkland. It is approached by the Abbey Gatehouse which was built in the mid-14th century and completely restored in 1810.

 

There is also a strong Irish connection to Glastonbury as it is said to be along a route of pilgrimage from Ireland to Rome. It is supposed that St. Patrick and St. Brigid both came to the area and both Saints are documented by William of Malmesbury as having done so. There are Chapels named after them too - St. Patrick's Chapel, Glastonbury is within the Abbey grounds and St. Brigid's Chapel is at Beckery (Little Ireland).

 

The Church of St Benedict was rebuilt by Abbot Richard Beere in about 1520. This is now an Anglican church and is linked with the parishes of St John's Church in Glastonbury and St Mary's & All Saints Church in the village of Meare as a joint benefice.

 

Described as "one of the most ambitious parish churches in Somerset", the current Church of St John the Baptist dates from the 15th century and has been designated as a Grade I listed building. The church is laid out in a cruciform plan with an aisled nave and a clerestorey of seven bays. The west tower has elaborate buttressing, panelling and battlements and at 134½ feet (about 41 metres), is the second tallest parish church tower in Somerset. Recent excavations in the nave have revealed the foundations of a large central tower, possibly of Saxon origin, and a later Norman nave arcade on the same plan as the existing one. A central tower survived until the 15th century, but is believed to have collapsed, at which time the church was rebuilt. The interior of the church includes four 15th-century tomb-chests, some 15th-century stained glass in the chancel, medieval vestments, and a domestic cupboard of about 1500 which was once at Witham Charterhouse.

 

In the centuries that followed the Reformation, many religious denominations came to Glastonbury to establish chapels and meeting houses. For such a relatively small town, Glastonbury has a remarkably diverse history of Christian places of worship, further enriched by the fact that several of these movements saw break-away factions, typically setting up new meeting places as a result of doctrinal disagreements, leaving behind them a legacy which would require a highly specialized degree of study in order to chart their respective histories and places of practice. Amongst their number have been Puritans/Undetermined Protestants, Quakers, Independents, Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists, Salvationists, Plymouth Brethren, Jehovah's Witnesses and Pentecostals.

 

The United Reformed Church on the High Street was built in 1814 and altered in 1898. It stands on the site of the Ship Inn where meetings were held during the 18th century. It is Grade II listed.

 

Glastonbury Methodist Church on Lambrook Street was built in 1843 and has a galleried interior, typical of a non-conformist chapel of that period, but an unusual number of stained glass windows. Close by the front of the church is an ancient pond, which was later covered to form a brick-arched reservoir. This is mentioned in property deeds of 1821, and is still accessible, containing approximately 31,500 gallons of water.

 

The Methodist Church on Lambrook street was originally the Glastonbury Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. A Primitive Methodist Chapel was built on Northload Street in 1844, with an adjoining house added for a minister in 1869. This chapel was closed in 1968, since which time it has had a number of different uses, being described in 2007 as the Maitreya Monastery, prior to which it had been the Archangel Michael Soul Therapy Centre.

 

The Bove Town Gospel Hall has been a place of worship in the town since at least 1889, when it was listed as a mission of the Plymouth Brethren. Jehovah's Witnesses originally occupied a Kingdom Hall on Archer's Way from 1942. This transferred to Church Lane in 1964, and subsequently to its present site on Old Wells Road. The Gospel Hall was registered for the solemnizing of marriages in 1964

 

The Catholic Church of Our Lady St Mary of Glastonbury was built, on land near to the Abbey, in 1939. A statue based on a 14th-century metal seal was blessed in 1955 and crowned in 1965 restoring the Marian shrine that had been in the Abbey prior to the reformation. The Shrine is now the home of the Community of Our Lady of Glastonbury, a Catholic Benedictine Monastery founded in August 2019.

 

The Glastonbury Order of Druids was formed on Mayday 1988.

 

Sufism has been long established in Glastonbury. Zikrs are held weekly in private homes, and on the first Sunday of every month a zikr is held at St Margaret's Chapel in Magdalene Street. A Sufi charity shop was established in Glastonbury in 1999, and supports missionary work in Africa. This shop was opened after Sheikh Nazim came to Glastonbury to visit the Abbey. Here he declared, "This is the spiritual heart of England ... It is from here that the spiritual new age will begin and to here that Jesus will return".

 

The pagan Glastonbury Goddess Temple was founded in 2002 and registered as a place of worship the following year. It is self-described as the first temple of its kind to exist in Europe in over a thousand years.

 

In April 2012, it was reported by The Guardian newspaper that, according to the Pilgrim Reception Centre in the town, Glastonbury had around seventy different faith groups. Some of these groups attended a special ceremony to celebrate this diversity, held in the Chalice Well Gardens on 21 April of that year.

 

The 22nd Jagannatha Ratha-yatra Krishna Festival took place in Glastonbury on Sunday 4 October 2015. Devotees of the Krishna Consciousness movement travelled to the town from London, Bath, Bristol and elsewhere to join with locals in a procession and Kirtan.

 

Glastonbury also headquarters the British Orthodox Church which is independent Oriental Orthodox denomination since 2015

 

Glastonbury has a particular significance for members of the Baháʼí Faith in that Wellesley Tudor Pole, founder of the Chalice Well Trust, was one of the earliest and most prominent adherents of this faith in the United Kingdom.

 

The local football team is Glastonbury F.C. They joined the Western Football League in 1919 and have won the Western Football League title three times in their history. The club are now playing in the Somerset County Football League.

 

Glastonbury Cricket Club previously competed in the West of England Premier League, one of the ECB Premier Leagues, the highest level of recreational cricket in England and Wales. The club plays at the Tor Leisure Ground, which used to stage Somerset County Cricket Club first-class fixtures.

 

The town is on the route of the Samaritans Way South West.

 

In a 1904 novel by Charles Whistler entitled A Prince of Cornwall Glastonbury in the days of Ine of Wessex is portrayed. It is also a setting in the Warlord Chronicles, a trilogy of books about Arthurian Britain written by Bernard Cornwell. Modern fiction has also used Glastonbury as a setting including The Age of Misrule series of books by Mark Chadbourn in which the Watchmen appear, a group selected from Anglican priests in and around Glastonbury to safeguard knowledge of a gate to the Otherworld on top of Glastonbury Tor. John Cowper Powys's novel A Glastonbury Romance is set in Glastonbury and is concerned with the Grail. The historical mystery novel Grave Goods by Diana Norman (writing under the pen name Ariana Frankin) is set in Glastonbury just after the abbey fire and concerns the supposed graves of Arthur and Guinevere, as well as featuring other landmarks such as the Tor.

 

The Children's World charity grew out of the festival and is based in the town. It is known internationally (as Children's World International). It was set up by Arabella Churchill in 1981 to provide drama participation and creative play and to work creatively in educational settings, providing social and emotional benefits for all children, particularly those with special needs. Children's World International is the sister charity of Children's World and was started in 1999 to work with children in the Balkans, in conjunction with Balkan Sunflowers and Save the Children. They also run the Glastonbury Children's Festival each August.

 

The local Brass Band is Glastonbury Brass which is currently placed in the first section for the West of England area. The band was founded in 2017 when the old Yeovil Town Band relocated after running into financial difficulty following a "notice to quit" on its rehearsal facility in September 2016. The band is featured twice on the Haiku Salut album There Is No Elsewhere (2018) and can be heard on the tracks Cold To Crack The Stones and The More And Moreness. In February 2020, the band was involved in the launch of Johnny Mars's "Dare to Dream" project aimed at raising awareness of the effects mankind is having on the world.

 

Glastonbury is the final venue for the annual November West Country Carnival.

 

Glastonbury has been described as a New Age community where communities have grown up to include people with New Age beliefs.

