Shepton Mallet is a small rural town in Somerset, England, situated five miles to the east of Wells and just south of the Mendip hills. The town has a population of 8,440 (2002 estimate). The town contains the administrative headquarters of Mendip District Council.

1 Overview
2 History
3 Church
4 Prison
5 Events
6 Transport
7 Tesco
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Overview

Rich in history, the market cross in the town centre dates back to the 1500s.<ref>Market Cross. Images of England. Retrieved on 2006-10-25.</ref> It boasts England's oldest prison still in use. National treasures such as the Domesday Book were kept safe here in World War II. Archeologists uncovered a significant number of Roman artifacts in the early 1990s at a site adjacent to the nearby Fosse Way, including a Chi-Rho amulet, held to be among the earliest evidence of Christianity in England. In honour of this the town's underused 1970s entertainment complex, generally held to be a white elephant, was renamed The Amulet.

Shepton Mallet is home to Europe's largest cider plant. This produces Blackthorn Cider and Gaymer's Olde English cider, and Babycham.

On 27th April 2006 a plan was unveiled to transform the centre of Shepton Mallet with "The Amulet" becoming the centre of a new Shepton Mallet Performing Arts Academy and the centre of the town returned to a "more traditional form".

[edit] History

The town's first name derives from the Anglo-Saxon for sheep fold, pointing to the original source of the town's wealth. It was part of lands given to the Malet family by Henry I in 1100, making it one of the first double place names in the country.

Shepton Mallet was a site of one of the original gatherings of the Monmouth Rebellion, after Monmouth rallied troops there in 1685 after landing at Lyme Regis. Many rebels joined the cause, but Monmouth had to return to Shepton after failing to take Bath or Bristol. Following the Bloody Assizes, a number of rebels were hanged from the market cross.

The traditional wool and silk industries were joined by brewing in the 19th century. The Anglo-Bavarian Brewery,<ref>Anglo Trading Estate (former Brewery now wharehouses). Images of England. Retrieved on 2006-10-25.</ref> still a local landmark, was reputedly the first in England to brew lager. The town, home to Babycham, is still an important centre for cider production. In recent years there has been the addition of hi-tech services from companies such as the ISP UK Online. A factory that once made Clarks shoes and later Doc Martens boots has closed and the site is planned to be taken by the Tesco food retailer for a supermarket, not without local misgivings.

The town's weekly newspaper, part of the Mid-Somerset Series, is called the Shepton Mallet Journal.

[edit] Church

The parish church of Church of St Peter & St Paul dates from the 12th century and is a grade I listed building.<ref>Church of St Peter & St Paul. Images of England. Retrieved on 2006-10-25.</ref>

[edit] Prison

The prison was open as a civilian jail from 1610 to 1930. It was then closed until 1939, when it was reopened for American Military use. Some eighteen servicemen were hanged there under the provisions of the Visiting Forces Act (1942). The prison was returned to civilian use in 1966. The prison was well known to servicemen as 'the glass house.' It has held and still holds many notorious ciminals which remains open to this very day. The prison is a grade II* listed building.<ref>HM Prison and perimeter wall. Images of England. Retrieved on 2006-10-25.</ref>

[edit] Events

Two annual agricultural shows are held close to the town: the four-day Royal Bath and West Show near Evercreech, on a site that hosts many other events, and the one-day Mid-Somerset Show, on fields on the town's southern edge.

The Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music was held at Shepton Mallet in 1970.

The Glastonbury Festival, the largest music festival in Europe, is held in the village of Pilton, approximately 3 km (2 miles) from the town.

[edit] Transport

Shepton Mallet had railway stations on two lines, both now closed.

The first station, called Shepton Mallet (High Street) in British Railways days, was on the East Somerset Railway branch line from Witham and opened in 1859. The line was extended to Wells in 1862 and later connected to the Bristol and Exeter Railway branch line from Yatton to Wells via Cheddar. Through services between Yatton and Witham started in 1870. The line was absorbed into the Great Western Railway in the 1870s.

A second station, later called Shepton Mallet (Charlton Road), opened in 1874 with the building of the Bath extension of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. This station was some distance east of the centre of the town and was approached on a long viaduct, which still remains.

Both stations closed in the 1960s as part of the Beeching Axe. Shepton Mallet (High Street) closed with the withdrawal of passenger services on the Yatton to Witham line in 1963, though part of the former East Somerset line remains open for freight and as a heritage railway. Shepton Mallet (Charlton Road) closed in 1966 with the closure of the Somerset and Dorset line.

[edit] Tesco

Shepton Mallet became home to a group of roughly 30 protestors in February of 2006, as they fought a planning decision by the town council to allow construction of a Tesco's store nearer the town centre to replace the out-of-town Tesco supermarket. The development, on a brownfield site that previously housed a shoe factory and plastics factory, required the felling of an avenue of mature trees, present since the 19th Century. (cf the very similar controversy in Stroud some years earlier). After the group were evicted by bailiffs following a court order, a second group established themselves just outside the planned development, to help protect a second avenue of trees, seemingly not scheduled for destruction but ultimately reduced in number by about 75% after the second group's eventual eviction.

It was widely believed that very few of the protestors were local to the area, many coming from as far afield as Brighton and Nottingham. Some observers felt that they had completely missed the point that the full planning process had been gone through for two or more years prior to the granting of planning permission. Many of the townsfolk were quoted as being dismayed and disgusted by the protests - especially those that had given up their free time during the planning process to attend meetings and thrash out changes to the original plans, though the group had some supporters from the local community. The counter-argument was that many of the trees being "protected" by this protest were scrubby Norfolk Pines that were (and had been in the past) in danger of falling in high winds. Tesco argued that the total number of trees being removed was around 180, many of which were in urgent need of maintenance, and that 210 new trees would be planted to replace them, an argument that ultimately won the Council's support.