Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society (SANHS) is a learned society founded in 1849 to promote the study of archaeology, natural history and history, with particular reference to the historic county of Somerset. In 1874 the society purchased Taunton Castle, which it restored and adapted for use as a museum, library and meeting place. Since 2010 the society's headquarters have been at the Somerset Heritage Centre, Norton Fitzwarren.
During the first half of the 20th century the society expanded its activities under the leadership of Harold St George Gray, whose excavations and curatorial work influenced the development of the collections and raised the society’s profile. In 1958 financial pressures led to the leasing of Taunton Castle, with the museum collections, to Somerset County Council (now Somerset Council). The society continues to work in partnership with the council and the South West Heritage Trust, and remains active through lectures, research, conservation projects and publication, as well as through its ownership of Taunton Castle and of extensive collections.[1]
Origins of the society
Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society was founded in 1849 following discussions among ‘several gentlemen of Taunton and its neighbourhood’. Individuals associated with its establishment and early development included the Revd Francis Warre of Cheddon Fitzpaine, the architect Charles Edmund Giles, and the Revd W. A. Jones of Taunton.[1][2] The society was one of several similar organisations established in the west of England during the 19th century, among them Bristol Literary and Philosophical Society in 1821, Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society in 1846, and Wiltshire Natural History and Archaeological Society in 1853.[3][4]
The first meeting of the society took place in the Market House, Taunton, on 26 September 1849 and was attended by 350 people. The president, Sir Walter Calverley Trevelyan of Nettlecombe, stated that the society’s objectives were ‘preserving, and collecting, and spreading information’ about the county’s antiquities and natural history, as well as the formation of a museum and library. By 1851 the society had 420 members and had published the first volume of its annual Proceedings. At the same time it began to assemble collections for the museum and library.
A temporary museum created for the inaugural meeting included parts of the limestone reredos, dating from about 1380, discovered in 1848 in the church of St John the Baptist, Wellington. The reredos was given to the society in 1850.[5][6]
The society was initially based at the Taunton Literary Institution in the New Market House, Taunton, premises for which it paid an annual rent. In 1862 William Bidgood, a farmer’s son from Skilgate, was appointed curator, and in 1873 he also became assistant secretary. He was described as ‘accomplished, intelligent, genial, and many-sided’ and until his death in 1901 remained a key figure in the society’s development.[7]
Purchase of Taunton Castle
In June 1874 the society acquired Taunton's medieval castle as its new headquarters. The castle had historically served as the administrative centre of the manor of Taunton Deane, owned by the bishops of Winchester, and was particularly associated with the Bloody Assizes held there in 1685 following the Monmouth Rebellion. Despite work undertaken in the late 18th century to convert part of the building to judges' lodgings, by the 1870s it was in very poor repair and being offered for sale.
At the society’s annual general meeting in 1872 a paper was delivered on the history of the castle, and soon afterwards a decision was taken to buy it. Money was raised by public subscription, including £2,850 for the initial purchase and further sums for alterations, furniture and fittings. The premises acquired consisted of the castle’s inner bailey and adjacent land, together with two neighbouring properties called Ine’s Cottage and Castle Lodge.[8]
The Great Chamber of the castle (known as the Somerset Room) was reroofed in 1884. In 1899-1900 the Great Hall was repaired and refitted as the society's principal museum space, and in 1908-1909 the Adam Library was created to house the society's growing collection of books.[3]
In 1920 membership reached 1,015, but rising costs meant that the annual subscription had to be doubled to 21s.[9]
Harold St George Gray
Harold St George Gray served as assistant secretary, curator and librarian from 1901 until 1949 and had a central role in the society's activities during that period.[10] He began his career in Wiltshire as assistant to Lt Gen. Augustus Pitt-Rivers and from 1904 collaborated in Somerset with Arthur Bulleid in excavating the Iron Age lake villages at Glastonbury and Meare.[11]
Gray, often assisted by his wife Florence, directed other excavations throughout Somerset, including of the Iron Age fortifications at Ham Hill and South Cadbury, the lron Age and early Roman site at Kingsdown Camp and the Norman defences at Castle Neroche. Between 1924 and 1929 he also directed excavations of the Keep Gardens at Taunton Castle. The results were reconsidered and published in 2016.[12]
In addition to his work in Somerset, Gray carried out excavations elsewhere in England, including at Arbor Low in Derbyshire and at Avebury in Wiltshire. From 1926 to 1929 he worked at Windmill Hill, Avebury, with the archaeologist Alexander Keiller.[13][14] Reports on many of Gray’s excavations are available in the society’s Proceedings and elsewhere.[15]