 

The first Glastonbury Festivals were a series of cultural events held in summer, from 1914 to 1926. The festivals were founded by English socialist composer Rutland Boughton and his librettist Lawrence Buckley. Apart from the founding of a national theatre, they envisaged a summer school and music festival based on utopian principles. With strong Arthurian connections and historic and prehistoric associations, Glastonbury was chosen to host the festivals.

 

The more recent Glastonbury Festival of Performing Arts, founded in 1970, is now the largest open-air music and performing arts festival in the world. Although it is named after Glastonbury, it is actually held at Worthy Farm between the small villages of Pilton and Pylle, 6 miles (9.7 km) east of the town of Glastonbury. The festival is best known for its contemporary music, but also features dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and many other arts. For 2005, the enclosed area of the festival was over 900 acres (3.6 km2), had over 385 live performances and was attended by around 150,000 people. In 2007, over 700 acts played on over 80 stages and the capacity expanded by 20,000 to 177,000. The festival has spawned a range of other work including the 1972 film Glastonbury Fayre and album, 1996 film Glastonbury the Movie and the 2005 DVD Glastonbury Anthems.

 

Glastonbury has been the birthplace or home to many notable people. Peter King, 1st Baron King was the recorder of Glastonbury in 1705. Thomas Bramwell Welch the discoverer of the pasteurisation process to prevent the fermentation of grape juice was born in Glastonbury in 1825. The judge John Creighton represented Lunenburg County in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1770 to 1775. The fossil collector Thomas Hawkins lived in the town during the 19th century.

 

The religious connections and mythology of the town have also attracted notable authors. The occultist and writer Dion Fortune (Violet Mary Firth) lived and is buried in Glastonbury. Her old house was home to the writer and historian Geoffrey Ashe, who was known for his works on local legends. Frederick Bligh Bond, archaeologist and writer. Eckhart Tolle, a German-born writer, public speaker, and spiritual teacher lived in Glastonbury during the 1980s. Eileen Caddy was at a sanctuary in Glastonbury when she first claimed to have heard the "voice of God" while meditating. Her subsequent instructions from the "voice" directed her to take on Sheena Govan as her spiritual teacher, and became a spiritual teacher and new age author, best known as one of the founders of the Findhorn Foundation community.

 

Popular entertainment and literature is also represented amongst the population. English composer Rutland Boughton moved from Birmingham to Glastonbury in 1911 and established the country's first national annual summer school of music. Gary Stringer, lead singer of rock band Reef, was a local along with other members of the band. The juggler Haggis McLeod and his late wife, Arabella Churchill, one of the founders of the Glastonbury Festival, lived in the town. The conductor Charles Hazlewood lives locally and hosts the "Play the Field" music festival on his farm nearby. Bill Bunbury moved on from Glastonbury to become a writer, radio broadcaster, and producer for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

 

Athletes and sports players from Glastonbury include cricketers Cyril Baily in 1880, George Burrough in 1907, and Eustace Bisgood in 1878. The footballer Peter Spiring was born in Glastonbury in 1950. Formula 1 driver Lando Norris grew up in Glastonbury.

 

Twin towns

France Bretenoux, France

Greece Patmos, Greece

Ethiopia Lalibela, Ethiopia

 

Freedom of the Town

Michael Eavis: 3 May 2022. The founder of the world-famous Glastonbury Festival has been made a Freeman of Glastonbury. Born in 1935, the celebrated dairy farmer held his first Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton in 1970. 52 years later, Mr. Eavis has been listed by Time magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world.

 

The Key of Avalon

This award was created in 2022 by the Glastonbury Town Council. The first recipient was Prem Rawat, international peace advocate and author, who spoke at the Glastonbury Festival in 1971.

 

Somerset is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east and the north-east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. The largest settlement is the city of Bath, and the county town is Taunton.

 

Somerset is a predominantly rural county, especially to the south and west, with an area of 4,171 km2 (1,610 sq mi) and a population of 965,424. After Bath (101,557), the largest settlements are Weston-super-Mare (82,418), Taunton (60,479), and Yeovil (49,698). Wells (12,000) is a city, the second-smallest by population in England. For local government purposes the county comprises three unitary authority areas: Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, and Somerset.

 

The centre of Somerset is dominated by the Levels, a coastal plain and wetland, and the north-east and west of the county are hilly. The north-east contains part of the Cotswolds AONB, all of the Mendip Hills AONB, and a small part of Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB; the west contains the Quantock Hills AONB, a majority of Exmoor National Park, and part of the Blackdown Hills AONB. The main rivers in the county are the Avon, which flows through Bath and then Bristol, and the Axe, Brue, and Parrett, which drain the Levels.

 

There is evidence of Paleolithic human occupation in Somerset, and the area was subsequently settled by the Celts, Romans and Anglo-Saxons. The county played a significant part in Alfred the Great's rise to power, and later the English Civil War and the Monmouth Rebellion. In the later medieval period its wealth allowed its monasteries and parish churches to be rebuilt in grand style; Glastonbury Abbey was particularly important, and claimed to house the tomb of King Arthur and Guinevere. The city of Bath is famous for its Georgian architecture, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The county is also the location of Glastonbury Festival, one of the UK's major music festivals.

 

Somerset is a historic county in the south west of England. There is evidence of human occupation since prehistoric times with hand axes and flint points from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras, and a range of burial mounds, hill forts and other artefacts dating from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. The oldest dated human road work in Great Britain is the Sweet Track, constructed across the Somerset Levels with wooden planks in the 39th century BCE.

 

Following the Roman Empire's invasion of southern Britain, the mining of lead and silver in the Mendip Hills provided a basis for local industry and commerce. Bath became the site of a major Roman fort and city, the remains of which can still be seen. During the Early Medieval period Somerset was the scene of battles between the Anglo-Saxons and first the Britons and later the Danes. In this period it was ruled first by various kings of Wessex, and later by kings of England. Following the defeat of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy by the Normans in 1066, castles were built in Somerset.

 

Expansion of the population and settlements in the county continued during the Tudor and more recent periods. Agriculture and coal mining expanded until the 18th century, although other industries declined during the industrial revolution. In modern times the population has grown, particularly in the seaside towns, notably Weston-super-Mare. Agriculture continues to be a major business, if no longer a major employer because of mechanisation. Light industries are based in towns such as Bridgwater and Yeovil. The towns of Taunton and Shepton Mallet manufacture cider, although the acreage of apple orchards is less than it once was.

 

The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods saw hunter-gatherers move into the region of Somerset. There is evidence from flint artefacts in a quarry at Westbury that an ancestor of modern man, possibly Homo heidelbergensis, was present in the area from around 500,000 years ago. There is still some doubt about whether the artefacts are of human origin but they have been dated within Oxygen Isotope Stage 13 (524,000 – 478,000 BP). Other experts suggest that "many of the bone-rich Middle Pleistocene deposits belong to a single but climatically variable interglacial that succeeded the Cromerian, perhaps about 500,000 years ago. Detailed analysis of the origin and modification of the flint artefacts leads to the conclusion that the assemblage was probably a product of geomorphological processes rather than human work, but a single cut-marked bone suggests a human presence." Animal bones and artefacts unearthed in the 1980s at Westbury-sub-Mendip, in Somerset, have shown evidence of early human activity approximately 700,000 years ago.

 

Homo sapiens sapiens, or modern man, came to Somerset during the Early Upper Palaeolithic. There is evidence of occupation of four Mendip caves 35,000 to 30,000 years ago. During the Last Glacial Maximum, about 25,000 to 15,000 years ago, it is probable that Somerset was deserted as the area experienced tundra conditions. Evidence was found in Gough's Cave of deposits of human bone dating from around 12,500 years ago. The bones were defleshed and probably ritually buried though perhaps related to cannibalism being practised in the area at the time or making skull cups or storage containers. Somerset was one of the first areas of future England settled following the end of Younger Dryas phase of the last ice age c. 8000 BC. Cheddar Man is the name given to the remains of a human male found in Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge. He is Britain's oldest complete human skeleton. The remains date from about 7150 BC, and it appears that he died a violent death. Somerset is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from about 6000 BCE; Mesolithic artefacts have been found in more than 70 locations. Mendip caves were used as burial places, with between 50 and 100 skeletons being found in Aveline's Hole. In the Neolithic era, from about 3500 BCE, there is evidence of farming.

