Dr. Todd Grey, Chairman of the Friends of Devon Archives, Honorary Research Fellow at Exeter University and author of some 45 books on Devon history gave us a fascinating talk on “Ugly History”.

By “Ugly History” he was referring to facts about the past which may be unpleasant or painful to discover and possibly make us uncomfortable. He stressed that it is important to recognise these aspects of local history as well as more life affirming ones.

He talked about slavery of both white and black people which he had written about in his book “Devon and the Slave Trade”. He described how Barbary pirates had taken Devonians and some Somerset people captive. He also talked about the subject of another of his books “Blackshirts in Devon” which looked at the rise of fascism between the wars. Though primarily researching Devon, he found fascist groups in a number of Somerset towns including Yeovil, Taunton, Minehead, Radstock and Frome.

He moved on to the dreadful housing and sanitary conditions in some parts of Somerset as described in an 1842 government survey. This report described in detail the condition of the poor at a place called South Marsh near Axbridge, where families were living in one room cottages on a swampy wasteland with pigsties next to them causing an intolerable stench. The report described filth and poverty side by side in houses with windows stuffed with rags, un-whitewashed walls, lack of proper necessaries for refuse and proximity of necessaries to the house and floors seldom scrubbed. Here illnesses like smallpox, ague, scarlet fever and other epidemics were prevalent. These wretched conditions encouraged men to escape to the beer house.

Lastly he talked about a report in 1843 on the condition of women and children in agriculture, specifically mentioning Othery. Evidence was given how traditionally women and children as well as men were often paid partly in cider and how a Mr Summers campaigned against this, advocating its replacement with a partial payment of potatoes. Nonconformists saw alcohol as leading to evils like child abuse and domestic violence.

He ended on a more cheerful note by showing some very attractive photos of paintings, mainly 18^th century, of a number of places in Somerset including Wells, Glastonbury, Cheddar Blue Anchor, Hestercombe and Stanton Drew.