Watchet Conservation Society
Promoting, Conserving & Improving Our Physical & Natural Environment
Promoting, Conserving & Improving Our Physical & Natural Environment
Stay informed with our seasonal newsletters covering local conservation efforts, wildlife news, and upcoming events
Browse our complete archive of newsletters documenting our conservation journey and achievements in the Watchet area.
Our newsletters cover local wildlife sightings, conservation projects, upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, and environmental news from our community.
September/October 2021
To All Members, Definitely, definitively, my last appearance as JMW Turner. Watchet has been slowly recovering after a difficult period. The Sunday and Wednesday markets have been running since April and businesses have thankfully been returning to normal, with the proviso of the wearing of face masks. Cotton...
Download PDFMarch/April 2021
Dear Members, Well, hello again. Glad you’re still here. 2020 has been an extraordinary year and has, in spite of its difficulties and challenges, seemingly passed very quickly, and it’s almost unbearable that a year on, we are back where we were on March 23rd last year. I was going to use a recent portrait with...
Download PDFSeptember/October 2020
Dear Members, When, after 23rd March everything in Watchet collapsed and went into meltdown, I consoled myself with the thought that my WCS duties would be very light and I would have lots of free time to finish my archive. How very wrong I was. For me Conservation is about preserving our town and our way of life in...
Download PDFMay/June 2020
From the Chairman Queen Catherine of Braganza Hello Folks. I feel I owe everyone a bit of an apology, after my now rather insensitive wish that we should “Be Lucky”, expressed at the end of my last Chairman’s missive written in the last week of February. Coronovirus Community Help was formed in a matter of days...
Download PDFMarch/April 2020
Dear Members, The more observant among you might have noticed that we have a delightful picture of a new-born baby in place of yet another awful mug-shot of myself. Welcome Nancy Florence Shaw, born 23rd February 2020 and weighing in at 7lbs 6oz and the newest and youngest recruit to the Conservation Society....
Download PDFJanuary/February 2020
Dear Members, Compliments of the Season. Much seems to have happened since the November Newsletter, we held a successful and enjoyable AGM on the 17th November perhaps noteworthy was the fact that the treasurer resigned before the meeting, and at the end of the meeting I announced that I would be stepping down as your...
Download PDFNovember/December 2019
Dear Members, It is remarkable how quickly time passes, it is something to do with the ageing process apparently, never good news, but better than the alternative. Each new day is a decreasingly smaller piece or fraction of one’s life so far and therefore appearing to go faster and faster, well, something like that....
Download PDFSeptember/October 2019
Dear Members, Watchet’s Brilliant Summer. I always get writer’s block roughly every two months whenever I am called upon to deliver my message, there really is no excuse. There is so much to write about, so much has happened since the last July newsletter. Our last open meeting on the 16th July was a brilliant...
Download PDFJuly/August 2019
Dear Members, Well hello, this handsome new portrait was taken during a photography course given by Terry Walker as part of Watchet Learns, a recent initiative to help locals learn new skills. I was asked if I could play the part of a farmer or a fisherman. It’s amazing what a few days, growth can do for a chap. As...
Download PDFMay/June 2019
Dear Members, As I write this the sun is shining, the sky is blue, storm Hannah has passed and Easter is hopefully a happy memory. There are two months between each edition of the newsletter, time passes with increasing alacrity, I no sooner have seen the back of one and the next publication deadline is upon me. In...
Download PDFMarch/April 2019
Dear Members, I am writing this on March 1st, meteorologically speaking, the 1st day of spring, this same day last year 2018 we were all covered in snow. We have just enjoyed the warmest February on record, is the winter really over? Our next open meeting is on the 19th March at 7.30pm at the Methodist Schoolrooms,...
Download PDFJanuary/February 2019
Dear Members, Compliments of the Season. The talk is “An Introduction to Fungi” by Peter Baker, an illustrated talk with a focus on local species found on the Quantocks. I hope to see you there. I wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year. Vindolanda near Hadrian’s Wall. I trust you have all had a very enjoyable...