 

At the end of the last ice age the Bristol Channel was dry land, but later the sea level rose, particularly between 1220 and 900 BC and between 800 and 470 BCE, resulting in major coastal changes. The Somerset Levels became flooded, but the dry points such as Glastonbury and Brent Knoll have a long history of settlement, and are known to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunters. The county has prehistoric burial mounds (such as Stoney Littleton Long Barrow), stone rows (such as the circles at Stanton Drew and Priddy) and settlement sites. Evidence of Mesolithic occupation has come both from the upland areas, such as in Mendip caves, and from the low land areas such as the Somerset Levels. Dry points in the latter such as Glastonbury Tor and Brent Knoll, have a long history of settlement with wooden trackways between them. There were also "lake villages" in the marsh such as those at Glastonbury Lake Village and Meare. One of the oldest dated human road work in Britain is the Sweet Track, constructed across the Somerset Levels with wooden planks in the 39th century BC, partially on the route of the even earlier Post Track.

 

There is evidence of Exmoor's human occupation from Mesolithic times onwards. In the Neolithic period people started to manage animals and grow crops on farms cleared from the woodland, rather than act purely as hunter gatherers. It is also likely that extraction and smelting of mineral ores to make tools, weapons, containers and ornaments in bronze and then iron started in the late Neolithic and into the Bronze and Iron Ages.

 

The caves of the Mendip Hills were settled during the Neolithic period and contain extensive archaeological sites such as those at Cheddar Gorge. There are numerous Iron Age Hill Forts, which were later reused in the Dark Ages, such as Cadbury Castle, Worlebury Camp and Ham Hill. The age of the henge monument at Stanton Drew stone circles is unknown, but is believed to be from the Neolithic period. There is evidence of mining on the Mendip Hills back into the late Bronze Age when there were technological changes in metal working indicated by the use of lead. There are numerous "hill forts", such as Small Down Knoll, Solsbury Hill, Dolebury Warren and Burledge Hill, which seem to have had domestic purposes, not just a defensive role. They generally seem to have been occupied intermittently from the Bronze Age onward, some, such as Cadbury Camp at South Cadbury, being refurbished during different eras. Battlegore Burial Chamber is a Bronze Age burial chamber at Williton which is composed of three round barrows and possibly a long, chambered barrow.

 

The Iron Age tribes of later Somerset were the Dobunni in north Somerset, Durotriges in south Somerset and Dumnonii in west Somerset. The first and second produced coins, the finds of which allows their tribal areas to be suggested, but the latter did not. All three had a Celtic culture and language. However, Ptolemy stated that Bath was in the territory of the Belgae, but this may be a mistake. The Celtic gods were worshipped at the temple of Sulis at Bath and possibly the temple on Brean Down. Iron Age sites on the Quantock Hills, include major hill forts at Dowsborough and Ruborough, as well as smaller earthwork enclosures, such as Trendle Ring, Elworthy Barrows and Plainsfield Camp.

 

Somerset was part of the Roman Empire from 47 AD to about 409 AD. However, the end was not abrupt and elements of Romanitas lingered on for perhaps a century.

 

Somerset was invaded from the south-east by the Second Legion Augusta, under the future emperor Vespasian. The hillforts of the Durotriges at Ham Hill and Cadbury Castle were captured. Ham Hill probably had a temporary Roman occupation. The massacre at Cadbury Castle seems to have been associated with the later Boudiccan Revolt of 60–61 AD. The county remained part of the Roman Empire until around 409 AD.

 

The Roman invasion, and possibly the preceding period of involvement in the internal affairs of the south of England, was inspired in part by the potential of the Mendip Hills. A great deal of the attraction of the lead mines may have been the potential for the extraction of silver.

 

Forts were set up at Bath and Ilchester. The lead and silver mines at Charterhouse in the Mendip Hills were run by the military. The Romans established a defensive boundary along the new military road known the Fosse Way (from the Latin fossa meaning ditch). The Fosse Way ran through Bath, Shepton Mallet, Ilchester and south-west towards Axminster. The road from Dorchester ran through Yeovil to meet the Fosse Way at Ilchester. Small towns and trading ports were set up, such as Camerton and Combwich. The larger towns decayed in the latter part of the period, though the smaller ones appear to have decayed less. In the latter part of the period, Ilchester seems to have been a "civitas" capital and Bath may also have been one. Particularly to the east of the River Parrett, villas were constructed. However, only a few Roman sites have been found to the west of the river. The villas have produced important mosaics and artifacts. Cemeteries have been found outside the Roman towns of Somerset and by Roman temples such as that at Lamyatt. Romano-British farming settlements, such as those at Catsgore and Sigwells, have been found in Somerset. There was salt production on the Somerset Levels near Highbridge and quarrying took place near Bath, where the Roman Baths gave their name to Bath.

 

Excavations carried out before the flooding of Chew Valley Lake also uncovered Roman remains, indicating agricultural and industrial activity from the second half of the 1st century until the 3rd century AD. The finds included a moderately large villa at Chew Park, where wooden writing tablets (the first in the UK) with ink writing were found. There is also evidence from the Pagans Hill Roman Temple at Chew Stoke. In October 2001 the West Bagborough Hoard of 4th century Roman silver was discovered in West Bagborough. The 681 coins included two denarii from the early 2nd century and 8 Miliarense and 671 Siliqua all dating to the period AD 337 – 367. The majority were struck in the reigns of emperors Constantius II and Julian and derive from a range of mints including Arles and Lyons in France, Trier in Germany and Rome.

 

In April 2010, the Frome Hoard, one of the largest-ever hoards of Roman coins discovered in Britain, was found by a metal detectorist. The hoard of 52,500 coins dated from the 3rd century AD and was found buried in a field near Frome, in a jar 14 inches (36 cm) below the surface. The coins were excavated by archaeologists from the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

 

This is the period from about 409 AD to the start of Saxon political control, which was mainly in the late 7th century, though they are said to have captured the Bath area in 577 AD. Initially the Britons of Somerset seem to have continued much as under the Romans but without the imperial taxation and markets. There was then a period of civil war in Britain though it is not known how this affected Somerset. The Western Wandsdyke may have been constructed in this period but archaeological data shows that it was probably built during the 5th or 6th century. This area became the border between the Romano-British Celts and the West Saxons following the Battle of Deorham in 577 AD. The ditch is on the north side, so presumably it was used by the Celts as a defence against Saxons encroaching from the upper Thames Valley. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Saxon Cenwalh achieved a breakthrough against the British Celtic tribes, with victories at Bradford-on-Avon (in the Avon Gap in the Wansdyke) in 65

Bezoek aan de pasteuriseer afdeling van melkfabriek in Moengo.

 

Datum: 31 oktober 1955

Locatie: Moengo, Suriname

Vervaardiger: Ter Laag

Inv. Nr.: 16-453

Fotoarchief Stichting Surinaams Museum

Murcia al Vino. Red wine washed, pasteurised goats’ cheese from South East Spain. Wonderfully fruity flavour with a buttery texture

© All Rights Reserved - Black Diamond Images

 

trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/133141017?searchTerm=tar...

 

From the 1850's the Manning River saw much boating activity with steamers such as the North Coast Steam Navigation Company's steamer Maianbar regularly servicing the river as far upstream as Wingham. Getting over the bar at Harrington was always a challenge but later with the aid of Tug Boats like the John Gollan, built by Captain Hector Gollan at Tinonee and launched in 1889, quite large boats were able to enter the river.

