Bridgwater | town

Comments

• 
  Rexie

  A once-thriving market town. It has a good medieval parish church with a spire - unusual in Somerset. There is an an attractive Georgian-style 19th century market hall. Originally there was a castle and this was replaced with streets of solid Georgian houses. Local industry was dominated by brick and tile manufacture and the position of the town on the tidal River Parrett meant that the docks contributed to the local economy. Bridgwater used to have two rail stations, the first on the Broad Gauge Bristol and Exeter Railway, connected with the Great Western from London. The other, now long lost, was on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway and was on a branch line off another branch line. They gave up providing services long before the era of the Beeching cuts as nobody wanted to go to Bridgwater. In the 20th century, the Royal Ordnance works at Puriton produced explosives and British Cellophane until recently polluted the town every day with a smell of rotten cabbage and bad eggs. Since the arrival of the M5, nondescript commuter housing has flourished but the town centre retains a unique atmosphere, particularly after dark on Fridays and Saturdays when it is really best avoided. For more accurate details on social composition, see message from Tom above.

  18 years ago | reply | hide comment

• 
  WikiMapper

  Don't write about how bad towns are if you've never been there or lived there.

  17 years ago | reply | hide comment
• 
  WikiMapper

  The spelling looks weird: shouldn't it be Bridgewater, not Bridgwater (which suggests it should be pronounced 'Brid-gwater').

  17 years ago | reply | hide comment
• 
  Rexie

  I have spent enough time there to know how it smells and how to spell it.

  17 years ago | reply | hide comment
• 
  WikiMapper

  Carry on then

  17 years ago | reply | hide comment
• 
  Roma (guest)

  я працював на клубніці у Бріджвокері на фермі грін-гроверс. місто мені сподобалось місто і люди там хороші яб хотів там проживати. Рома

  16 years ago | reply | hide comment

• Show all comments