Have you ever driven past a chimney standing abandoned in a field and wondered what it was doing there? Here in the West Country we are well aware of our heritage of stately homes, manor houses and gardens, but far less aware of our industrial past. Behind that chimney may lie a fascinating story of a long forgotten activity, and that’s what Dr Peter Stanier brought to life with his illustrated talk about Somerset’s industrial heritage to the Langport & District History Society on 10 January. Dr Stanier is a well-known industrial archaeologist and author of Somerset in the age of steam (2003), on which his talk was based.

Coal mining was still taking place in north Somerset as recently as the 1970s, but the hills were alive with all sorts of other mines too in earlier times. There were iron mines in the Brendon Hills, lead mines in the Mendips and copper mines in the Quantocks. At Kilve there is still a brick-built oil retort from an experiment in extracting oil from the shale at the beach, and an information board to explain the process.

Many other industries have flourished and then declined in this part of the world. You can still see the chimneys of withy boilers in places along the Parrett. There were also long open barns known as rope walks where rope was made, now mostly disappeared.

Any gardener will tell you that you could make bricks from the clay around here, and Barham Brothers had a large works at Bridgwater until the 1960s, making bricks and tiles. They also made ‘bath bricks’ from a particularly fine stretch of silt from the River Parrett, which were used like soap for cleaning and scouring. Their building now houses the Somerset Brick and Tile Museum.

This is an exception, however. One of Peter Stanier’s main themes was the question, ‘what can you do with a redundant industrial building?’. Anyone going past the derelict Morlands factory on the outskirts of Glastonbury knows what a sad sight they can be. His photographs told the sorry tale of all too many abandoned relics of our industrial heritage for which no new use could be found. A few have been restored. Near Langport we are fortunate in having the Stembridge Tower Mill at High Ham, recently restored by the National Trust. The original buildings of Kelway’s Nurseries in Huish Episcopi now house a pub and office spaces. In Westonzoyland volunteers operate the original steam pumping engine, the centrepiece of their museum.

So next time you pass an abandoned chimney or a derelict factory, give some thought to its importance to our regional economic history.

The next Langport & District History Society talk will be on 7th February at 7.30 pm in Langport Library. David Elkington will be talking about Roman Somerset. All welcome. Talks are free to members; £2 per talk for visitors.