Of course many did not make it and the list of shipwrecks off the Manning coast and its 2 river bars is long.

This section of river from the old Peters Wharf to the Peeress Wharf is more famous for its rich cream boat history. Both milk factories used cream boats (or milk boats) to service the farms along the river with the milk picked up and transported in stainless steel drums to the two factory wharves and then to the factories for pasteurisation and for cheese making.

Many cream boats would have plied these waters daily. Today the only sound on the river is the odd fishermans tinnie and the sound of pelicans wings taking off near the Fish Co-op.

The town of Bridport in Dorset - it is the gateway to West Bay and the Jurassic Coast.

 

Shop with old wall advert for Rax Dairys - The only dairy selling local pasteurised milk

 

It is above Leakers Bakery, Generations and Hair by David. Bridport Sports to the left.

 

Leakers Bakery are at 29 East Street.

 

Grade II listed from 21-31 East Street.

 

21-31, Bridport

 

1.

5191 EAST STREET

(North Side)

 

Nos 21 to 31 (odd)

SY 4692 1/62

 

II GV

 

2.

Early C19. Brick, some colour washed. Slate roof. 3 storeys. Sashes with

glazing bars. No 21 may have been the former Golden Lion Inn, and is therefore

lder. It has a gutter ornamented with lions' heads. Nos 23 & 25 have a moulded

stone eaves cornice. Nos 29 & 31 have C19. shopfronts. No 31 has a panelled

door with semi-circular fanlight.

 

Nos 21 to 33 (odd) form a group.

  

Listing NGR: SY4671292933

A bottle of Keller Bier from St. Georgen Bräu in Buttenheim, Germany.

 

Keller Bier is a type of German beer which is not clarified or pasteurised. It can be either top or bottom fermented. The term Kellerbier literally means "cellar beer", referring to its cool lagering temperatures. I've tasted it from draft before, this was the first time from bottle.

 

The St. Georgen Bräu Keller Bier was brewed with bottom fermenting yeasts to a strength of 4.9% abv. It poured a cloudy brown color with a white, foamy head. Aroma had a mild caramel note, roasted malts and some floral hops. Light to medium heavy body with a good carbonation. Flavor started out with a mild sweet character and some roasted malts. The hops provided a floral note with some good bittering hops in the finish. A very nice and refreshing session beer.

Boddingtons Bitter is an English bitter beer. It was originally brewed at the Strangeways Brewery, Manchester, England and was promoted in a "stylish" advertising campaign as The Cream of Manchester from the late 1980s until 2004. The campaign was credited with revitalising the image of Manchester and was second only to Manchester United and Coronation Street in raising the city's profile. The Guardian described the drink as "one of Manchester's most famous products". In 2004 the Strangeways brewery was closed and production of pasteurised Boddingtons was relocated to Magor, South Wales and Samlesbury, Lancashire. Production of the cask conditioned variant was moved to Hydes Brewery in Moss Side, Manchester until March 2012.

 

We just happened to stumble upon Village Milk in Oxford and bought a bottle from the vending machine. Un-pasteurised & un-homogenized.

Yankalilla.

The Bungala River valley was one of the first areas of South Australia surveyed by Surveyor General Colonel William Light after the area immediately surrounding the city of Adelaide. In fact on 18 May 1838, just over a year after the sale of Adelaide town lots, Light declared that 150,000 acres of land was ready for settlement, or almost so. They were: 69,000 acres around Adelaide; 27,000 acres at Rapid Bay; 5,400 acres at Yankalilla;

20,000 acres on Kangaroo Island; and 28,000 acres in the Onkaparinga Valley. The actual surveying of Yankalilla must have occurred a bit later around 1840 as settlement of Yankalilla did not being until 1842 with the arrival of Henry Kemmis, Septimane Herbert and George Worthington who all took up land and built houses. The farmers planted wheat and barley in the land they had cleared and by 1844 there were over 50 acres in wheat and several acres in potatoes. All three families built properties on the northern side of Bungala Creek. Worthington built near what was to become the Anglican Church and Kemmis built Manna Farm near the junction of the road to Victor Harbor and Hebert’s Bungala House became the first house south of Willunga.

 

The establishment of local government occurred in 1854 with the first council meeting taking place in the Normanville Hotel. The council chambers were soon erected in Yankalilla. By the late 1860s Yankalilla and Normanville had three flourmills, five stores, two breweries, four blacksmiths, three hotels and five churches! The breweries had to be local in those days as beer did not keep and could not be easily transported. It was the work of Louis Pasteur that led to beer being pasteurised. Once this happened the small town breweries all closed and beer production was centralised in Adelaide. In the early years of the 1850s and 1860s Yankalilla was one of the biggest and most important towns in the state apart from the mining centres of Kapunda, Burra, Kadina and Moonta.

 

Historically Yankalilla has several worthy buildings. One is the old school house at 48 Main Street which was built by the government in 1859. Several people operated this as a private school. The most famous of these was Sister Mary McKillop and the Sisters of St Joseph in 1867 who operated this as their first country school outside of Adelaide. It was conducted for 40 Catholic children. The first is the former Wesleyan Methodist Church which was built in 1879. (There was an early Bible Christian Methodist Church in Yankalilla too erected in 1856 but it was demolished decades ago). The other significant building is Christ Church Anglican Church which was opened by Bishop Short in 1857. In recent years it has become the shrine of “Our Lady of Yankalilla” based on markings on the wall which resemble the Virgin Mary cradling a crucified Christ. The local rector reported the “image” in 1994 and it has been a shrine for pilgrims since 1996. The nearby Anglican cemetery has graves dating from 1854.

 

Bottle Conditioned - 75 cl, and 33 cl bottles.

Ingredients: Pilsner malt (French barley from Champagne); wheat starch or flour (10% - 15%); dextrose (5%); malt extract (0.1%); hop extract from German Hallertaur (aroma) & American Galena (bittering) hops. Yeast & liquid invert sugar added to the bottled beer.

Chimay Red is noted for its coppery colour which makes it particularly attractive. Topped with a creamy head, it gives off a light, fruity apricot aroma produced by the fermentation. The taste perceived in the mouth is a balance confirming the fruity nuances noticed in the fragrance. Its taste, which imparts a silky sensation to the tongue, is made refreshing by a light touch of bitterness. To the palate, the taster perceives a pleasant astringency which complements the flavour qualities of this beer very harmoniously. This top fermented Trappist beer, refermented in the bottle, is not pasteurised.

 

Reflecting on that title, like Autumn's low angle sunshine blushing this too good to be true apple, this isn't April's favourite, it's my favourite apple ripening in April.

 

Phew; I'm glad that is sorted.

 

The Cornish aromatic is like a fairy tale apple. It is big, red, crisp, sweet and tart at once, and oh so juicy. Calling it delicious is a cruel thing. That horrid commercial excuse for an apple hijacked that word and despoiled it as much as we have lost gay and queer from our lexicon. That's a shame. Because this apple needs a superlative to describe its indescribable taste. True, it is called aromatic. That doesn't do it justice.

 

I've picked them now; buckets of red and russet joy. They come at a time when stores are already filled with the late Summer-early Autumn apple bounty. Most days I'm eating four different varieties from my trees. Is too much barely enough? Problematically this apple for all its perfection is flawed. February's Cox's get pride of place under refrigeration; Blenheim orange is happy at cool room temperature. For whatever reason my Cornish aromatics have a tendency towards developing the unpleasant sounding bitter pit in storage.

 

Bitter pit is unromantically labelled a physiological disorder where cells breakdown beneath the skin and mostly near the calyx end; where the flower was. Commonly it is attributed to a shortage of calcium especially in an apple like this that swells late in its development and too fast to move enough calcium to the distal end of the fruit.

