In my 25 years of being a councillor I’ve never attended a Mayor’s Civic Service. I’ve always believed that religion and Local Government should be two different things. But this year the Mayor Leigh Redman asked me to deliver a speech at his Civic Service held on Sunday 21st February at the Holy Trinity Church in Hamp. Ok, fair enough, I can probably do that….I mused.

Leigh’s event was a pleasant affair that simply celebrated our town. Phenomenally talented local singer Harry Winchester sang a few songs, BBC radio presenter and Bridgwater bigger-upper Emma Britton read some poems, the Reverend Hannah Alderson officiated and popular local school teacher Mrs Jackie Manning was presented with the Bridgwater cup.  Also on the bill , the Town Clerk offered up a prayer for the Police and Rescue Services and some ladies made some cakes.

Meanwhile, I had to do ‘an address’. I was rapidly thinking of The Club Whoopee, Rio De Janeiro, when suddenly I was on.

Bridgwater Through the Ages

The theme was to be ‘Bridgwater Through the Ages’ and I turned up with easily an hours worth of material, 15 pages of A4 and an optional tap dance routine to keep my legs from seizing up. Leigh smiled nervously and said “Well, ok but…people may possibly nod off..I took the hint. Leaving the speech in my pocket I ad-libbed probably 10 minutes worth.

However, here’s what I intended to say;-

Having never been asked to do a sermon before I thought I’d prepare a presentation on one of the great moral issues of our time. I was going to focus on how to learn lessons from inspirational leadership, talented individuals and a powerful team spirit. However I gave that idea up yesterday after an ill timed 53rd minute own goal sent Leeds United crashing out of the FA Cup to bloody Watford

So instead I thought-as it’s a civic service – I’d talk about civic pride.

I’ve always hated it when people put down the town they live in. Any town you live in is as good as you make it. And if you don’t like it, get involved yourself and help change it for the better.

I bring a lot of International groups to Bridgwater- Czechs, French, Italians, Hungarians, Slovenians, Canadians. Give or take a Slovak that’s 7,000 people over 25 years. People say Bridgwater is a great location for touring – but in fact it’s a great location in itself. I always start these excursions in Bridgwater by taking the group on a walking tour of our town. and I always make the point that the history of Bridgwater is the history of England.

Of course in reality this applies to anywhere. I expect people are doing the same in Stratford on Avon, Bath, York, Highbridge…well, some tours would be maybe shorter

But the point about Bridgwater is it actually IS a very special place. So for a minute I’m going to pretend you’re a visiting group of Czech students and take you through the history of Bridgwater and thereby the history of England.
Tak dobré odpoledni , vítejte na Bridgwater . To je krásné město v jihozápadní Anglie s téměř 40.000 obyvateli….. (but we probably cant keep that up)

The River, the Romans  and the Ruddy Celts

I always start the tour on West Quay -which is where Bridgwater started. The River Parret. The Celts called most of their rivers ‘Avon‘-because that’s the Celtic word for river. But here we have the ‘Paredd‘ -which means ‘partition‘ and in modern Welsh still means ‘wall‘(I learnt Welsh, look you) . After the Battle of Peonnum in 660AD the Saxons pushed the Celts west of this river in the Bridgwater area and it became a clear division between 2 totally alien peoples…which may go to explaining the rivalry today between Sydenham and Hamp.

Of course we could go back  even before this  to such finds as the neolithic stone axe discovered here on Hamp- although that was subsequently found to belong to Cllr Moore.

The Romans created the original Bridgwater. Before there was a Bridgwater there was a small Roman port on a now long gone meander of the River Parret at Bawdrip, still called locally Crandon Bridge. A Roman road led to there from across the Poldens and the Roman regional centre of Lindinis (that’s Ilchester). A long lost silted up spur of the original river it was known as the ‘Black ditch‘ until re-opened in the 1790s as the King Sedgemoor Drain.

