The society is a group of Westbury-sub-Mendip  residents who share an interest in the history, architecture, archaeology and natural history of the parish and the immediate surrounding area. We run a monthly series of lectures in the village hall, arrange visits and walks and carry out archaeological and wildlife surveys.

Our current projects include village-wide butterfly, owl, glow-worm and bat surveys.  There’s also a group studying the archaeology of the parish and the Council for British Archaeology recently awarded us a highly commended certificate for our work on a Bronze Age platform cairn near Deer Leap.

Membership is free and open to  all.

Please note: for general enquiries concerning Churchyard matters, regulations or records held in the Church please contact the Churchwardens: Mr Les Moore 01749 870817 or Mrs Linda Mogford 01749 870817 or Rev. Paula Hollingsworth 01749 870239. There may be a charge for searches and a Faculty (licence) may be required from the Diocesan Office in Wells.

The Westbury Society has completed a study of all the memorials in the village church of St. Lawrence and its churchyard in order to record full details of them before the older ones suffer further decay and more of them become illegible.  In addition, the Society has also compiled an index of all the burials recorded in Westbury-sub-Mendip. The results of both studies can be accessed and downloaded from this website.

The study of the memorials in the churchyard and church is documented in three separate Excel files as follows:

Memorial Index: a list that shows one line per memorial giving the basic information on each of around 345 memorials.

Memorial Datasheets: each memorial is described in more detail including the full text of all legible inscriptions; the information for each memorial is set up as a separate page suitable for printing on a single A4 sheet in landscape orientation.

Individual Datasheets: the memorials mention around 680 individuals and the details of each of them are set out on separate pages, again suitable for printing on A4 sheets in landscape orientation. In the longer term it is planned to add more information to these records from sources such as census data to include details of known family relationships, employment, places of birth etc in order to make the data more useful.

Burial Plots: the data for memorials and individuals contain cross-references to the layout of burial plots in the churchyard. Two separate layouts showing the burial plots have been drawn up, one in 1985 by Francesca Cavender when she was churchwarden, the other in 1993 by the Somerset & Dorset Family History Society . Where appropriate, references are given to both these layouts. High resolution images of the churchyard layout are available for both the 1985 and 1993 survey.

Photographs: there are also cross-references to photographs of each memorial. These images have not been made available to download, but requests for individual images can be made by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and the images will be sent to you.

Index of Individual Burials: the index of individuals whose burials are recorded in Westbury-sub-Mendip up to the end of 2007 is held in a separate Excel file. There are around 3000 entries in alphabetical order of surname each occupying a single line.

General Enquiries: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Peter Bright tel:870640 e: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Andrew Buchanan tel:870404 e: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Sue Caola tel: <removed>

Barry Lane tel: 870457 e: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it