At a recent Auction of Promises to raise money for the Robert Glanville Playing Field Trust, Sarah bought a morning's feltmaking with Liz Clay. The auction raised a total of £3,750.

Pictured above are Liz, Sarah and friends with their morning's creations.

Footlights is always on the lookout for new members both active and social. The lifetime membership fee is £10 and this will allow us to keep in contact with you, updating you of all of our up and coming activities.

There is a wide range of opportunites within footlights ranging from acting and performing through to set design, costumes, make up, front of house, props and many other valuable roles that help to make our organisation function. We welcome members of any age, all contributions, however small help to make up our successful productions.

If you would like details of membership or would simply like details of our next production you can contact Neil Burrows on 01748 870603 or email him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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

Chairman : Pippa Mains      Secretary : Sue Reece      Treasurer : Nick Mayor

The Friends was formed in 1994 with the object of assisting in the ongoing preservation of the fabric and furnishings of the Parish Church of St. Lawrence, Westbury-sub-Mendip as an ancient building of beauty and historic interest, and also the Parish Churchyard. The Friends is a registered charity (no 1050069) and membership is open to any persons resident in the Parish and, subject to the committees’ agreement, to persons residing outside the Parish.

If you've been looking at the authors of articles you might have noticed a few names that are not familiar. Don't start thinking we've had a sudden influx of new residents to the village. They are ficticious characters to test the various web functions.

Westbury Footlights is a registered charity that is very active in the village, with members from all age groups. Every year Footlights aims to put on a full production together with smaller events to appeal to audiences of all tastes. Previous productions have included musicals, such as Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat, family productions, such as The Wizard of Oz, comedies, such as When We Are Married and dramas, such as Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol.

New members are always welcome at Footlights, whether they wish to tread the boards or help with some of the many behind the scene tasks that make our productions so special. Lifetime membership costs only £10 and reductions are available for junior members.

So, if you'd like to meet a team of friendly people and have something interesting to do in the evenings, why not contact us and find out what our next project will be? There's something at Footlights for everyone.

It is becoming unusual to find a choir regularly on attendance in village parish churches.......

The Westbury Inn is open again - pop along and say hello!

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.

If so, why not come to the village art group?

We meet every Friday from 10.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. in the Village Hall, where you can get help, advice, encouragement or simply do your own thing.

The group was founded by Jo Rees, who has now left the village, but we enjoyed it so much that we've carried on the good work.

The only cost, apart from your materials, is a contribution towards renting the Village Hall for a couple of hours a week.

Further information from our convenor, Lyn Dolby on 870595. 

Some of these traditions live on in Westbury today.  When a member dies a small donation is made to the bereaved family and donations are also made to good causes in the village.

The Westbury Friendly Society is now responsible for many of the events in the village such as the Wassail, Club Day, the Senior Citizens Outing and Quiz Night.  (See the menu on the left of the page.) The biggest event of the year is the annual Club Day on Spring Bank Holiday weekend. This is spread over two days and is combined with the Church Fete.

Everyone in the village is welcome to join the Friendly Society and to become involved with the various events. New residents are particularly welcome.

If you are interested in joining the Society, contact the Chairman, Secretary or any committee member. (For a list of the committee and further details see Read more.)

There is no information to display concerning the Multi-user Path. If you would like to contribute something, please follow the instructions in the help section: How do I contribute?

The Strawberry Line  

For Forever...A Legacy

In anticipation of the Church Commissioners sale of Court Farm, the Parish Council has been exploring ways to protect the landscape in the village centre and village use of the land for key events. We are grateful for all the photos and contributions in response to our call for evidence on how the Village has used the land over the years; however we recognised that any formalisation of the situation was going to be a difficult, protracted and expensive process.

We are therefore delighted to announce that with the very ready cooperation of the new owners Evelyn and Guy Timpson of Court Farm and the Church Commissioners, we have negotiated a Covenant, in perpetuity, on Court Farm, to retain the open nature of the land in front of the house and to allow up to 5 village events and the Christmas lights. This Covenant is forever and will ensure that the open land in front of Court Farm remains free of both buildings, further fencing and is available for important village events. We have consulted with the village groups and the Parish Council has taken responsibility to ensure that event organisers are appropriately insured etc.  The Parish Council has refrained from widespread publicity to protect the interests of all parties involved during purchase negotiations, but now that the Exchange and Completion of purchase has been achieved it is appropriate to make a more public announcement. The covenant will also be available on the Parish Council page of the village website.

The proposed WS13/1 footpath diversion is a separate issue and the County Council will be running a formal consultation in due course.

Westbury Sub Mendip Parish Council

05/05/15

Covenant

Plan

Booking Process and Risk Assessment

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Parish Councils are the most local tier of local government in England and Wales, and play an important part in maintaining village amenities, such as footpaths, and in the processing of planning applications for new buildings.

