12
The Wheel
RADSTOCK NEEDS YOU Through the valleys of the carboniferous
limestone, the Wellow Brook hurriedly winds; first, to Midsomer Norton and next, the town of Radstock. In prehistory this latter was a settlement on the red earth enclosed by a stockade to protect families and animals. In Roman and Mediaeval times, the settlement developed as agriculture advanced but the transformation to town status happened as a result of the discovery of coal in the 1760s. A giant dragonfly fossil was found in 1912, in a piece of shale on the waste-tip of Tyning Colliery, which is near Writhlington, Radstock. The specimen was sent to Dr Herbert Bolton, a leading authority on insect fossils, who was at that time the director of the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. Dr Bolton (1863-1936) recognised it as being a species unknown to science, and also the largest insect fossil, flying or otherwise, to be found in the British Isles. He named it Meganeura Radstockensis. Later examination of the specimen by a German palaeontologist, Anton Handlirsch, revealed that it was different to the Meganeura in certain respects. He renamed the dragonfly Boltonites Radstockensis in honour of Dr Bolton. This unique fossil in now in the care of the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences in Cambridge. Less than a century later, Radstock became an important centre for the distribution of Somerset coal via two railways and all the accoutrements of a prosperous Victorian town began to appear. These included non-conformist chapels, a reading room, a school of mining, a brewery and Radstock’s own co-operative foundation. Dating from 1868 this last institution is thriving and even expanding today. The latter part of the 20th century brought significant
economic change. The coal and the railways disappeared, as did most of the Victorian institutions. Yet housebuilding continued apace so that the town was in danger of becoming a mere dormitory for its neighbours, Bath and Bristol. Radstock has always maintained its independence and in 2011 was officially recognised as a town with its own town council. The years between have witnessed rapid population growth, from 5,500 to 7,000, and miscellaneous industries have emerged to fill the void left by the mines. A splendid museum commemorates many aspects of Old Radstock whilst the future of the town is being underpinned by various projects aimed at bolstering business opportunities and social cohesion. Radstock sits at the intersection of two important roads: the Roman Fosse Way, re-routed through the town as the A367 New Bath Road, and the A362 running east to west, connecting Radstock with the
