IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Rackvernal Road, RADSTOCK, BA3 2XX

Scaffolding surrounds some houses along the High Street.

My kids enjoyed their swim in the pool which is in a convenient town centre location.

The river flows along the centre of High Street. Would have been in a dreadful state in the good old days. Image] shows the scene a little further along.

A small takeaway in Midsomer Norton; perhaps Mr Chan may have some other business interests in case the film work dries up? Surely not.

There has been a Methodist church on this site since 1775. It served until 1859 when it was replaced by the present building. John Wesley himself visited the town (at the time known as Midsummer Norton) but was less than impressed by the poor state of the roads. Indeed, he wrote in his journal "It is so called, I suppose, because formerly it was accessible at no other time of the year!" The Methodist Centre is to the left of shot.

Midsomer Norton's distinctive High Street with the River Somer appearing alongside. See Image] for the war memorial that forms a bridge over it.

An old cinema, it may well have been open in the days of the silent screen. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keeton, Ruby Keeler, they may have been here. According to the Reader's Digest Great Illustrated Dictionary a palladium is "A sacred object held to have the power to preserve a city or state possessing it." You can see why Midsomer Norton did not want to pull it down.

The Palladium in Midsomer Norton is now a sad and neglected sight. Originally the buildings here were part of the Welton Old Brewery Company, dating from the nineteenth century. One of the old vat houses was converted into The Empire Cinema - a 'cinéariety' house with stage, dressing rooms and raked auditorium in 1913, with other adjoining rooms being utilised for other diversions like billiards. The original owner, Sidney Milles, sold it to Albany Ward, who renamed it the Palladium Electric and also made a number of on-going alterations to provide film and stage entertainment in 1915. From then it changed hands a few times until Ken and Shirley Stone took over in 1981. Ken started as a projector rewind boy in 1944 and remained associated with the cinema. However, despite the efforts put in, the cinema slowly lost out to the more modern but distant multiplexes. The last film shown at the Palladium was, most appropriately, 'Cinema Paradiso', on 30th January, 1993. After its closure the Palladium was bought by Moonjuice nightclub owner Martin Sawyer, but unfortunately he died in a car crash in 2004. Since then its doors have remained closed and the old picture house left to gather dust. Some hope was raised by plans to convert it into a nightclub in 2007 but nothing has materialised yet. The Town Hall now shows films on an occasional basis. Some of the old cinema's historic double backrow seats were sold off and avidly sought by buyers - many of whom had happy memories and tales of a night at the flicks.