Weekly News News
Highbridge history team call it a day after a decade
8:20am Thursday 23rd February 2012
THE team behind a book which commemorates the history of Highbridge has called it a day after a decade of work.
But the Highbridge History Project, which has raised over £6,000 for various organisations, will donate £500 to the new town clock fund as its final act.
The project was set up in 2001 by 14 local senior citizens who dedicated their time to researching the history of the town and recording its findings.
Ken Burston, one of the founding members, aged 86, said: “It's time to wind down. We have spent all the money from the sale of the book, which has gone back into Highbridge - such as the Scouts and medical centre.
“We are past doing research and the majority of us are in our 80s. It's something for the young people to take up now.”
In 2004 the project published Highbridge - A Somerset Market Town and its People to mark the anniversary of the railway arriving in Highbridge in 1854.
The project also made available a DVD that held over 500 images of Highbridge dating back to 1800, which have featured regularly in the Weekly News. The team has thanked Highbridge residents who gave accounts for the years prior to the 1960s.
Burnham and Highbridge Town Council has thanked the project for its donation.
The council voted to replace the 'three-faced liar' at Jubilee Gardens in 2010 and is set to have a new clock in place this summer in time for the Queen's Jubilee at a cost of around £20,000.
The original clock was unveiled during Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887 but hit by a lorry in the 1960s.
Town clerk Eileen Shaw said: “We are very grateful to the Project and everybody else who has made a donation.”