Mystery Photograph: A village procession but where?

CAN you guess where this week’s Mystery Photograph was taken?

Each week, the Journal invites readers to identify a historic location from days gone by.

Our first contributor to last week’s photo was Tony Clarke, who thought it showsed The Street in Chilcompton, adding that the stream on the left-hand side runs throughout the the street to the bottom, which has roadworks right now.

Next the team took a call from Mr Charlie Brimble who thinks the photograph shows Temple Cloud on the A37, while regular contributor Jeff Parson sent in a guess on behalf of his coffee morning team. He wrote: “Well, we had a difficult time this morning trying to decide where this picture was.

“Despite having the advantage of bacon butties, cakes, banana splits and strawberry sundaes for sustenance and brain fodder, our team could only come up with the A37 approach to Oakhill, with, in the far distance (partially surrounded by trees), the former Methodist Chapel, on the right hand side.”

We had quite a few varied answers to the post on Facebook. Vivienne Edwards thought it was Stratton on the Fosse, Chris Tilbury guessed it to be Chilcompton too, like Tony, outside the Redan Inn, while Emily Watmough was the second person who thought it was Stratton on the Fosse. Myra Coles guessed Bathford, while Lesley Stock thought it to be Chewton Mendip.

Simon Davis was a third guess for Stratton on the Fosse, Martin and Jude Cole commented to say Paulton and a final guess was from Janice Sell who queried if it was Charlton.

It was indeed an old photograph of the village of Temple Cloud in the Chew Valley. The village population moved away from St James Church to live along the road that ran from Bristol to the South and presumably became the A37. The village expanded further to include 3 or 4 local pubs and was said to have everything except a railway station.

Thanks again to Radstock Museum for this week’s photograph.

Drop us a line with your guesses to: [email protected].