As curator, Gray undertook cataloguing and conservation of the museum collections and oversaw significant acquisitions, including of a Middle Bronze Age gold torc found at Hendford Hill, Yeovil.[16] Under Gray’s supervision, and with funding from William Wyndham, the Wyndham Hall was built in 1927 to provide a venue for lectures and meetings.[17] Further pre-war additions to the museum complex, also funded by Wyndham, included a new entrance block and galleries designed by Sir George Oatley to house the lake village collections.[18]
Later history
Following Gray’s retirement in 1949, Wilfred Seaby was appointed to succeed him. During Seaby’s brief tenure the collections were returned from wartime storage, the library was reorganised and new office accommodation was provided. In 1952 major repairs to the castle began, centred on the Great Hall, and by the time Seaby left his post at the end of the year, negotiations were complete that brought the recently-discovered Low Ham Roman mosaic to the museum.[19]
Although visitor numbers and educational use increased during the mid-20th century, financial pressures also grew. Castle Lodge and Ine’s Cottage were sold and in 1958 the society ceased direct management of the museum by leasing the castle, with the museum collections, to Somerset County Council. Since 2014 the museum and the collections have been managed by the South West Heritage Trust.[20]
The society was a partner with the County Council in a major project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to refurbish and redisplay the museum. It reopened as the Museum of Somerset in 2011.[21][22][23] In 2013 the society worked with Somerset Buildings Preservation Trust and the County Council on a Lottery-funded scheme to repair Castle House, part of the Taunton Castle complex.[24][25] A further scheme to conserve Castle Gardens was completed by the society in 2021.[26][27]
In 2022 the society resumed control of the Wyndham Hall and a process of refurbishment and repair began. The hall is now used for society events and is also hired by other organisations, including as a cinema.[28]
The society retains a presence at Taunton Castle, but its headquarters since 2010 have been at the Somerset Heritage Centre, Norton Fitzwarren. It was built by Somerset County Council for its heritage services and is now managed by the South West Heritage Trust. Among reserve and reference collections preserved there are extensive museum, library and archive holdings of the society.[20]
Museum collection
The society began to create a museum collection soon after its foundation, but ceased to be an active collector in 1958 when responsibility for the museum passed to Somerset County Council.[29][1][22]
The geological collection contains about 40,000 rocks, minerals, and fossils, mainly from Somerset and neighbouring counties. A highlights is the Ice Age mammal collection which includes 18,000 fossils from the Mendip caves and elsewhere.[30] The biological collection contains about 250,000 specimens, including rare birds, mammals, insects, shells, and plants.[29] The herbarium contains over 30,000 specimens, including material collected by the 19th-century botanists Hewett C. Watson and Isabella Gifford.[31][32]
The archaeological collection spans the Palaeolithic to the 19th century. It includes material from the Glastonbury and Meare lake villages and from excavations throughout Somerset, including at Ham Hill and South Cadbury. Individual items include the Low Ham and East Coker Roman mosaics, the Kewstoke reliquary, the Wellington reredos, and objects associated with the Monmouth Rebellion.[22][29]
The extensive textile collection includes over 2,000 examples of lace mostly collected by Miss Babcock. The collection of Somerset-made ceramics has examples from Donyatt, Brislington and Wincanton, as well as of Elton ware and other craft pottery.[29]
The museum collection formerly contained a significant amount of ethnographic material, including objects given by Frederick Thomas Elworthy and Edward Burnett Tylor. Though most material was transferred to other museums in the 1940s, a small collection was retained.[29]
Library and archive collections
The society’s library contains about 18,000 books and pamphlets, including more than 500 books from the 17th century and over 3,000 collected by Charles Tite. There are also extensive runs of periodicals. Among significant modern acquisitions is the collection of books and photographic slides bequeathed by the archaeologist Mick Aston.[33]
The library collection holds thousands of Somerset watercolours and other illustrations by artists including Samuel Hieronymus Grimm, Francis Danby, Samuel Jackson, John Buckler, John Chessell Buckler and William Walter Wheatley. Most were commissioned by John Hugh Smyth-Piggot (c. 1792-1853) and George Weare Braikenridge (1775-1856).[34][35]
The society also assembled a large archive collection partly because of its wish to gather materials for a history of Somerset. Early acquisitions included a reputed charter of King Ine, dated AD 705, and large quantities of material rescued from the Diocesan Registry at Wells. Among other acquisitions were cartularies, manorial records, maps and parish records. The archive was transferred to the Somerset Record Office from 1935 onwards and is now preserved at the Somerset Heritage Centre.[36][37][38]
Governance and activities
The society was formerly a registered charity but became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in 2025.[39][40] Its objects are to promote the study of archaeology, natural history and history, with particular reference to the historic County of Somerset, including through publications and information technology. It fulfils those objects by awarding grants, organising talks and events and publishing scholarly research. The charity is managed by a board of trustees who are supported by subject committees relating to archaeology, natural history, local history, historic buildings, publications, and the library.