Some ‘big names’ drop in

We’ve had ’em all here you know. Some ‘very’ famous names.  Of course we know that the Beatles dropped into Terry Downes cafe on the Bristol Road and that George Best played on the hallowed Bridgwater Town turf, running rings around hapless junior ball boy Alan Hurford, but clearly ‚’bigger than the Beatles‘ no less a celeb than Jesus Christ himself would have dropped in to Crandon Bridge on his way to Glastonbury with his Uncle Joseph of Arimethea. And did those feet in ancient times go to Glastonbury. Apparently yes. And of course another interesting town,not just the first site of Christianity, the burial site of many Saxon kings but a town today populated almost 50-50 by hippies and people who hate hippies.

And then of course King Arthur himself, that famous fictitious King of the Romano Celtic period definitely probably based himself around here (If he’d existed) defeating the Saxons at the Battle of Mons Badon, about which opinion is divided as to the location. All the other historians say it was just outside Bath, I say it might have been on Bower Manor.

Seasonal Saxons, Vicious Vikings and Naughty Normans

Eventually the Saxons prevailed and forced the crossing of the Parret and at the narrowest point set up a pool and a trading point for their ships. Either side, Eastover and Westover, being named after the saxon word ‘ufer‘ meaning harbours or Quaysides.

The Parret – connected to the Bristol Channel with the second highest tide in the world was of course navigable, so you’d get off at Combwich to go to the Quantocks, at Crandon Bridge to go to Glastonbury and at Bridgwater to go to the Fountain. Well West Quay anyway. The Saxons called the little settlement that grew up around these landing points Brycg (which can mean bridge-although there’s no evidence of there being one at that time) but can also mean ‘gangplank‘ – as in getting on and off of boats.

Raiding pretty much everywhere came the horny hatted sons of the North, the Vikings and by 878 they’d conquered most of England by landing a massive army in the East and pushing the Saxons west with their ‘Great Horde’ (oo er missus). But again it was in the Bridgwater area that the King of Wessex (the Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons) Alfred the Great hid in the swamps and marshes around Sedgemoor, formed a fortified if slightly swampy base at Athelney, built up a mighty army , counterattacked and consequently routed the Vikings at the Battle of Edington (again historians claim that’s the one in Wiltshire but they‘re wrong-we know it was the one near Catcott because why else would he baptise Guthrum King of the Vikings at Aller and sign the peace treaty at Wedmore!?)  It’s a lesson to be learned – don‘t let facts and evidence get in the way of a good story.

It was at this point that Alfred carried the Wyvern standard (the red and yellow flag of Somerset and therefore Wessex) with him (well, he probably got someone else to actually  carry it) as he pushed back the Vikings liberating and  uniting England as he went. Looking very much like David Hemmings. Especially the tache. It’s no small boast to claim that Bridgwater therefore conquered England. If you look at the Bayeux Tapestry the Wyvern flag is right there behind dead King Harold as he gets the arrow in his eye. So it’s true. It IS!

In 1066 along came the Normans who proceeded to conquer US! And of course introduce the horribly unfair Feudal systém. They did this by apportioning the conquered  lands amongst their victorious knights. The Bridgwater area was given to Walter de Douai -who had been present at the Battle of Hastings. Hence by the time the bureaucrats of the Domesday Book arrived in the area in 1086 to jot down what was where and who had what they noted the town as ‘Brig of Walter‘ – so you can see where this is going.

The Bloody Plantagenets-Bad Kings, Bolshy Barons and not-so-rotten Boroughs

For the next few hundred years England -and therefore Bridgwater – was caught up in the fratricidal mayhem of the Plantagenet dynasty. As local Barons constantly had to pick sides with the competing Kings it allowed the growing merchant town of Bridgwater to elicit a ‘Charter‘ from one of them. In 1200 court favourite William Brewer spotted a money making opportunity and persuaded ‘Bad’ King John (1199-1216) to give him Bridgwater and grant the place certain money making priveleges. John,had just become King and was attempting to shore up his rule-which was difficult as a cartoon lion (if the Disney film is anything to be believed). However ’John Lackland‘ as he was to be known (he lost large chunks of France, got excommunicated by the Pope, even lost his crown jewels in the Wash and finally lost some of his Kingly powers to the Barons at Magna Carta) signed away as required  and the one thing in his entire reign he did right led to the creation of the Medieval ‘New Town‘ of Bridgwater which sprung up around William Brewers powerful  castle and stone bridge and popular money spinning Fairs and Markets.

