We need your help. These are questions our research has raised but not yet answered. If you know anything, however small, or have a photograph, please tell us using the form at the bottom of this page. Every answer we get goes into the village history.
Places
- The school house at the bottom of Church Street. Local memory says it was a school house. Lady Jersey ran a girls' school and an infants' school in Somerton from 1815 until they joined Fermor's school in the 1860s. Did either meet here? Who Lived Here
- "Holloway". In 1910 Thomas Moore's house was at "Hollow Way", and a former villager remembers living as a child in a house called Holloway. Where was it?
- Adam's Cottages. Who were they named after?
- The forge. The Plumbs were Somerton's blacksmiths for three generations. Where did the forge stand? Economic Life
- The reading room and the bowling green recorded in 1910. Does anyone remember them? The Village
- The wharf and the paper yard. By the early 1990s the old wharf by the canal bridge was used to collect and bale waste paper for recycling, before three houses were built there around 1998. Who ran the business, and when did it start and stop? Photographs of the wharf buildings before they were demolished would be especially welcome. Lost Somerton
People
- The Eagles. Harry Eagle kept the Railway Inn in 1939, and "Mr Eagle" owned cottages in the village. Who were the Eagle family? The Railway
- Who kept the Railway Inn after 1939, and when did it close?
- The Rev. F. W. Moyle, rector from 1957. When exactly did he die, and how? The Good, the Bad & the Absent
- James Wilmer, "clerk of Somerton", who died in 1641. Was he a clergyman or the parish clerk?
- Who signed the 1837 petition from the inhabitants of Somerton to the House of Lords? The Village
Clubs and groups
- The 2017 village pamphlet. At the community party in St James's on 19 November 2017, a pamphlet listing the village's businesses, organisations and social groups was given to everyone there (Valley News, December 2017, p.16). We have not seen a copy. Does anyone still have one?
- The Social Club. When was it founded, and who chaired it before 2020? Do you have photographs of the old hatch and the earlier bars, AGM minutes or committee lists, or posters and programmes? The Social Club
- The Somerton Hour. Programmes, posters, dates and photographs of the talks, and the names of other speakers. The Somerton Hour
- SWIG. When did the Somerton Women's Independent Group begin, and who started it? SWIG
- The old village hall. A photograph of the 1924 hall, before it was replaced in 2009 and 2010. Lost Somerton
- The stone bagpiper. A carving found by the church in 2015 was "taken to a safer place". Where is it now? Gargoyles & Grotesques
Events and pictures
- The 1896 school photograph, once in the hands of Mrs V. Millar in Australia. Does anyone have a copy? The School
- The Anchor butter advert with the cows playing football, said to have been filmed with the Jersey Manor Farm herd. When was it made? People & Families
- The 1928 Oxford University point-to-point. Which fields did the course use?
- The Millennium. Photographs of the village in 2000, and of the Millennium play. Somerton at the Millennium
- May Day, the gargoyles and Mahala Blaby. Pages in preparation: memories and photographs especially welcome.