 

Sure, I could do as commercial growers do and use a post-harvest dip in calcium chloride solution. You do know that apples are still metabolising after their picked, don't you? Or I could try to master the arcane art of late season calcium sprays while the fruit is swelling and ripening. But if I did that wouldn't I just become another producer of factory food? That's not why I'm here.

 

No, I'll hold back as many fresh Cornish aromatic apples as I estimate can be used fresh. The rest are going to another cause: juice! Theirs is possibly the highest yield and richest juice of all my dessert apples. Pasteurised it will keep and keep delivering April's sunshine on and on with that sweet, sharp, aromatic taste captured in a bottle.

Myrtleford, Victoria, Australia

 

"The origins of the Myrtleford Butter Factory pre-date the building itself. When pioneer selectors first took up land around Myrtleford after the gold rush, many kept small dairy herds. The settler’s wives made their own butter and cheese, frequently walking miles to market with these products. As the forests were cleared for pasture, the dairy herds expanded and a market had to be found for the milk and cream.

 

In 1893 the Victorian Creamery and Butter Factory of Melbourne opened a small creamery on the site of the present-day Butter Factory. None of the local dairies had separators, so whole milk was brought to the creamery by horse-drawn vehicles. The separated cream was sent to Wangaratta to be made into butter, while the farmers took home the whey to feed to their pigs: nothing was wasted.

 

By the turn of the century, hand-turned separators were in use on most farms, and local dairy farmers began to think they would be better off financially by manufacturing their own products. In 1903 they formed the Myrtleford Butter Factory Co-Operative Company. A second-hand boiler from a Bendigo gold mine was purchased to run the steam-driven machinery, and a small brick building was constructed. By the 1920s, the Myrtleford Butter Factory was pasteurising its products, and had its own electricity supply. The present-day building was constructed in 1930."

 

Source: www.thebutterfactory.com.au/

ca. 1930 - ca. 1949

 

View of vehicle from side angle, with two men standing beside it. Signage on truck cab reads: W J Jenner 23 Shepparson Ave Carnegie. Signage on truck reads: Use Drouin milk. Pure safe milk from Drouin Co-operative Milk Co. Pasteurised & brine cooled. Best by test. Truck make is a Bussing NAG diesel.

The building visible in the background is Sacred Heart Catholic Church, in Rathdowne Street, Carlton.

 

Visit our catalogue to download a hi-res copy or find out more about this image: handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/113294

 

Want to find more pictures from the State Library of Victoria's collections? guides.slv.vic.gov.au/pictures

I just love this old fashioned tiny butter pack!

Marston's Brewery owns over 2,000 public houses in the United Kingdom and is the world's largest brewer of cask ale. It was known as Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries plc until 2007 when it rebranded as Marston's. In 2011 it had a 1.1% share of the UK beer market.

 

Banks & Co has been brewing at the Park Brewery in Wolverhampton since 1875. The Company was formed in 1890 as Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries by the amalgamation of Banks & Co. with George Thompson & Sons and Charles Colonel Smith's Brewery. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1947. It acquired Camerons Brewery in Hartlepool in 1992 and sold it to Castle Eden in 2002, whilst retaining some of Cameron's tied pubs.

 

In 1834 John Marston established J. Marston & Son at the Horninglow Brewery at Burton upon Trent. Marston & Son Ltd amalgamated with John Thompson & Son Ltd and moved to Albion Brewery on Shobnall Road, which the company still operates.

 

In 1999 Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries purchased Marston, Thompson & Evershed of Burton upon Trent (including Marston's Brewery which had been founded in 1834). in the same year the Marston's bought the Mansfield Brewery Company of Mansfield which, in contrast to its other recent acquisitions, was soon closed down. Brands still bearing the Mansfield name are brewed elsewhere within the group. In 2005 Marston's Brewery took over production under licence from Interbrew of Draught Bass, succeeding Coors. Later, in 2005, the Jennings Brewery of Cockermouth was purchased and in 2007 Hampshire based Ringwood Brewery, which was established in 1978, and brews Best Bitter, Fortyniner, and Old Thumper, was acquired. In 2007 the Company changed its name from Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries plc to Marston's plc.

 

The company now owns and operates five breweries:

 

Park Brewery in Wolverhampton brews Banks's, Hanson's and Mansfield beers;

Marston's Brewery in Burton upon Trent brews Marston's and Bass

Jennings Brewery in Cockermouth;

Wychwood Brewery in Witney (which includes the Brakspear Brewhouse);

Ringwood Brewery in Hampshire.

 

The company operates around 2,150 pubs and bars situated across England and Wales, comprising around 1,650 tenanted or leased pubs and around 500 managed pubs – of which 45 are hotels.

 

Marston's Brewery makes use of water from the Burton Well, reputedly discovered by Benedictine monks in the 13th century.

 

Marston's is the only remaining brewer to use Burton Union Sets; a system whereby fermentation barrels and troughs are linked together by a complex system of copper and brass pipework. The basic principle is one of preventing excessive beer and yeast loss through foaming, but the consequence is that the beer is both in contact with more wood and in contact with more beer (fermenting in a bigger volume, typically totalling about 100 barrels or 16 hectolitres). This results in a more consistent flavour; and very little chance of a whole batch being ruined. All other large-scale brewers have abandoned this method in favour of stainless steel fermenting vessels, which while they assure (through volume) a consistent flavour, limit the use of traditional yeast varieties. They make selective use of the unusual double dropping process (for example, in the production of Brakspear Bitter) which introduces complex flavors due to a period of accelerated yeast growth.

 

Marston's Pedigree is a bitter; it is Marston's flagship brand, selling 150,000 hectolitres in 2010. It is the only beer to use the oak Burton Union System so that it is fermented in wood; the ingredients are mineral enriched Burton Water, malted barley, and Fuggles and Goldings hops. The cask-conditioned and canned versions are 4.5% abv; since April 2009, the pasteurised bottle versions have been 5% abv.

  

Malaysia relies heavily on imports for its dairy needs, such as milk powder for its dairy product industry and finished products such as cheese and butter. Major import countries are Australia and New Zealand.

 

The major dairy items produced in Malaysia are milk powder (full cream, Skimmed and infant formula), sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, liquid milk and milk drinks (fresh, ultra high temperature, pasteurised and homogenised), yoghurt and ice cream. Most advertising dollars in Malaysia target infants, children and pregnant and feeding mothers.

 

(Dairy Products In Malaysia: A Market Analysis)

the pasteurizing sun. basic summary on obtaining water through dew harvesting and pasteurizing with a funnel solar cooker. the entire set will be about 7 pages or so. Meant to be nearly entirely visual using universal symbols, though members of the community may wish to add text explaining a bit more.

Laura.

The land around the small town of Laura was originally part of Booyoolee sheep station based in Gladstone which was leased by Herbert Bristow Hughes and Bristow Herbert Hughes from 1843. They soon had a run of 200 square miles and the partnership split with Herbert Hughes retaining Booyoolee and Bristow Hughes developing Bundaleer sheep run from 1846. After the passing of the credit selection land acts of 1869 and 1872 large areas of Booyoolee station were resumed by the government for closer settlement and the arrival of grain farmers rather than pastoralists. But a clerical error in the Lands Office in 1871 meant the Hundred of Booyoolie was declared rather than the Hundred of Booyoolee. Herbert Bristow Hughes married Laura White of Wirrabara run and so the governor of SA named the new township Laura after Herbert Hughes’ wife. The first town lots were offered for sale in 1872 with the first school, the Wesleyan Church, the former Laura Hotel (now a shop) and the brewery all opening in 1873. Of these buildings the Laura Hotel was the first stone building erected in the town. It closed in 1998. Based beside the Rocky River in well-watered country the town grew rapidly. A local land owner Mr H Walter had a private town named North Laura subdivided but it was soon amalgamated into the government town of Laura. However just to the north of North Laura the land was purchased from the original land owner by the state government in 1893 at considerable cost to create a number of Working Men’s Blocks as part of the Cotton government scheme to assist working men to live on small blocks of around 10 acres. This area just north of the town is still known as Laura Blocks and the properties are all around 10 to 20 acres. In the 1890s at a time of great depression the blocks allowed working men to lease the land cheaply from the government in order to grow vegetables, plant fruit trees, keep a cow and a pig, perhaps some bees and poultry to supplement their waged incomes. The land was eventually offered for sale to the blockers or to other settlers.

