‘Water, water, everywhere,
Ne any drop to drink.’
So run the immortal, if oft misquoted, lines of Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’- said to have been written after the poet’s visit to Watchet. He was describing a ship becalmed and not the town which is thought to be referenced in his words: ‘Below the Kirk, below the Hill, Below the Light-house top.’ It does seem however, if you visit the town at high tide, that there is indeed water everywhere. It is filling the Marina, running up the slipway on West Beach, whirling under the bridge by The Star Inn, crashing against rocks at Splash Point and, on a super wild day, spurting like a geyser through the manholes in the car park by The London Inn. Visit on another day, at another time, and you will wonder whether there is any water at all, just estuarine mud! On the shores of the Bristol Channel and subject to the world’s second highest tidal range, Watchet can change dramatically in a matter of hours from a harbour town lapped gently by salt water to a collection of houses perched above an alien-looking beach scoured by a receding brown sea. I’ll have to come clean and say I love it whichever face it is presenting and have done since I moved to Somerset almost 40 years ago.
What first appealed to me when I encountered this gem of a town was its quaint streets with buildings cosying up to each other, whispering tales from a past rich in maritime and industrial history. Over the centuries, Watchet’s fortunes have ebbed and flowed like its fickle tide. A vital port in the age of Alfred the Great – it even had its own mint - the town has surged at various times on the strength of trading goods such as cloth, lime, kelp, paper and iron ore only to be wracked by devastating storms, waning demand for those same goods and changes in transport choices. In more recent decades, it has featured in lists of most deprived areas in the County but its star is on the rise again thanks to an indomitable spirit. That spirit is illustrated literally in the mural painted by local man Pat Dennis along the sea defence wall. Watchet Arts Group had sought a grant for the artwork but been rejected so instead turned to the self-taught artist. His depiction of the town’s history, from Jurassic sea creatures to the arrival of the steam train and more, is joyous.
The Watchet ‘we’ll do it our way’ spirit is also writ large in the edgy-looking building that stands proud above the Marina known as East Quay. Conceived, built and run by a group of local women calling itself the Onion Collective, the assembled galleries, café, studios and accommodation pods have put the town on the map once more. They replace a failed bid by a developer to put flats there which would have been a very different perspective. The Onion Collective is also responsible for the jaunty signs that guide visitors around the town whether they arrive by car, bus, boat, train or walking the King Charles III England Coast Path. Signs point to where you can find anything from food to fossils but if in doubt, pop into the ever-friendly visitors’ centre. It is right by the West Somerset Railway Station and the Boat Museum.
For a small (albeit now rapidly growing) town, Watchet is packed with things to see and do. You can wander along the Esplanade and pose for pictures by the statues of the Ancient Mariner and Yankee Jack. You can sample the locally made Styles Farmhouse Ice Cream and browse the independent shops. You can go crabbing and stroll out towards the lighthouse past more words from Coleridge painted on the wall: ‘The breezes blew, the white foam flew, the furrow follow’d free’. You can walk up his ‘Hill’ to the ‘Kirk’. Both St Decuman’s Church and the Holy Well named after him are worth the climb – the well for its tranquillity and the church for its amazing family memorials that shed yet more light on the history of this remarkable place.
What draws me back to Watchet time after time is not just the warmth of its welcome or the lure of Pebbles Tavern but the beaches. You do not have to be a geologist to marvel at the magnificent jumble of grey-blue Jurassic rock folded up against red Triassic stone mixed together with pink and white Alabaster. The cliffs attract peregrines who nest there and cheerful rock pipits while out to sea as you look across to Wales you can spot shelduck, oyster catchers and egrets. A walk to Helwell beach is often rewarded with fossils, turnstones and wigeon – what more could I want?
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https://www.visitsomerset.co.uk/discover-somerset/popular-somerset-towns/watchet/