THE Somerset Industrial Archaeological Society has released its autumn 2025 programme.

Geoff Roughton, on behalf of the society said: “Somerset is widely recognised to be a rural county with beautiful countryside and scenery, so many are surprised to find that our county also has a rich industrial and social history.

“There are therefore always new locations for SIAS members to explore during their programmes of summer visits, and as usual this year a wide range of historic locations were visited.

“From ancient archaeology at the Avalon Marshes Centre, the programme included a working lace factory in Chard, rambles around Wiveliscombe and Merriott, Holnicote Estate at Selworthy, and concluded with historic coal-mining and railway sites near Bristol.”

Attention among members has now switched to the autumn series of talks.

SIAS holds live meetings at Silver Street Baptist Church Hall in Taunton, alternating with online meetings via ‘Zoom’ for people and speakers from further afield.

On Monday, October 6, at Silver Street members will hear about Somerset’s vitally important and pioneering long-range radio stations.

Two weeks later on October 20 a speaker from New York (a first for SIAS) in an online talk on ‘Zoom’, will describe the Victorian ‘internet’. Undersea cables were first laid in 1850 and eventually stretched across the world, reducing message time from months to minutes, and arguably introducing more revolutionary changes than the world wide web.

Geoff added: “While we focus mainly on the industrial and social history of Somerset, our areas of interest can be much wider, as you can see from the topics covered.”

Meetings then continue fortnightly until December 15.

All meetings commence at 7.30pm, all are welcome, and there is a small admission charge for non-members.

For details of the full programme of talks, SIAS activities and publications, visit www.sias.me.uk