 

Like all agricultural areas the grain farmers wanted access to good transport. The first wheat crops were carted by bullock teams or horses and drays through Hughes Gap near Crystal Brook down to the port at Port Pirie. But this need was redundant once the train line was extended from Gladstone to Laura in 1884. A fine stone gable ended railway station was built in Laura shortly after 1884 but alas it has now been demolished and the rail tracks torn up. But Laura did not remain a rail terminus. The rail lines were extended to Booleroo Centre in 1910 and then on to Melrose and Wilmington in 1919. Some of the finest buildings in the town are the Old Court House (now the art gallery) which was built in 1877, the old post office first built around 1874 and the former Police Station in the Main Street built in in 1878 and closed in 1968. The old Institute was built in 1875 but later demolished to make way for an ugly Civic Centre in 1968. In front of that Civic Centre is a bust of Clarence J. Dennis whilst there is a larger than life statue of him in the Main Street. C. J Dennis the famous poet and story writer was born in Auburn in 1876 but lived for most of his childhood and youth years in Laura before he eventually moved to Melbourne. In 1890 C.J. Dennis began work at the solicitor’s office in the Main Street as a junior law clerk. Dennis left Laura in 1898 when he fell out with his father the publican of one of the Laura Hotels. Between the Civic Centre and the old Courthouse is the fine Masonic Lodge which was built in 1908 but is now used by the local history society as an archive. The Masonic Lodge was formed in Laura in 1878. Other buildings of note are the classical style single room fronted Solicitors Offices in the Main Street near Bristow Street where C.J Dennis was employed and the former Bank of South Australia on the corner of White Street. The main chamber on the Main Street was built late in 1922 but walk down White Street and you can see the old bank with half rounded windows behind it. That part of the bank was built in 1878. It is opposite the former Laura hotel which is now the soap shop.

 

After erecting the first hotels and churches country towns looked to education facilities. In Laura a school opened in 1874 in a small church before the first state school was built in 1877. Additional classrooms were added to the 1877 building in 1883. More buildings have opened since the 1950s. In the 1870s churches were often built of pine and pug with thatched rooves and they were demolished within a couple of decades. The Wesleyan Methodists built the first church in Laura in 1873 opposite the location of the current school. They replaced this structure with their grand stone church in the Main Street in 1888. It is still in use in the Main Street but it is now Redeemer Lutheran Church. The Lutherans purchased this building in the year 2000. The Lutherans also purchased the Primitive Methodist Church in Samuel Street in Laura which was built in 1876. They bought it in 1904, demolished it in 1908 and opened their Easter Lutheran Church on the site in 1909. The Baptist congregation in Laura was strong and they built their church in 1875 and it is still in use by the Baptists. The Catholics built an early church in 1877 with a nearby convent at the same time on land on the outskirts of Laura which was donated by a local farmer Mr Rollison. Both were demolished in 1929 to make way for the current fine Catholic Church. The Anglicans built a church in Laura in 1875 and because Herbert Bristow Hughes of Booyoolee and his family worshiped there he donated funds for the addition of the chancel. The chancel was built in 1883 to the design of Adelaide architect Daniel Garlick.

 

The town had an important flour mill from 1874 which burnt down in 1878 and was then immediately re-built. The mill machinery was manufactured in the May Brothers foundry at Gawler. New machinery was added to the mill in 1893 and it was eventually taken over by the Laura Milling Company in 1915. Extensive improvements such as roller mills were installed and the mill for many years produced and marketed the BEST Laura flour which was known across SA and in Broken Hill. To supplement revenue a chaff mill was also operated in conjunction with the flourmill. The flourmill finally closed in the 1970s and much of it was destroyed in a 2015 arson attack. A butter factory also opened in Laura in 1891 and operated for some years as butter could by then be refrigerated and shipped to England but a lot of it was railed to the growing silver city of Broken Hill. The local area dairy cooperative was established in 1891 to ensure a reliable local milk supply for the factory. During the big droughts around 1900 milk production declined and the factory became a chaff factory. The old milk factory operated as a chaff mill until 1924. But milk processing in Laura did not cease entirely as in 1923 Laura became the home of Golden North. In that year the Laura Ice Company was formed, primarily to supply the local and the Broken Hill trade and the regional city of Port Pirie with ice, milk and ice cream. From 1938 milk was pasteurised at the factory. The brand name Golden North was adopted in 1948. In 1961 the head office was moved from Laura to Clare and the company was taken over by Farmers Union in 1972 which was in turn taken over by National Foods in 1991. Then in 2001 a group of local investors bought the business back from the large companies and they have since expanded production, including the famous Golden North honey ice cream. You can buy Golden North ice cream from the shops in the main street. The company was awarded a state heritage icon award in 2006 and it is a major employer in the town. The old Laura Brewery operated from 1873 until it was purchased by the South Australian Brewing Company in 1893. They promptly closed it down in 1894 as they centralised all their operations in Adelaide by buying and closing country breweries. During World War Two Laura was declared one of four major flax growing areas and it had a flax mill. Ninety two farmers cultivated flax near Laura and almost two thousand acres were sown to flax during the period of the War time shortages. The flax was stored in the old Showgrounds stone Pavilion to the east of the town before it was milled. The flax mill closed in 1947 after opening in 1942. Like many agricultural towns Laura has several blacksmiths and agricultural implement makers such as Silby and Craig, Adamson Brothers and the foundry of Thomas Forsaith which later became Keipert foundry. Laura was also one of the few towns that had its own newspaper the Laura Standard. The Laura Standard was founded in 1888 and their building still remains named in the Main Street. C.J. Dennis had his first verses published in the newspaper in 1895. The Laura Standard was taken over by the Jamestown newspaper in 1942 and disappeared as an independent publication. It became part of the Northern Review newspaper.

 

Yankalilla.

The Bungala River valley was one of the first areas of South Australia surveyed by Surveyor General Colonel William Light after the area immediately surrounding the city of Adelaide. In fact on 18 May 1838, just over a year after the sale of Adelaide town lots, Light declared that 150,000 acres of land was ready for settlement, or almost so. They were: 69,000 acres around Adelaide; 27,000 acres at Rapid Bay; 5,400 acres at Yankalilla;

20,000 acres on Kangaroo Island; and 28,000 acres in the Onkaparinga Valley. The actual surveying of Yankalilla must have occurred a bit later around 1840 as settlement of Yankalilla did not being until 1842 with the arrival of Henry Kemmis, Septimane Herbert and George Worthington who all took up land and built houses. The farmers planted wheat and barley in the land they had cleared and by 1844 there were over 50 acres in wheat and several acres in potatoes. All three families built properties on the northern side of Bungala Creek. Worthington built near what was to become the Anglican Church and Kemmis built Manna Farm near the junction of the road to Victor Harbor and Hebert’s Bungala House became the first house south of Willunga.

 

The establishment of local government occurred in 1854 with the first council meeting taking place in the Normanville Hotel. The council chambers were soon erected in Yankalilla. By the late 1860s Yankalilla and Normanville had three flourmills, five stores, two breweries, four blacksmiths, three hotels and five churches! The breweries had to be local in those days as beer did not keep and could not be easily transported. It was the work of Louis Pasteur that led to beer being pasteurised. Once this happened the small town breweries all closed and beer production was centralised in Adelaide. In the early years of the 1850s and 1860s Yankalilla was one of the biggest and most important towns in the state apart from the mining centres of Kapunda, Burra, Kadina and Moonta.