Download PDFNovember/December 2018
Dear Members, Warmest greetings, I am are nearly coming to my end of my first year as your chairman, and I thought we might indulge our selves to consider how lucky we are to be living in this small coastal town balanced precariously on the edge of the Bristol Channel. With only three and a half thousand inhabitants,...
Download PDFSeptember/October 2018
Dear Members Whilst writing this little gold nugget, I seriously wonder how many of you actually take the trouble to read it. I hope you do, because for me it takes an inordinate amount of time to produce, it gives my grey cells a thorough work out. None of this comes easy to me. I have just re-read my last...
Download PDFJuly/August 2018
From the Chairman Hello Friends, As this is the first and hopefully one of the last Newsletters that I will be editing, I thought we would have a break with tradition and save you from having to look at yet another mug shot. It gives me the chance of talking about us, the WCS, and what we do. Obviously we look to...
Download PDFMay/June 2018
From the Chairman we will be announcing the erection of the interpretation board shortly. The planting of the wild flowers at the West Street car park has been going ahead for some time and if you’re passing do please check on the progress, particularly in a few months time. We will shortly undertake the cleaning of...
Download PDFMarch/April 2018
From the Chairman Jan Simpson-Scott has been Secretary for the past eight years, Newsletter Editor for over two years and during the last year when we had no chairman, fielded most of the problems that arose. Little wonder that she has decided enough is enough and wants to move on to pastures new. A young Maurice...
Download PDFJanuary/February 2018
From the Chairman illustrating her copy with Photographs. Sadly Rosalind resigned early last year and David has taken responsibility for the whole project. Sumptuous photographs with well informed, interesting text it’s a serious piece of work and I congratulate him. I am sure it will be popular. The Rope Walk...
Download PDFNovember/December 2017
From the Chairman competition to own an original illustration featured in it! Wansbrough Paper Mill In addition, following the meeting, we shall be welcoming the Watchet Community Choir who will entertain us. Our 2018 Open Meeting Programme has been finalised and starts on Tuesday January 16th with ’The history of...
Download PDFSeptember/October 2017
From the Chairman Our projects are progressing well. We’ve decided the best way of managing an increasing but fascinating workload is by small sub-committees overseeing these projects, then reporting to the monthly full committee meetings. We feel we are in a very happy place with such a determined and mutually...
Download PDFJuly/August 2017
From the Chairman Dr Tony Serjeant, Somerset Ecology Officer, will be the speaker at our Open Meeting on Tuesday July 18th when he will give a presentation on The Mineral Line of Watchet - please come along; this is an unmissable opportunity. St. Beuno’s Church Culbone Dear All, We are very encouraged by the...
Download PDFMay/June 2017
From the Chairman completed by June. Wansbrough Mill Work seems to be advancing towards the reprint of Wedlake’s ‘History of Watchet’ and as you read this, no doubt WCS member Paul Upton who has undertaken this important project is beavering away. This venture is a combined effort with Market House Museum and...
Download PDFMarch/April 2017
From the Chairman Your committee remains active with involvement in many exciting projects including participation in the Wansbrough Paper Mill Archiving initiative, the Mineral Line Flora and Fauna project, Recording and possible Reconstruction of a Medieval Fish Weir at West Beach, the ‘Book of Watchet’ by A.L....
Download PDFJanuary/February 2017
Our Chair Molly Quint Wildfowl and Wetland Trust, Steart Marshes will continue to support them as you have supported me. Thank you all so much. Yours very sincerely, Molly Quint Dear Friends and Members. A very Happy New Year to you all. 2016 was a busy year for WCS with new people joining, new projects started,...
Download PDFSeptember/October 2016
Our Chair Molly Quint members who have memorabilia from World War 1 to bring it along please. Please also think about entering our Calendar Competition with your photos of Watchet. The closing date is 30th September, with judging on the 7th October. This is the first time WCS has produced a Calendar and we are all...