Councillors are elected as individuals, not as representatives of political parties.

Members of the public are welcome to attend all meetings and there is an opportunity for parishioners to speak on any issue or concern at the beginning of each meeting.

PC MEMBERS
Tony Shepherd (Chair), Ros Wyke (Vice-chair), Peter Bright, Brian Eades, Sue Isherwood, Peter Adams, Jo Tucker.

CLERK TO THE PARISH COUNCIL:
Mark Smith, Orchardside, Mares Lane, Westbury-sub-Mendip, WELLS. BA5 1HX
01749 871076  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dates, Times and Venues for Parish Council meetings are listed on the Village Diary.

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Parish Council Consultation Response (25/06/2014) to Mendip District Council for Outline Planning Application 2014/0803/OTS 'Land East of Bell Close'

The Parish Council voted to Object to this application. 

The Parish Council's response

Appendix 6 Housing Survey Results

Supplementary Parish Council Response - Bats Assessment  

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Interim Housing Survey Results presented at the Annual Parish Meeting on 14/05/2014

Interim Results slides

N.B. The Housing Survey is still open, and further returns are welcome. Survey forms can be downloaded from the link below, or collected from the village shop, and returned to the shop or the Clerk.

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Notes from Parish Councillors meeting with Carter Jonas & the Church Commisioners on 16 April 2014

Meeting Notes

Village Map

Concept Plan

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Parish Council Housing Survey (April 2014)

All households in Westbury sub Mendip should receive a paper copy of a Housing Survey, which should be returned to the village shop marked 'FAO Parish Council' by the end of April. One survey per household can be returned.

If you prefer, the survey can be downloaded from the link below as a Word document, and can be completed and sent by email attachment to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Housing Newsletter

Village Map (scroll down after opening)

Housing Survey

____________________________________________________________________________

Parish Councils are the most local tier of local government in England and Wales, and play an important part in maintaining village amenities, such as footpaths, and in the processing of planning applications for new buildings.

Councillors are elected as individuals, not as representatives of political parties.

Members of the public are welcome to attend all meetings and there is an opportunity for parishioners to speak on any issue or concern at the beginning of each meeting.

PC MEMBERS
Ros Wyke (Chair - 870347), Tony Shepherd (Vice-chair), Peter Bright, Brian Eades, Sue Isherwood, Peter Adams, Jo Tucker.

CLERK TO THE PARISH COUNCIL:
Mark Smith, Orchardside, Mares Lane, Westbury-sub-Mendip, WELLS. BA5 1HX
01749 871076  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dates, Times and Venues for Parish Council meetings are listed on the Village Diary.

The Playing Field is maintained by The Robert Glanvile Playing Field Trust.

There is a children’s play area with swings, slide and bouncy elephant. For older children there is an excellent skate park with a ramp, grinding bars and half pipe.  Goal posts are provided for impromptu games of football as well as a picnic table for when the weather is good. The field has wonderful views over the Somerset levels and to Glastonbury Tor.

The Playing Field Committee is looking for new members to help in its work and those with children of school age would be particularly welcome. Our current project is to build an all weather surface for tennis, 5-a-side football, netball and basketball. This new facility would be available to the village school, which already makes use of the playing field on a weekly basis in term time, and all the residents in the village.

We hope you will visit the field and have a great time enjoying all the facilities.

The Village Singing Group is an informal ensemble, currently of 26 people, that meets each week to enjoy singing together, just for fun.

For further information ring Malcolm Mogford 870817, and for details of songs currently being rehearsed and venues for the next few sessions........

Men and women have lived in the landscape around Westbury for over 600,000 years. These pages will bring you photographs, reports, maps, drawings and illustrations of the history and archaeology of the area. The list below is treated chronologically beginning with the evidence of Palaeolithic hunters and ending in the twentieth century with memories from one of our oldest residents.

Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age (600,000-10,000 BC)
A massive rock fall in Westbury Quarry in 1969 revealed a cave filled with prehistoric animal bones and primitive flint implements dating back over half a million years. Read about it in The Times of June 2002. CLICK

Bronze Age (2000-700BC)
One of Westbury’s landmarks is the Beacon, a large Bronze Age round barrow or burial mound, which stands on the skyline of Mendip overlooking the Moors. It has not been excavated but it was probably robbed by 19th century antiquarians. Close by and buried in the stone wall there is a standing stone which may well be a boundary stone dating from the same period. The barrow was named from the nearby beacon set up during the time of the Napoloenic Wars.

There are over 330 barrows on Mendip making it second only to the area around Stonehenge and Avebury for the density of such burial mounds.  Little is known of where people lived at this time when they had settled to become farmers but there some remains of their field systems at Westbury Sleight.  CLICK

Iron Age (700 BC – AD 43)
Westbury Camp (actually in Rodney Stoke parish) probably dates from XXX and may be visited as it lies in Access Land. CLICK for a drawing reconstruction provided by English Heritage. It was probably used more for stock control rather than providing defence during a period of warfare.

