IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Mill Street, WINCANTON, BA9 9AL

A small section of town used to be the focal point on market days. The town used to be based on woollen goods and used to have several mills on the Cale. A boxed feature would suggest it is a water pump, along with a trough. Beyond is the town hall.

Grade II listed. Listing number 1238739. Pair shops with houses over. Probably C18. Ashlar facade, rubble to sides; plain clay tile roof with simple gables; ashlar chimney stacks with moulded caps. 3 storeys, 3 bays. Plinth, rusticated quoins, eaves cornice; two later C20 shopfronts to ground floor; first floor has pairs 12-pane sash windows with architraved surrounds, plain mullions and keystones to outer bays, with a matching Venetian window to bay 2; above are 9-pane sash windows in architraves, doubled in the outer bays. The return to North Street (East side) of mixed character, with plain gable end, then an extension with random windows of C18 and C19. Interior not seen. Facade in the style of Nathaniel lreson. Good condition suggests an early C20 restoration.

The school was eventually founded in 1838, and carried on for several years before the restructuring of education in the late 1800s. It is nowadays closed, haveing been subsequently used for storage and other menial purposes. It did have an additional role though, when The Lodge of Science (a freemason group) used it for meetings from 1869.

In a town centre where many buildings and premises are vacant and in need of some care this bright building opposite the town hall stands out.

The Greyhound Hotel was a coaching inn - perhaps the most important in Wincanton - and its arched entrance leads to what used to be the stables.

A cutmark remains on the old town hall. See https://www.bench-marks.org.uk/bm48210 for the entry in the Benchmark Database and Image] for a wider view.

Wincanton's civic meeting house has a troubled history. The first version was destroyed by a ramapaging crowd in 1767, replaced in 1769, but that was burned to the ground by a fire in 1877. The third iteration was designed by W. J. Willcox of Bath in 1878 and is now Grade II listed. A benchmark remains on the corner - see Image

The town hall is the last of the various versions that have existed, but is now used for non-civic purposes. The previous version was lost to a fire - presumably not caused by its neighbour!

The last stage coach from London stopped here in 1901