Download PDFJuly/August 2016
Our Chair Molly Quint be helped by Paul Reynolds taking aerial photographs. We are also looking at the Old Lime Kilns in Doniford. These projects all take time but will be great when completed. The Calendar Competition is now well underway and a very exciting project. If you have not already done so and wish to enter...
Download PDFMay/June 2016
Our Chair Molly Quint competition for printing in a Calendar in the Autumn, organised by Nick Cotton. Nick has many new ideas for WCS and we look forward to hearing about them in time. The Court Leet lock-up The Court Leet lock-up formed part of the building known as the Market House, where local traders could set out...
Download PDFMarch/April 2016
Our Chair Molly Quint how he was getting on and some slides of his work. The meeting is on Tuesday 15th March at 7.30pm in the Methodist School Room so do please come. We have at long last started to plant our Cider Apple Orchard on Splash Point with the two trees given to us by Pebbles at the Wassailing evenings last...
Download PDFJanuary/February 2016
Our Chair Molly Quint Restaurant. This is a really good evening with lovely food, English if you are not keen on spicy dishes, a draw, and surrounded by all your friends and new ones you will make during the evening. We hope you will come; please phone me on 01984 632592 with the time you would like your table and how...
Download PDFNovember/December 2015
Our Chair Molly Quint Onion Collective and Splash Point Photographs taken by Dave Simpson-Scott before and after the construction of the pleasure garden pavilion. which, as you know, she edits so well. Also Paul Upton our Casework Officer wishes to retire at the end of our next year. He has been very active for us...
Download PDFSeptember/October 2015
Our Chair Molly Quint John have worked hard on the Well Garden, thank you so very much. The Pleasure Gardens are looking so good; Onion Collective has achieved so much in such a short time. We wish them success in all their ventures for the town. Our next Open Meeting is on 15th September with a talk by Phil Gannon,...
Download PDFJuly/August 2015
Our Chair Molly Quint More from Andrew Harrison’s Holiday Memories… Something I love about this area’s scenery is how the view can change so rapidly as one moves from place to place. One minute I am looking up at skylines dotted with trees silhouetted against passing clouds and the next minute gazing down on...
Download PDFMay/June 2015
Our Chair Molly Quint most weeks about their progress which help us all keep up to date. Our next Open Meeting is on Tuesday 19th May 7.30pm in the Methodist School Room. “Tidal Lagoon Power.” It will be presented by the firm who are already starting on the Tidal Lagoon at Swansea and I am sure it will be a very...
Download PDFMarch/April 2015
Our Chair Molly Quint These photographs (on the cover) were taken by my father around 1962 when we came from Essex to Watchet on our summer holidays. Then aged around 10 little did I realise that 52 years on I would be living close to Watchet or that I would become involved in its community life. Unfortunately I do...
Download PDFNovember 2025
Foxglove digitalis purpurea "This painting of a Foxglove from Staple Plain near Watchet, where we used to walk our dog Hattie, is what Sheila was working on when she became too ill to paint anymore. She had intended to finish it in the Spring. Sadly that was not to be". Sheila died on January 23 2014. We thank Edward...
Download PDFNovember 2025
The Robin Formerly known as The Redbreast and more recently as The Robin Redbreast. (watercolour by Sheila Mannes-Abbott) I have in my possession a bird book given to me over 60 years ago, which I shall always treasure. The book was first published in 1910 and written by the Reverend C. A. Johns. It comes with 64...
Download PDFNovember 2025
Fly Agaric fungus painted by Sheila Mannes-Abbot. Fly agaric Agaricus muscarius, Its botanical name comes from the Latin ‘musca’, or ‘fly’, apparently referring to its use in parts of Europe as an insecticide, crushed in milk for attracting and killing flies. The genus agarica includes the popular field...