 

Historically Yankalilla has several worthy buildings. One is the old school house at 48 Main Street which was built by the government in 1859. Several people operated this as a private school. The most famous of these was Sister Mary McKillop and the Sisters of St Joseph in 1867 who operated this as their first country school outside of Adelaide. It was conducted for 40 Catholic children. The first is the former Wesleyan Methodist Church which was built in 1879. (There was an early Bible Christian Methodist Church in Yankalilla too erected in 1856 but it was demolished decades ago). The other significant building is Christ Church Anglican Church which was opened by Bishop Short in 1857. In recent years it has become the shrine of “Our Lady of Yankalilla” based on markings on the wall which resemble the Virgin Mary cradling a crucified Christ. The local rector reported the “image” in 1994 and it has been a shrine for pilgrims since 1996. The nearby Anglican cemetery has graves dating from 1854.

 

Adnams Brewery founded in 1872 in Southwold, by George and Ernest Adnams. The company produces cask ale and pasteurised bottled beers. Annual production is around 85,000 barrels.

 

In 2010, the company established the Copper House distillery for the production of gin, vodka and whisky.

(approx. 1 litre of ice-cream)

 

4 egg yolks, pasteurised

125g cane sugar

½ l whipping cream

3 tsp. Raw Liquorice Powder

1 tsp. grated lemon rind (organic)

Optional - 2 dessert spoons Salty Liquorice Syrup or Sweet Liquorice Syrup

 

Whip the egg yolks and sugar until you have a light mixture. Then fold in the liquorice powder and grated lemon rind. Whip the cream until it is thick and fold into the egg yolk mixture. Pour the ice-cream mixture into a tub suitable for freezing or use an ice-cream machine. If you make the ice-cream in your freezer, it will need to be stirred 3-4 times during the first hour. You can add liquorice syrup when doing the final stir – for a nice striped effect and an even better taste! Expect freezing to take approx. 4 hours, depending on the freezer.

 

Danish:

 

Lakridsis

(ca. 1 liter is)

 

4 past. æggeblommer

125 g rørsukker

½ l fløde

3 tsk. Raw Liquorice Powder

1 tsk. revet økologisk citronskal

Evt. 2 spsk. Salty Liquorice Syrup el. Sweet Liquorice Syrup

 

Pisk æggeblommerne og rørsukker til en luftig masse. Vend herefter lakridspulver og revet citronskal i. Fløden piskes stiv og vendes også i æggeblommerne. Hæld isen op i en egnet frysebøtte eller benyt en ismaskine. Kommes isen i fryseren skal der røres 3-4 gange i løbet af den første time. Ved den sidste omrøring kan tilsættes lakridssirup, for en fin stribet effekt og en endnu bedre smagsoplevelse. Forvent at indfrysningen tager ca. 4 timer afhængigt af fryseren.

Yankalilla.

The actual settlement of Yankalilla occurred in 1842 with the arrival of Henry Kemmis, Septimane Herbert and George Worthington who all took up land and built houses. The farmers planted wheat and barley in the land they had cleared and by 1844 there were over 50 acres in wheat and several acres in potatoes. All three families built properties on the northern side of Bungala Creek. Worthington built near what was to become the Anglican Church and Kemmis built Manna Farm near the junction of the road to Victor Harbor and Hebert’s Bungala House, became the first house south of Willunga.

 

The establishment of local government occurred in 1854 with the first council meeting taking place in the Normanville Hotel. The council chambers were soon erected in Yankalilla. By the late 1860s Yankalilla and Normanville had three flour mills, five stores, two breweries, four blacksmiths, three hotels and five churches! The breweries had to be local in those days as beer did not keep and could not be easily transported. It was the work of Louis Pasteur that led to beer being pasteurised. Once this happened the small town breweries all closed and beer production was centralised in Adelaide. In the early years of the 1850s and 1860s Yankalilla was one of the biggest and most important towns in the state apart from the mining centres of Kapunda, Burra, Kadina and Moonta.

 

Historically Yankalilla has several worthy buildings. One is the old school house at 48 Main Street which was built by the government in 1859. Several people operated this as a private school. The most famous of these was Sister Mary McKillop and the Sisters of St Joseph in 1867 who operated this as their first country school outside of Adelaide. It was conducted for 40 Catholic children. The other significant building is Christ Church Anglican Church which was opened by Bishop Short in 1857. In recent years it has become the shrine of “Our Lady of Yankalilla” based on markings on the wall which resemble the Virgin Mary cradling a crucified Christ. The local rector reported the “image” in 1994 and it has been a shrine for pilgrims since 1996. The nearby Anglican cemetery has graves dating from 1854.

 

A bottle of Keller-Bier 1402 from Störtebeker Braumanufaktur in Stralsund, Germany, at Zum Alten Fritz in Rostock.

 

Störtebeker Keller-Bier 1402 is a 4.8% abv kellerbier brewed with pilsner malt and hopped with Select, Opal and Hallertauer Tradition. Kellerbier, also known as zwickelbier or zoigl, is a type of German beer which is not filtered or pasteurised.

 

It poured a hazy orange color with a beige head. It sported a rich aroma with notes of farmyard, hay and grass, and citrus - a bit lambic like(!) It had a light mouthfeel with soft carbonation. Flavor started out fruity, with a mild citrus character and some grassy hop notes. It finished with a mild bitternes, but had a long floral aftertaste. This is a surprisingly rich and tasty kellerbier, no wonder it took Gold at the 2010 World Beer Cup.

 

[blog entry]

The InBev brewery sits on a 57 acre site next to the M4 motorway in south east Wales, at Magor. It is a triumph of mass production with just a few hundred employees operating a vast plant which churns out millions of bottles, cans and kegs of beer every week. One of the managers referred to it, unromantically but accurately, as a beer factory.

 

With the decline of the pub trade and the growing dominance of supermarkets as purchasers, economic production is paramount. In the old days, the manufacturer set the unit price; now the supermarkets say what they will pay and they squeeze every drop (pardon the pun). Pricing of various multipacks below the ten pound mark is, for example, the reason why there are several similar bottle volumes for Stella Artois (250ml, 275ml etc.). Such packs are seen rolling off the production line in this image. Stella Artois has suffered from supermarket loss-leader downpricing, destroying its once quality image. It is now regarded as the chav's weapon of choice, being nicknamed 'wife beater'.

 

Beer is fermented to around 7% alcohol by volume on site and liquored (watered) down to various strengths. UK Stella Artois is weaker than the European variety because the British habit is to pour gallons down our throats instead of savouring a single glass.

 

To be honest, the whole thing is rather depressing with the mass production of lager beer for thoughtless mass consumption.

 

The plant also produces draughtflow beers, such as the cans of Boddingtons seen entering the pasteurisation unit in one picture. (It must be me, but Boddingtons seems to be flavoured more by the can it comes in than anything.)

 

InBev is a US-Brazilian-UK operation. Competition has made such mergers inevitable. The Magor brewery is now gearing up to produce Budweiser but are having difficulty with getting the flavour right as Budweiser has so little to start with compared to European beers. It is referred to as a 'light' beer and it remains to be seen if the European palate takes to it.

The Cannon brewery continued until April 1999 when it closed with the loss of around 60 jobs. The beers that it had produced were Stones Bitter, Light Mild and Mild, and Bass Special, Bass Light and Bass Mild. The brand continues however; the pasteurised beer is brewed by brand owners Molson Coors at their Burton upon Trent brewery

Oakbank - a town of two breweries and the Johnston brothers.

