Wells & Mendip Museum

Saturday April 16th until Monday 6th June this year the museum is hosting a major exhibition Wells & Mendip Musuem, Wells City Archives, Somerset Film, Project Factory and Wells Civic Society are planning a community exhibition to showcase the Changing Shops of Wells using photographic archives of the 1890s, !970s and 2000 showing the changing face and changing use of the retail premises of Wells.

Alongside these images we would like to have community involvement by asking local residents for their images and memories of the High Street so that these can be recorded for future generations to build upon. We are holding a Community Day on 26th February for local people to come and share their photographs and memories of Wells High Street.

The ecclesiastical history of the city is very well documented but the ever-changing social aspect of the city needs to be collated and curated as an important record that contributes to the uniqueness of Wells as a place to live and work.

To achieve this, we will have the involvement of Somerset Film who will make a visual record of the current High Street in 2022 along with recording some memories of those that live here which will give an added layer of reference.

The images drawn from the museum and Wells City Archive will need reproducing into quality images for display.

In terms of working within the city’s heritage partnership the Bishop’s Palace are interested in taking the exhibition for a further viewing to a different public in January 2023 but if we achieve our aim we will be establishing a permanent archive to be used in research and in the museum’s education outreach programme for schools, local history groups, local residential homes and many others as a legacy.