Download PDFJuly/August 2014
From our chair Molly Quint Dear Friends and Members, What wonderful weather, do so hope it lasts for the tennis and all the other Summer activities England is so famous for , and for all the things that are happening in and around Watchet. I think the more serious thing that involves Watchet at this time is the...
Download PDFMay/June 2014
From Our Chair Molly Quint Dear Friends and Members, The busy season has started, the Book Shop has opened again, the Market is starting and various things are happening on the Esplanade, and the grass and weeds are growing !!! We are very pleased that we are involved with the Onion Collective in discussions on the...
Download PDFNovember 2025
The hedgehog is an animal well loved by man because it eats many of the pests that plague the gardener, like slugs and snails. Baby hedgehogs are born with soft spines but soon lose these and develop the stiff spiny characteristic of the adult. During the winter, unlike squirrels or mice, the hedgehog hibernates so...
Download PDFNovember 2025
Dear Members & Friends, Lovely to be in contact with you all again and do hope you have had a good Autumn but now with the clocks changing it really seems as though Winter will soon be here. Please note our AGM this year is on Friday 29th November in the Phoenix Centre at 7.30pm. As you know we have a good strong...
Download PDFNovember 2025
Promoting, conserving & improving our physical and natural environment Issue 30 Sep/Oct 2013 From our Chair, Molly Quint: Dear Friends and Members What wonderful summer weather we have had this year and long may it last, Indian Summer would be lovely, just to take us into Autumn and then perhaps a kind winter. As...
Download PDFJuly/August 2013
From our Chair, Molly Quint: Dear Friends Old & New, Welcome to our latest Newsletter, Edward does such a wonderful job keeping us all in touch with everything that is going on and for finding so many interesting items for our members to read. Summer is here and everything in the garden is growing at an alarming rate....
Download PDFMay/June 2013
From our Chair, Molly Quint: Dear Everyone I am almost too scared to mention the weather and such beautiful timing to coincide with the Bank Holiday!! Watchet is now getting ready for another great summer of activities. Do hope you have been able to see the Yacht shining in the sunshine in the children’s playground...
Download PDFMarch/April 2013
From our Chair, Molly Quint: Dear Friends and Members, at last it feels a little more like spring and even the daffodils are appearing to cheer us all up. Do hope you all like the planting of the gardens at the Goviers Lane Crossing, which is now so much more user friendly. Very many thanks to all who helped make this...
Download PDFJanuary/February 2013
o all Members and Friends, so do come and have a relaxed axed time surrounded by good friends. If you would ould kindly let me know the time you would like to book a table and the number in your party, I can an organise it. In the next issue of our newsletter, John Irven will give us an account of how the splendid new...
Download PDFNovember/December 2012
From our Chair, Molly Quint: Dear Friends, Well autumn is here in such a Eric Robinson tells the story of the beautiful array of colours, made Fitzroy Barometer on the Esplanade. brighter when wet from a shower of rain and then lit up by the sun. Do hope you were all able to see HRH the Princess Royal. Eric and I were...
Download PDFSeptember/October 2012
From our Chair, Molly Quint: Dear Everyone, So much has been happening in Watchet since the last Newsletter. The Kids' Festival was great fun with John Irven and myself helping out by running the Aunt Sally Stall, very old fashioned but still so popular with the children. This is the third year we have done this and...
Download PDFJuly/August 2012
From our Chair, Molly Quint: Many things have happened since our last Newsletter and one to really remember was our celebration of the Olympic Torch Relay in the Paddock of Crossways. The sun shone and members & friends came complete with chairs and pic-nics to cheer on our runner Paula Cannings. We then had a...
Download PDFMay/June 2012
From our Chair, Molly Quint: Another busy month: the unveiling of the restored Fitzroy Barometer was a great evening, the weather was balmy, the attendance was many more than we anticipated and everything went off well. Mary was lovely, the Sea Scouts piped the unveiling and Ruth accepted the log book and pen from...