Since 1851 the Society has published its annual Proceedings, containing papers on the history, archaeology and ecology of Somerset. They are available online.[15]
Prominent people
Professor Mick Aston, the landscape archaeologist who achieved prominence on Channel 4’s Time Team, was a past president of the society. He left it a legacy as well as his personal library. In his memory the society helped to establish ‘Mick Aston’s Young Archaeologists’ (MAYA), a club for young archaeologists, which is now independent.[41][42][43]
Robin Bush, the archivist and historian, was chairman of the society in 1983-1984.[44][45]
References
123David Dawson, ‘“One of the Objects of the Society” (1849): the Society, its Museum and Service to the Public (2022 Presidential Address)’, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 166 (2023), pp. 265-76.
↑David Rabson, ‘From Taunton to the Pyrenees: The Revd William Arthur Jones and the Early Days of the Society’, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 152 (2008), pp. 203-15.
↑‘First Annual Meeting of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society’, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 1 (1849-50), pt 1, pp. 3-4, 22.
↑C. E. Giles, ‘Sculptures in Church of St John Baptist, Wellington, Somerset’, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 1 (1849-50), pt 2, pp. 30-7.
↑Charles Tite, ‘William Bidgood’, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 47 (1901), pp. 234-6.
↑Hugh Malet, Octavius Warre Malet & the Conservation of Taunton Castle (1987).
↑Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 66 (1920), pt 1, pp. xi, xxi.
↑C. A. Ralegh Radford and S. W. Rawlins, ‘Harold St George Gray, 1872-1963’, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 107 (1962-3), pp. 111-16.
↑Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 135 (1991), pp. 235-6.
↑Chris J. Webster, Taunton Castle (2016), pp. 39-47.
↑H. St George Gray, ‘The Gold Torc Found at Yeovil, 1909’, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 55 (1909), pt 2, pp. 66-84.
↑‘Report of the Curator of the Somerset County Museum’, Proceedings of Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 74 (1928), pt 1, p. liv.
↑Julian Orbach and Nikolaus Pevsner, Somerset:South and West (2014), pp. 618-9.
↑T. W. Mayberry, ‘Wilfred Arthur Seaby, MA, FSA, FMA’, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 135 (1991), pp. 255-6.
↑"Derelict historic Taunton building opening to the public - and showing films". Somerset County Gazette. 2022-09-07. Retrieved 2026-01-01.
12345Somerset County Council: Collections DevelopmentPolicy (2014).
↑Andrew Currant, ‘The Quaternary Mammal Collections at the Somerset County Museum, Taunton’,Somerset Archaeology: Papers to Mark 150 Years of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society (2000), p. 39.
↑Liz McDonnell and Ian Salmon, ‘Recent Work on the SANHS Herbarium, Held at the Somerset Heritage Centre, Taunton’, Proceedings of Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 160 (2017), pp. 214-6.
↑David Bromwich, ‘Note on the Illustrations’ in Michael McGarvie (ed.), Sir Stephen Glynne’s Church Notes for Somerset, Somerset Record Society, vol. 82 (1994), pp. xxiii-xxiv.
↑D.M.M. