From a random selection of newspaper articles stretching from 1848 to 1944 fires in gloving factories seem to have been a recurrent hazard. The following taken from the Western Gazette is an abridged account of one disastrous one which occurred on 27th March 1908. GREAT FIRE AT YEOVIL £4,000 DAMAGE AT A GLOVE FACTORY DRESSING YARD BURNT OUT A fire broke out in the dressing yard behind the glove factory of Mr G. H. Gould, in Vicarage Street, Yeovil about…
In 1930 there was an interesting exchange of letters in the Western Gazette when a number of correspondents related their memories of the Yeovil of their younger days in the 1880s. It is hard to judge how accurate their descriptions are in view of the fact that they were remembering things which happened 50 years earlier, and that we are now looking at their accounts from an even greater distance, but their letters provide an interesting insight into what Yeovil…
THE WESSEX BOYS’ BRIGADE INSPECTION – 1909 The Wessex Battalion of the Boys’ Brigade held a Demonstration and Inspection in Yeovil at the County Show Field in West Hendford on Easter Monday 13 April 1909. The Western Gazette sets the scene: ‘In connection with the Wessex Battalion of the Boys’ Brigade, a demonstration and inspection of the whole of the Companies by Major-General Sir John Moody, took place at Yeovil on Easter Monday. Nearly 600 lads took part, and altogether…
Jack Sweet, our local historian, writes about the activities of the YEOVIL SCHOOL ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY in 1948/9. Yeovil School, the town’s Grammar School, closed in 1974 to become a Comprehensive, but for many years an Archaeological Society flourished in the school under the enthusiastic leadership of the Senior History Master, the late Mr L. C. Hayward, B.A., B.Sc., F.C.A., the founder and a chairman of YALHS. I joined the School (and the Society) in September 1948 and left in July…
Jack Sweet our local historian has selected this report from The Yeovilian of July 1954 THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY ‘This has certainly been one of our most successful sessions. The standard of lectures was high, and our change of name widened their scope. Attendance at meetings distinctly improved, perhaps because of tea and biscuits! ‘During the Autumn Term we spent one Saturday afternoon at Cadbury, and a whole day at Bath for the annual excursion. The long awaited Lufton…
YEOVIL AND THE BOER WAR On 12 October 1899, following years of tension in South Africa, war broke out between the Boer Republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State and Great Britain. Within a short time, the Boers had British forces bottled up in Kimberley, Ladysmith and Mafeking and for many months bloody battles would be fought as our army sought to raise the sieges and defeat the Boers. Although the national and local newspapers were full of reports…