Wellington walk that’s personal as well as historical

HISTORICAL walks of Wellington are attracting the crowds, so much so that extra dates have been added through the Autumn to keep up with demand.

As well as tours by the Town Crier Andrew Norris, quality control manager for Fox Brothers, Talitha Clarke has stepped up to host two-hour walks around the town in association with Wellington Museum.

The first two unexpectedly sold out within two days with more planned for October 18 and November 1.

Talitha, who has worked at Fox Brothers for ten years explained: “It just happened that the town crier and I, even though we didn’t know each other and had never met, have decided that Wellington needed a little bit of local history.

“We’ve both independently come along and tapped into something that people are very interested in.

"I've got a friend from work - her parents want to come across from Devon to come on one of my walks. The reach is quite far and wide.”

She spends her days surrounded by the history of the Mill; the old machinery, some of it more than 100 years old, and the graffiti on the tables left by former workers, as well as talking to local people who used to work on the site when it belonged to the Fox family.

The walks, exploring the industrial history of the town, came about quite by chance, she explains. When Fox Brothers were approached by Beech Grove School for some objects so they could talk to the pupils about the history of the family, she jumped at the opportunity.

“The enquiry got put through to me because I love all of that stuff, and I said I can do better than that - I can come up and give you a talk with some pictures and slides and things and bring objects to hold and touch.”

The talk went down a storm - by the end of it, the pupils were so enthused. She said: “All the photographs I was showing them were places around Wellington, places they walked past, even some of the streets that their relatives or they live on.

“And they couldn't believe that they had this wonderful heritage.”

That encounter and some chance comments got Talitha thinking.

“When I was giving these talks at the primary school and the history society, people would say, ‘oh, you should do a walk’.

“I thought, well yes, I should do, because it's all right seeing these photographs but these places exist. They're here and they're beautiful to look at.”

The English Heritage Open Week offered her the perfect opportunity to trial a walk for free - they now cost £10 for the two hours with proceeds shared 50/50 with the Wellington Museum.

Each walk comprises a group of 16 people maximum and takes the shape of a gentle stroll taking in the landmarks starting at the Coop car park, out to South Street and the first Mill, the starting place of Fox Brothers owned by Thomas Fox’s grandfather. The route continues to Coram’s Lane and Springfield Road where many Mill workers lived, Talitha explains.

The importance of the railway and its vital link in terms of shipping and trade of goods are discussed as they continue to walk before they reach the ultimate goal: the Tonedale Mill site itself.

“We stand in the middle where the original buildings were and we talk about the buildings, the counting house and what that would have been like.”

She adds: “A lot of the people that come have information and they have relatives that worked there or they know stories about the Mill and they all want to tell me about it, and I'm really happy to listen because I'm gathering all this information, I'm doing all this research…

“And I don't know what I might do with it and whether I do write a book, but I think it’s important to keep these stories and keep it alive because the mill is crumbling.

“I think people have become blind to it and it's such a shame because it's such an important building and held such a lot of importance in this town.

"The Mill was a pioneer during the Industrial Revolution when places up north weren’t.”

Tonedale Mill dates from around 1750 and was part of the Fox family woollen mill business and once the largest cloth manufacturing operation in the UK.

£20m of government Levelling Up Funding was secured for the regeneration of the Tonedale Mill and Toneworks in 2023 but with the chances of bringing the Mill site back to life diminishing, Somerset Council is looking to divert the Wellington funds elsewhere in the county.

Talitha is adamant something needs to happen to protect the site before it is too late, and hopes the walks will be a way of re-igniting that conversation.

“If the Mill and that whole site was up North somewhere, it would not be looking like it is now. It would have money thrown at it. It would be a beautiful gallery space. It would be beautiful flats. It would be a shopping outlet village.

“And wouldn’t it be lovely if the museum could have some space there.”

For the moment though, Talitha takes heart from her walks and sharing all her knowledge and revisiting the history she knows so well.

“I love the start because I like going back in time - the old mill warehouse buildings, the old offices. I like talking about the people that were living in the houses on Springfield Road. Those people had names.

"I know how old they were when they started at the Mill. I know what they did. And I like that because I like to think of them being remembered,” she added.

“The Fox family were very generous with what they did here in the town, but they couldn't have done it without the people of Wellington and the villages around.

“It's heartening to know that people are interested in what's been going on in Wellington hundreds of years ago,” she added.