James Johnston and his brother William Johnston migrated from Glasgow to the Woodside area in 1839 obtaining some land in 1840 which they called Oakbank. By 1844 they had sown 50 acres in wheat, 12 acres in barley and four acres in potatoes. James and William started a brewery in 1843 as there was a good local supply of water- the Onkaparinga River. In 1853 the brewery took in brother Andrew in partnership when William died. They manufactured cordials and aerated waters as well as beer and they later joined the Lion brewery in Adelaide and they founded another brewery of their own in Broken Hill. The Oakbank brewery reached its peak in the 1890s for beer production before the pasteurisation of beer became common and most country breweries closed as production was concentrated in Adelaide. Their hops came from Lobethal, Woodside and Tasmania for their beer. They supplied the annual race meeting at Oakbank as the racing club had been formed in 1874. James died in 1891 and Andrew Johnston died in 1886. It was their sons who formed a company in 1901 and expanded the number of Johnston owned hotels from Woodside (1850) to over 20. They stopped producing beer in 1914 but their factory still produces aerated waters (soft drinks). The Johnston family company still owns 19 SA hotels from Milang to Mt Pleasant, Callington, Mannum and more. Since 2002 they have started producing their own wine. They are thought to be the longest surviving SA family company. There was a rival brewer in Oakbank from 1885 when Henry Pike established a second brewery in town. He too purchased a chain of hotels before ceasing to produce beer from 1938 when the Pike brewery too concentrated on cordials and aerated drinks. The Pikes factory finally closed in 1973.

 

But it was the Johnstons who planned and developed a town at Oakbank in 1860 when they subdivided some of their land. They almost saw it as their company town with their buildings and brewery and their grand homes. Oakbank House (James Johnston) is near the racecourse and near the brewery. It was built around 1865 as a grand two storey house with wrought iron balconies and lace work, blue stone, bay window and all in the Italianate style. The fine proportions of the house were set off with a long driveway lined with gum trees. The lace wrought iron work for this house was imported from a Glasgow foundry! The Johnstons were not short of money by this time! Brewing was a profitable industry. The original house that Andrew built was further away from the Onkaparinga River in Pike Street called Dalintober, built around 1855. Unfortunately there is not much visible of this grand house from the street. It was James Johnston who subdivided some of his land to form the town of Woodside in 1850. The early Oakbank races were held on Andrew Johnston’s land and he was a founding club member in 1874. Heinrich Von Doussa was the first secretary of the Oakbank races, a position he held for almost 50 years.

 

Source:

just-be-beurre.fr/blog/index.php?m=11&y=12&entry=...

Anciens Etablissements H. CLAUDEL

PONT-HÉBERT (Manche)

Pont-Hébert, maison principale, près de Saint-Lô, qui possède une importante installation moderne pour la fabrication, le travail, l'expédition des beurres extra-fins en mottes, paquetage, boîtes métalliques ; pour la préparation et d'expédition des crèmes fraîches ou pasteurisées, homogénéisées, en boîtes de toutes contenances ; pour la fabrication d'un camembert de première qualité dont les marques sont très appréciées.

source, page 39 de:

www.normannia.info/cgi-bin/aurweb.exe/normannia/rechpdoc?...

Biographie d'Henri Claudel:

www.wikimanche.fr/Henri_Claudel

The Three Legged Mare opened in 2001 on High Petergate, it is the major pub for pre and post-theatre drinks. It has nine real ales and large Belgian beer fridge. It offers a discreet beer garden with a scale version of the Three Legged Mare, a three person gallows!

 

In a bustling city filled to the brim with traditional real ale pubs, York Brewery's The Three Legged Mare is the most refreshing of finds!

 

This pub's wooden floors and light, airy décor means there's not a horse brass in sight, yet our pub maintains an historical feel and takes its name from a traditional three man hanging device, a replica of which can be seen in our garden.

 

You will always find a warm welcome here at 'The Wonkey Donkey' from our team of friendly staff. Everybody here knows about beer and we are more than happy to help you find a pint suitable to your palate. Our cask beer is of exceptional quality, with 9 real ales on offer at any one time. Choose from York Brewery's range of excellent bitters, including our pub's exclusive brew, Wonkey Donkey, or the award winning dark and malty Centurion's Ghost Ale. We also serve quality guest ales from independent breweries around the country and offer the discerning drinker a wide choice of Belgian beer and Czech lager; including un-pasteurised dark and light Bernard served in its distinctive glass.

 

Sunday evenings from 9pm we have live acoustic blues guitar with Dave Smith playing every week. It's a relaxed way to end your weekend, and a last chance for a few more beers before Monday morning creeps up on you!

 

We serve tasty light lunches 12-3pm and our brand new evening menu is served from 5 to 9pm every day. We are open for drinks until midnight on Friday and Saturday nights, and our 'no piped music, no under 18s and no fruit machines' policy means that you can enjoy your beer and that you can enjoy your beer and the company of your friends without any disturbances.

 

www.visityork.org/eating/York-The-Three-Legged-Mare/detai...

L'Amuse Signature Gouda is a Dutch cheese made from pasteurised cow's milk, at the Cono cheesemaking, Northern Holland and it is considered as the best of all goudas. The wheels of this cheese are hand-selected and sent for further maturation at L'Amuse cheese shop, where the wheels are matured for 2 years at warm temperatures. This allows cheese to develop deep amber paste with protein crystals, fully rounded flavour. This hard cheese with velvety texture and nutty, buttery, salty flavour with the hints of caramel and hazelnuts.

 

Gouda Cheese

A mild, yellow cheese made from cow's milk. It is one of the most popular cheeses worldwide. The first mention of Gouda cheese dates from 1184, making it one of the oldest recorded cheeses in the world still made today. The cheese is named after the Dutch city of Gouda, because it has historically been traded there.

 

Borough Market is a wholesale and retail food market in Southwark, London. As London’s oldest food market, it has been serving the people of Southwark for 1,000 years. Its precise start date is impossible to pin down: the best date available, and the one used as the basis for the Market’s millennium celebration, is 1014.

The ground floor of this building housed the bottling department which had its own cellars with draught beer being pumped up to be filtered, bottled and pasteurised before being barrowed out onto the loading stage to be delivered the next day. At three o`clock each afternoon this area was a hive of activity as the fleet of drays was loaded.

Yankalilla.

The actual settlement of Yankalilla occurred in 1842 with the arrival of Henry Kemmis, Septimane Herbert and George Worthington who all took up land and built houses. The farmers planted wheat and barley in the land they had cleared and by 1844 there were over 50 acres in wheat and several acres in potatoes. All three families built properties on the northern side of Bungala Creek. Worthington built near what was to become the Anglican Church and Kemmis built Manna Farm near the junction of the road to Victor Harbor and Hebert’s Bungala House, became the first house south of Willunga.

 

The establishment of local government occurred in 1854 with the first council meeting taking place in the Normanville Hotel. The council chambers were soon erected in Yankalilla. By the late 1860s Yankalilla and Normanville had three flour mills, five stores, two breweries, four blacksmiths, three hotels and five churches! The breweries had to be local in those days as beer did not keep and could not be easily transported. It was the work of Louis Pasteur that led to beer being pasteurised. Once this happened the small town breweries all closed and beer production was centralised in Adelaide. In the early years of the 1850s and 1860s Yankalilla was one of the biggest and most important towns in the state apart from the mining centres of Kapunda, Burra, Kadina and Moonta.

 

Historically Yankalilla has several worthy buildings. One is the old school house at 48 Main Street which was built by the government in 1859. Several people operated this as a private school. The most famous of these was Sister Mary McKillop and the Sisters of St Joseph in 1867 who operated this as their first country school outside of Adelaide. It was conducted for 40 Catholic children. The other significant building is Christ Church Anglican Church which was opened by Bishop Short in 1857. In recent years it has become the shrine of “Our Lady of Yankalilla” based on markings on the wall which resemble the Virgin Mary cradling a crucified Christ. The local rector reported the “image” in 1994 and it has been a shrine for pilgrims since 1996. The nearby Anglican cemetery has graves dating from 1854.