We have now been fortunate to have held two group visits to the Somerset Heritage Centre to learn more about the records and archives held, how to access them and had the privilege of incredible behind the scenes tours of the centre which were a treat indeed; from the impressive temperature controlled archives to rooms full of weird and wonderful artifacts connected to the history of Somerset. It would easy to spend days and days there!
Whilst we hope to run another visit towards the end of the year as there still seems lots of interest, there were some wonderful resources available online that we are sure many of you would enjoy in the meantime, whether you attended the visits or not. Be warned, it is possible to lose many hours when you start looking on these sites!
Know Your Place
maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/?edition=som
Know Your Place is a digital heritage mapping resource to help you to explore your local area online through historic maps, collections and linked information. It provides a place where users can add information about your local area, and it’s free to use. It’s possible to select an area on the map and then select which map you would like to compare and slide the screen back and forth to see what has changed.
Somerset Historic Environment Record
https://www.somersetheritage.org.uk
The Somerset HER is a record of the known historic environment in the modern administrative county of Somerset (excluding Exmoor National Park). There are currently 40,109 entries in the record. You can search by many different filters or just explore the map view if there is a specific area or feature you are interested in. The site also links to the National Heritage List records on the Historic England website.
We were fortunate to have two wonderful guided visits to Dead Woman’s Ditch with Dan Broadbent, Historic Heritage Officer from the Quantock Landscape Partnership scheme. The screenshots below are taken from the Somerset HER when searching for what information is available on this particular site.
All red numbers and areas on the map relate to records held when searching on the map view; there are plenty to explore. As you can see in the screenshot below, there are sometimes also images, in this case from an excavation of the site in 2001.
Quantock Views
https://www.quantockviews.uk/intro
If photographs and images are your thing then you will love the Quantock Views picture archive. It is a collection of digital images of photographs, paintings, or any graphic image, of the Quantock Hills and is managed (and owned) by the Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Service.
The Quantock Views project always welcomes new photographs and would welcome some more volunteers who would be happy to help manage the website (full training would be given). If you can help with photographs to add to the collection or would like to get involved then please contact them through the website.
The website allows you to search via the map or location and see any associated images.
