Carhampton Parish Heritage Centre
The Heritage Centre will open for the 2026 season with two talks as detailed below. During the following months the programme will be updated as details for other events are confirmed. The Heritage Centre is open every Thursday afternoon from 2.00-3.30pm whilst the Pop-Up cafe is open and on Saturday mornings to coincide with the bookstore from 10.30am - 12 noon. Visitors are welcome at other times by appointment.
Heritage Events Diary
Saturday 21st March - Roadwater Mineral Line
Phil Gammon will give talk on the Roadwater mineral line. In the fields and woods of the Brendon Hills are the remains of over 80 mine shafts. The iron ore was mined and shipped to South Wales and between 1857 to 1864 a railway was built to transport the iron ore down to Watchet Harbour. The talk will start at 2pm in the Long hall at the Carhampton Recreation Centre, and will be followed by afternoon tea, the entry cost is £5 - pay on the door. Notice of groups over 6 people would be appreciated.
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Saturday 9th May Life and Work of Rachel Reckitt
Rachel Reckitt was an artist, who during her long career worked as a sculpter, blacksmith and wood engraver. In the locality examples of her work on the pub signs of The Butchers Arms Carhampton, The Valient Soldier Roadwater, The White Horse Washford and The Blackbird West Buckland. The talk will follow the format of talk and tea starting at 2pm at the Carhampton Rec Centre.
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St. Carantoc with the Serpent
Our History
2019 was a significant year for the Heritage Centre with the official opening at the end of April, following on from this the Centre opened on Tuesday afternoon to receive visitors. Tuesday openings have brought between 5 and 20 visitors to the Centre each week and the feedback has been extremely positive; many have remarked that they had no idea what a fascinating history we have in the village of Carhampton.
The permanent Timeline displayed in the Heritage Centre is a source of continuing interest. During the year three exhitions were mounted covering the Armistice Centenary, Stories from the Parish and another on Apples, Orchards and Cider. Apple Day was a great success with over 100 people visiting the Heritage Centre.
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2022 after Covid and the various lockdowns the heritage centre opened up again and staged two more exhibitions, the first on the Dark Ages and the Pottery Finds and the second on Childhood in the Parish. Several talks associated with the exhibitions were also held as well as a "Carhampton Lifers Tea" focusing on people who have lived all their life in the village. Much information was collected from this event which will be invaluble for future exhibitions.
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2023 Three successful exhibitions were staged during the year, Farming Past & Present (April-June), Blue Anchor Through the Ages (July- Oct) which included items on the railway and tourism, and finaly Christmas Traditions (Nov-Dec). The format of a Talk & Tea ran alongside the exhibitions, complimenting and adding further information to the various topics. During October, a village walk was undertaken concentrating on the east side of the village, the walk was abley led by Herbert and Alan Vickery,; their local knowledge was invaluable and made for a very enjoyable afternoon.
2024 A second walk took place, but this time studying the west side of the village and again, was followed by refreshments at the Rec. During the year, many finds were loaned to the Heritage Centre by a local metal dectectorist, these items were found at various sites in and around the village.
In view of the amount of time and research required to stage our exhibitions, the decision was taken to have a semi-permanent exhibition on view at the HC. This exhibition was adjusted and tweaked as neccessary to accommodate current and popular topics. During the autumn a visit to Briddicott Farm took place, looking at the house and its history through the ages.
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2025 Several Talk and Tea events were held starting off the programme with The History of Dunster Castle, a celebration of Somerset Day was held promoting the county and a display remembering the 80th anniversary of VE Day (Victory in Europe).