Of course King John was also well known for visiting the famous Petherton Forests for the hunting and legend has it stayed at the King Johns Hunting Lodge in Axbridge. Sadly, in reality built 200 years after he‘d died.

Now John’s main enemy was naturally Robin Hood – a cartoon fox – but there is so far absolutely no evidence that he was anywhere near Bridgwater. Until we make some up. Certainly by the 1390s Geofrey Chaucer, the greatest and only English writer of the period, moved to work in the area – in fact to be a Forest Warden at Petherton, and very VERY likely wrote some of his greatest works here.

As a growing centre for the rising merchant classes, Bridgwater began to get recognised and in 1295 Bridgwater was granted 2 Members of Parliament. These days that job can now be done by just one man, but of course for a higher salary.

Bridgwater castle remained the basis of feudal power despite the rising influence of the Burghers of the town and the citizens fate depended on exactly which power crazed maniac was the Lord of the Manor. By the time of the Baronial Wars of the 1320s it was Roger de Mortimer who dragged his retinue onto the side of the rebellious Barons against King Edward II – the famous ‘red hot a‘ player who died of mitigating circumstances and a very warm bottom at Berkley Castle. Roger Mortimer was effectively the ruler of England for a while, but somewhat implicated in the events ended up being hung drawn and quartered. That’ll learn him.

In 1381 the Peasants were revolting against the power of the Feudal state which during the reign of Richard II had gone a step too far and introduced a poll tax , which almost no-one (beyond Chief Executive level) could afford to pay. In the South East the peasants led by Watt Tyler and John Ball marched on London. News reached Bridgwater and the locals stormed the nearest bastions of Feudalism they could find, tore up their bond papers, executed a couple of Poll tax collecters and then marched to Ilchester freeing the prisoners and executing their jailer. At this point they found out that the Peasants Revolt  in London had actually collapsed and was being brutally suppressed. So they quietly went home and didn‘t mention it again

By the 1460s Plantagenet faction fighting now took the form of the Wars of the Roses. Again the cunning people of Bridgwater were able to take advantage of the conflicting loyalties and got the next important charter. Crucially the 1468 charter allowed the town a Mayor . Yorkist King Edward IV was facing a realignment of his allies and wanted Bridgwater in the white rose camp. So Bridgwater got the final jigsaw piece that allowed itself to be taken seriously as a self governing Borough.

Rebels, Rebellions and Rebelishness

In 1497 the rebels of the Western Rising passed through Bridgwater picking up more eager rebels en route. Led by Joseph the Blacksmith an army of well, people not dissimilar to blacksmiths, and in fact mainly Cornish, marched on London – but were catastrophically (and pretty inevitably) defeated at Blackheath. Joseph was sentenced to be hung drawn and quartered..but was let off with a caution. He was just hung. And later drawn and quartered.

By the time of the Tudors, England was well and truly a seafaring nation and Bridgwater was well and truly part of that. In 1588 it was a Bridgwater sailor in his crows nest that first spotted the Spanish Armada arriving off the Lizard and gave the alarm. But the hardy seafarers-well, let’s be honest ‘Pirates’ , won the day and the Armada was not only defeated but the Spanish fleet scattered and shipwrecked on and around all points of the British isles. And bearing witness hanging above the altar in St Mary‘s church even today is the renaissance Italian painting from one of those wrecked ships “Deposition from the Cross“. Almost definitely looted….or ‘donated‘ to the church in 1775 by a local MP….with the Police possibly hot on his tail

17th century England was a century of religious persecution and social change disguised as religion. As with most of the ascending mercantile towns inspired by the new Protestant work ethic of the Reformation, Bridgwater became an essentially Protestant town – but specifically an independent + non conformist Protestant town. And this led to one of our greatest tradition – the Bridgwater Carnival, which has it‘s origins not in celebrating the attempt in 1605 of the revolutionary anarchist Guy Fawkes to blow up Parliament but in celebrating the torture and execution of the Catholic terrorist Guy Fawkes in failing to blow up Parliament. There were parties, festivities and bonfires in many towns across the country, but the one in Bridgwater stuck. Along with the one in Lewes, West Sussex, but in that one they actually burn the Pope every year….

