the Woolpack. Historically St Georges is part of Banwell Parish but I suspect soon to be part of Worle or Locking Castle.

There are only now three pubs in the main village the Brewers Arm next to the river below the Old Brewery, the Whistling Duck on the Knightcott Road on the way to Weston which is on the site of an earlier pub The Smiths Arms. The Bell in the Square is an ancient inn that had stables off an entrance in Church Street. In the 18^th century the Bell belonged to the Tuckey family two of who were parish clerks and whose beautiful writing can be seen in the old churchwardens account books, which date from 1519 to the present day. The Tuckey's were also stone carvers and a masterpiece can be seen in the Bell front bar, a Royal coat of arms by Edward Tuckey dated 1764 . Near by opposite the Bell was another ancient large inn called the Ship which sadly went out of business in the 1990's, but thankfully very nicely restored to business office accommodation. (The were two pubs in High Street up until the 1960's called the George and White Hart).

There has been a school in the village since the end of the 18^th century that included one associated with Hannah More. One of the schools in High Street was converted from a Temperance Hall in 1867 and was used until the 1950's in conjunction with the current school of 1926 in West Street.

Most of the early buildings in the main village are on the North sides of East Street and West Street, and both side of Church Street, there are many other ancient buildings mainly farm houses scattered around the outlying parish. There also seems to have been quite a few large Houses for the gentry built or rebuilt in the 19^th century.

In September 1940 a stray stick of bombs fell on the village killing five people and destroying four early terrace cottages in lower West Street  and the Post Office and General store at the top end of West Street towards the Square. Sadly all these were rebuilt in the 1950's to the poor designs of that time.

In the 1950's a council estate was built to house local people and families that had been displaced by the war and were residing in squatter camps at Hillend and Summer lane, the name squatters was not used then as a derogatory name as it is today. The council estate was enlarged through the 1960's and infill around this estate continued with private bungalows and houses which attracted a lot of retired people from the Midlands, later development has carried on Westwards on both sides of the road towards Knightcott.

After sixty odd years of trying Banwell finally built a Village Hall near the Westfield estate on part of the Recreation field left to the village by Robert Day in the 1902. The rest of this field is still used for recreation and is the site for the village carnival in July. The field was in the past also used for the Harvest Home and the fun fairs that went with it.

At the back of West street is another field called Ten Acres that belonged to the Brewery, here from the 1880's to 1930's the Banwell Horse show was held although it did alternate with the Abbey ground the other side of the river below the Abbey sometimes.  Ten Acres luckily has not been developed, as it might have been for in the 1967 a pipe track dug near to the river by the water works revealed 4^th or 5^th century Roman Buildings with mosaic floors. A small excavation was made of the site but the extent of the building is not known, the site is now scheduled so will not be built on but sadly it may never be fully excavated.  To the west side of Ten Acres where the Scout Hut and Community Centre stand was the site of the Banwell Sewage works closed in the 1970's, the car park above this area off West street was created by pulling down one of the ancient cottages that partly survived the 1940's bombing.

To the east of the village is Banwell wood with a knoll that was an iron age fort where the ramparts can still be seen, to the west of this fort is a low earth and stone bank in a cruciform shape surrounded by a rectangular bank the whole likened to a rabbit warren, when it was put there or for what reason is not known although some have suggested it has an association with the thought that St Patrick was born in Banwell.

Nearby is a Victorian castle built in 1847 by a London Solicitor as his home, it is now a hotel and restaurant.  To the west of the castle on the south side of the hill is Winthill where roman and medieval occupation was found during excavations in the 1960's. One of the important finds at Winthill was a roman glass bowl engraved with hunting scenes and a verse "VIVAS CUM TVIS PIES" translated I am told "long life to you and yours drink and you will live", the bowl in now in the Asmolian Museum in Oxford.

Follow this south side of this hill westwards past Whitley Head and we come to the Bone and the Stalactite caves, the latter was discovered by miners in the 17^th century but then lost.  In the 1830's the land on which the cave was thought to be came into the ownership of the Bishop of Bath & Wells, George Henry Law 1824-1845, at this time the lost cave (Stalactite) was found again and opened up, in trying to find a better entrance to the Stalactite cave another cave was found containing a great number of bones of amongst other things Bison, Wolf, Large Brown Bear, Reindeer, red fox and Arctic Fox, hence its name.

The buildings around the caves were gradually extended into a mansion with all the grounds set out as ornamental gardens with various follies and building such as a small museum to house some of the finds from the bone cave. On the hill behind the mansion the Bishop built a 50-foot high tower with a balcony at the top where you can get a fine uninterrupted view in every direction of the surrounding countryside. The whole estate gradually fell into disrepair in the mid 20^th century but with the new owners of the house in the 1980's and help of the farmer of the estate lands the whole area is being brought back to life and restored, the Bone cave and tower are open now at selected time of the year, but the Stalactite cave is restricted to those with caving ability.

Sadly many people see Banwell as a village with a traffic jam but you will see from the above if you wander around on foot you will see Banwell in a different light.

The above information has come from my own and many other sources including articles by various authors in Search the journal of Banwell Society of Archaeology. I have endeavoured to give the correct information but if you know anything written to be incorrect please contact me. I hope to update these pages from time to time.

Roy Rice, 01934 823298, E-mail r.w.rice@Bristol.ac.uk

Netty Rice, 01934 822058. E-mail nettyrice@firefly.net