The Leigh History Group has been out and about in the parish every Wednesday since last November (2006) and I think most people know about us. Generally we get called 'The History Mob'!

 

What we are trying to do is a landscape archaeology study - what can be seen of historical interest and why it is like it is. Most of the summer we've been looking at the houses and talking to residents. We are building up a picture of what the village looked like at various times in the past, what went on there and who lived there. 

 

Once the fields are cleared of crops we hope to get into them and 'field walk' to pick up artefacts from the surface. This tells us what industries or what buildings were there long before anyone wrote anything down.

The book we did on Stoke St Michael was researched this way and is selling very well. We hope to get a similar book out for Leigh on Mendip in a couple of years.

 

The group is doing other historical things which help us all understand what we're seeing in Leigh. We've just been to a  farmhouse near Galhampton, built in 1435 (and much as it was then) to see  its Tudor wall paintings. We shall be going to Radstock Museum, the air photo dept at Swindon, Somerset record Office and to a conference in Bath for local history groups, vernacular architecture groups etc. If anyone wants to join us on Wednesdays they are very welcome.