By the 1640’s this religious strife had turned to open political conflict and the English Civil War became an actual and extremely uncivil war. Bridgwater – a merchant town and therefore allied with the progressive Parliamentary side, found itself occupied by the Royalists and the now out of town powerful landowning families were back in charge of their feudal manor. So when the Wyndhams occupied the town and castle in 1645 a bloody siege  brought Cromwell himself to the area, his artillery based on Hamp Hill wreaking havoc on the wattle and daub homes of Friarn Street and Silver Street. And when he won he pulled down the castle. Gert killjoy.

England became a Republic, and one of the talented celebrities of that political systém was that famous son of Bridgwater Robert Blake. General at Sea for Cromwell and notably defeating every major power that had a navy – the French, the Spanish, the Dutch and even liberating the Channel islands from the Royalist residue that had fled there and tried to set up a government in Exile. When he died in 1657 Blake had a state funeral and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Disgracefully when the Royalists finally turned England back into a Monarchy in 1660 his body was exhumed and dumped in a lime pit. Fortunately his heart had been separately buried in a church in the navy town of Plymouth so they overlooked that. Until 1941 when the Germans bombed Plymouth destroying the church and the rest of Blake was thereafter lost to history as well.

The Battle of Sedgemoor was the last battle in England. So far. In 1685 the Duke of Monmouth turned up, said he’d probably make a better King than the autocratic feudal revivalist (and probably Catholic) James II and so the people of Bridgwater followed him. As far as Weston Zoyland where they were defeated by a professional army commanded by one of Englands bestest soldiers John Churchill (later the Duke of Marlborough) . Well he was meant to be second in command but his boss the Duke of Feversham was busy in the local inn trying to cop off with one especially attractive local, so Churchill essentially ran the show.

Of course you’ll have seen the Hollywood version of all that. The 1935 film Captain Blood with Eroll Flynn starts after the battle of Sedgemoor and you see these snow capped peaked mountains, in fact very much like the Rockies, and then the words come up …“Bridgwater 1685“.

Making it’s mark on the world

Throughout the 18th century, Britain expanded around the globe Imperialistically oppressing anyone they could find to Imperialistically oppress and the merchants grew rich. Every King that century was called George and in Bridgwater we have one of the best Georgian streets outside of Bath. Castle Street – built by James Bridges the Duke of Chandos in the ruined courtyards of the castle.

During this period Bridgwater people moved all over the world and took their town with them. There‘s 17 Bridgewaters around the world and 13 in the USA alone. And it was from the USA that the next landmark of our proud history elicited inspiration.

Bridgwater found itself at the forefront of the fight against slavery. In the American War of Independence (1775-1783) British radical philosopher Thomas Paine had helped write the “all men are created equal“ bits of the constitution. Although his book The Rights of Man‘ had been burnt in a bonfire on the Cornhill by local Tories, the inspiration lit a fire around the world. Some US states quickly abolished slavery-radical Vermont being the first in 1777 , and on conclusion of the war in 1783 the first abolitionist movement took hold in England led by Quakers and therefore with it’s none conformist tradition, very strong in Bridgwater. William Tuckett, Mayor of Bridgwater who had seen slavery first hand in the Caribean, signed in 1785 the first petition in the Country calling for the abolition of the evil practice. Bridgwater’s MPs presented the petition and with prompt and decisive action, Parliament voted that the petition “lie on the table“…ie; Be ignored.