Romans (AD 43-410)
One of the reasons for the Roman invasion was the capture and control of the lead mines on Mendip, both at Priddy and Charterhouse. However the Axe Valley rapidly became a farming landscape and sites of two Roman settlements have been found on the lower ground near the Moor. One site at The Straits was revealed when a wildlife pond was dug CLICK and the other has been known at Cowleaze for sometime as a result of regular ploughing CLICK. In addition various other finds have been made in gardens including this beautiful bronze brooch. PHOTO

Saxons (700-1066)
There was over 400 years between the end of the Roman Empire and the final arrival of the Saxons around AD 700 and relatively little evidence of their presence has been found. It is likely that farming life continued and that the population became increasingly Christian. Irish and Welsh monks or ‘saints’ may well have sailed up the river Axe spreading the gospel and founding churches or chapels where they stopped.  It is very likely that there was an early Christian site close to our Church during this period. The veteran yew in the churchyard may well date from this early period. A charter of 1065 listing the possessions of Bishop Giso of Wells includes the manor of Westbury.

Normans (1066-1600)
The early Norman bishops did a great deal to create the village as we know it today. They probably replaced a small wooden church with one built in stone. CLICK for a history of the church. Bishop John of Tours in the early 12th century enclosed over 500 acres around Lodge Hill, Windmill Hill and Chalcroft Hill to create a deer park which survived until about 1600. CLICK  He may also have enclosed about 60 acres of Moor later to be called Gooseland. CLICK The basic farming landscape was developed with over 20 ‘old auster’ farms – tenements that had rights of grazing for their stock on the common land of the Moor and Mendip, and obligations to the Bishop such as appearing at the regular Court Leets and Court Barons and repairing the boundary of his deer park. Court House Farm was operating as the manorial court from at least 1275. Many of the medieval farms have survived although mostly rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is these that give the village its character and led to the designation of  the Conservation Area in 19XX. There were also outlying medieval farms at Ramspits CLICK and Bryants CLICK high on the scarp of Mendip.

Westbury Cross (14th century) PHOTO

Church and Society 1535-1662.
Local historian Tony Nott has written about this topic. CLICK

Post-medieval (1600-1900)

End of the Park

The Square

John Pond & John Spencer & Hardwichs

19th Century
Strawberry Line
Quarry for roadstone
Development at Hollybrook, Kites Croft

20th century
Village Hall 1913
Bill Tyley remembers growing up in Westbury in the 1920s and 1930s. CLICK
Housing developments Station Road, Stoneleigh, Bell Close, lodge Hill, Broadhay, Back Lane & Hannahs Lane

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Westbury-sub-Mendip is a charming and friendly village and is just the sort of place you would expect to find a traditional rural primary school with very close links to the local community.  St. Lawrence’s School, although small and friendly, is also a place of high academic achievement and believes in creating the sort of environment where children love to learn.

Recognising its historic foundation, the school will preserve and develop its religious character in accordance with the principles of the Church of England and in partnership with the Church at parish and diocesan level, whilst having tolerance and understanding towards other faiths and religions.

The school aims to serve its community by providing an education of the highest quality within the context of Christian belief and practice. It encourages an understanding of the meaning and significance of faith, and promotes Christian values through the experience it offers to all its pupils.

The atmosphere in each of the classrooms is warm and convivial and the children are encouraged to learn and play together, creating that unique feel of a small and well run school. The class sizes at St. Lawrence’s give an excellent teacher to pupil ratio. We are very fortunate with our highly motivated and committed teaching assistants who are able to provide one to one or group tuition.

We have an established School Council where each year group is represented and the children are able to have a say in how their school is run.

At present we have three classes:

• "OAK" CLASS  (Reception and Year 1)
• "LIME" CLASS (Year 2, Year 3)
• "HOLLY" CLASS (Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6)

The arrangement of classes is dependent on the size of year groups, which can change from year to year. At some stage, children will spend 3 years in one class.

We aim to be a welcoming school and parents, governors and members of the community are often found helping in the classrooms, assisting with sports activities and accompanying the children on school visits and sports fixtures. We have a good relationship with other schools in the area, as we are one of twelve schools that form the Wells Community Learning Partnership. This includes The Blue School, Wells, thus ensuring a smooth transition from primary to secondary education for our Year 6 pupils.

St. Lawrence’s accepts children from a wide geographical area and there are currently children from Easton, Wookey Hole, Wookey, Cheddar and Wells as well as Westbury-sub-Mendip.

To learn more about St. Lawrence’s and to meet the staff, please call us and we’ll be more than pleased to show you what makes our school special.