History Heroes

Have you ever wondered what our area was like in the past?
If you live in a new house what was on that site 100 years ago, or even 150 years ago?

Over the coming weeks we will help you to discover things about Crewkerne that you couldn’t have imagined. We will introduce you to some “History Heroes”. Not just people, but events, places and objects that have made our town what it is today.

So, let’s get started!

The first thing for you to do is to go to this website www.kypwest.org.uk or put in a search for “Know your place Somerset”. Search for Crewkerne, Somerset. Now you will need to spend a little time getting to know this site. It will show you a set of maps, some dating back to 1840, others in the later 1800s which are the ones that we will be looking at. We suggest you take the 2017 as the Basemap and click on 1844 – 1888 OS map as a comparison.

You may need to play around with using this site until you get the idea as to how it works. Once you have a basemap and a comparison you can scroll across to discover the changes that have taken place over the years.

Here are some things to do, just 4 questions but we think they will give you lots to think about!

    1. Find where you live in Crewkerne on the 2017 map. Now scroll across the discover what was there on the older map
    2. Now look at the street names. Are they the same as today? Why were they called those different names?
    3. Now zoom out. What do you notice about the town that is different to how it is today?
    4. Where were these buildings on the 1800s map? – the Police Station, the Hospital, the Grammar School and the Cricket Ground?

Why not make some notes to record your answers. We will be going back to some of these places in the weeks to come. We’ll let you know why they were on those sites and why they have moved to somewhere else in town

Please contact us with your comments.

History Heroes – Our Home Town – YouTube Network Premier

Friday 8th May 2020 at 7:30 pm.

We have something to cheer you up and look forward to.  See the poster with details of the Premiere of “Our Home Town” to be  launched on YouTube on Friday 8 May at 7.30pm.  Join us to see what the young people of Crewkerne thought about their town in 2005.

Heritage Lottery funding provided the opportunity for Ben Hartshorn and the museum volunteers to work with young people helping them to film their ideas and interviews about their local heritage and culture.  Ben has posted the results on YouTube Crewkerne Museum channel and we invite you to join us with a bag of popcorn to enjoy these reminiscences.

Please share this with your friends and family and let us know what you think.  Maybe a new project of collecting ideas is in the making!

email crewkernemuseum@hotmail.co.uk