Until 1807 that is, whereupon the campaign had been taken up everywhere around the country and couldn’t be ignored and was then finally abolished.

19th century Bridgwater was a typical snapshot, or maybe ‘daguerreotype‘ of Victorian Britain. As Britain moved into a period of massive industrialisation some of the country’s major infrastructure projects were created. These are still visible today, whether it’s that hidden Somerset gem Bridgwater  Docks , Brunels Great Western Railway or the Bridgwater-Taunton Canal, the past is still  very much with us.

With industry came a working class, and as they organised against the excesses of capitalism, a consequent growth of Trades Unions. In the docks, on the railways and in the brick yards of Bridgwater they were especially strong. So much so that in the final showdown between labour and capital of the 19th century in 1896 the Government had to put the army onto the streets of the town to break up the strike and restore the authority of the boss class.

Bridgwater played it’s part in the Global conflagrations of the 20th century as the names of the towns dead on the King Square war memorial testifies. Bridgwater people fought and died in all corners of the Earth and on the high seas. Yet it was in 1938 that Bridgwater achieved another first. That year  Bridgwater became the only town in the country to hold a by-election that successfully challenged the Governments policy of appeasement of Fascism and  opposed the sell-out Munich agreement. Journalist and broadcaster Vernon Bartlett won as an independent and legend has it that Hitler almost choked on his cheese toastie at breakfast the following morning when he read the word ‘Bridgwater‘ on the front page of his ‘Daily Nazi‘.

War came, Bridgwater was bombed (round about Southgate Avenue) and had Hitler invaded Britain from the West Bridgwater would have faced him again as the army created a ‘Stop Line‘ along the course of the Bridgwater canal and the River Parrett to halt him in his tracks. Walk the canal and river today and the pillboxes remain.

In 1945 peace came and Bridgwater blossomed with it’s increasingly progressive Borough Council espousing the ideals of municipal socialism. To this day Bridgwater is 75% comprised of well thought out social housing communities with schools and parades of shops planned during this period. And to top off this William Morris paradise, in 1946 Britains first Art Centre opened it‘s doors in the towns famous Castle Street and is going strong still in it’s 70th year.

Another first for Bridgwater came in 1970 when yet another by-election gave the town the opportunity for the first 18 year old (Susan Wallace) to cast a vote.

By 1974 Bridgwater suffered a setback – Local Government re-organisation saw the end of 600 years of self government with the creation of Sedgemoor District Council (cue Pantomime booing, enter Kerry Rickards twirling false moustache) – or as it’s known-‘direct rule from Cheddar‘ . Bridgwater became a junior partner in a wider demographic- often coloured an alien shade of Tory blue . However, Bridgwater didn’t take that laying down and by 2003 enough petitioning and a friendly Labour Government restored a Bridgwater Town Council.

Proud of our Internationalism, Bridgwater initiated another first when in 1992 , following the collapse of the Communist bloc, Bridgwater became the first UK town to twin with a Czech town (Uherske Hradiste)  post-Velvet Revolution, remembering those similarly strong internationalist messages that had been sent by the 1938 By Election.

Enter the Strummer

Bridgwater maintains several proud international links – our 5 twin towns -French in the 50s, German in the 80s, Czechoslovak in the 1990s, Maltese in 2006 and Italian in 2015….plus one pretend one….Seattle (USA) in February 2016.

Which brings me back to why we should be proud of Bridgwater.

This year a radio station in Seattle contacted us because they’d heard of our connection to Joe Strummer of the Clash punk band and wondered if we’d sign up to International Clash Day. Of course we would. Strummer came to Bridgwater carnival once, the floats were playing Clash songs, Strummer said ‘Hey, this is a Clash town! I want to live here!“ and he did, until the day he died in 2002.

If people knocked Bridgwater, Strummer was the first to defend it, because he spotted straight away what was special about the place. Bridgwater is a rough and ready working class town with a radical, revolutionary , independent, riotous and diffident character. It’s awash with creative and unpretentious people and it has a history to be proud of. And that to me merits Civic Pride.