Download PDFMarch/April 2012
From our Chair, Molly Quint: Dear everyone, spring is nearly here and all the wonderful activities that Watchet is preparing for the forthcoming year, but we can look back on the winter with satisfaction. We had the wonderful celebration of the unveiling of ‘Seascape’, followed then by the revisiting of the day...
Download PDFJanuary/February 2012
Dear Members and Friends, thank you all so much for coming to the AGM and helping to make it such a good evening. We now have our Committee for the coming year, some new names but I am happy to say, many of last year’s members continue to stand. I would like to say a huge “Thank You” to them for all the hard...
Download PDFNovember/December 2011
From our Chair, Molly Quint: Dear friends and members, how quickly the summer has gone and all the outside events with it but we have much to look forward to this winter. The first thing in the WCS diary is the AGM on 22nd November in the Phoenix Centre. Do please come along, and if you feel you would like to put your...
Download PDFSeptember/October 2011
From our Chair, Molly Quint: Dear Friends and members This has been a busy Summer for Watchet, weather very English, but when the good days arrive they are very, very good. At the end of July we had Watchet Summertime, a new Pool Fun Day Craft Work weeklong event, commencing with the th 10 anniversary of the opening...
Download PDFJune/July 2011
From our Chair, Molly Quint: Dear Friends and Members Welcome to our latest newsletter. I do hope you enjoy it. We are thrilled that Pat Wolseley has agreed to be our speaker at the next meeting at the Methodist Hall, she is great fun but so knowledgeable on all plant life that I know we will have a wonderful evening,...
Download PDFApril/May 2011
From our Chair, Molly Quint: Welcome to our April & May Newsletter. This is such a lovely time of year and so many exciting things have been happening. Do hope you all enjoyed the Royal Wedding, it was such an amazing spectacle, England can do this sort of thing so wonderfully, and it was so lovely to see the bride &...
Download PDFFebruary/March 2011
Introduction from our Chair, Molly Quint: At the AGM I reported that the last year has been a huge learning curve for me personally and that I have made many new friends. It has been a busy year with excellent Newsletters and projects, thanks largely to John Irven, and a wide range of talks including topics such as...
Download PDFJanuary 2011
Dear Members and Friends, A Happy New Year to you all, may it be a wonderful one. We are really looking forward to a great year for the Conservation Society, for a good AGM on the 18th of January when we hope, with an even stronger Committee, we can really do many new and exciting things in, and around, the lovely...
Download PDFJuly 2010
Dear Members, New Members and Friends of Watchet Conservation Society, welcome to our 11th Newsletter. Since the last issue in April things have been very busy within the Committee. We are moving forward with all our projects, some have been harder than others to complete and of course, when dealing with Councils it...
Download PDFApril 2010
Dear Members and Friends of Watchet Conservation Society, Spring is here and everything is waking up and beginning to move forward and so is our Society. We have a very active committee and lots of helpers with wonderful expertise to assist us all, especially myself, who as you know loves Watchet, but have not a lot...
Download PDFMarch 2010
Welcome to the first of the 2010 news letters. We are investigating a number of exciting projects at the moment which we will announce soon so watch this space. Forthcoming Events and Dates for your Diary Talks - all at the Methodist School room at 19:30 Tuesday 23rd March - Neil Wilson “ R adio Ga Ga ” plus...
Download PDFOctober 2009
Going into our third year— our achievements and hopes... October is the month for our Annual General Meeting. We will review what we’ve done, think about our efforts which went well in 2008-9 and those which did not. It’s the time to say what we would like to achieve in 2009-10 and for you to vote in a...
Download PDFFebruary 2009
Square Riggers and Yankee Jack On Tuesday 17th February we are holding a celebration of Watchet as a port. Chris Danby has found a remarkable film of the last square rigger to sail from the North of England around Cape Horn to the Western Coast of America with a full cargo. The film was made by an amateur film maker...
Download PDFReceive our seasonal newsletter directly to your inbox. Stay updated on conservation news, events, and opportunities to get involved.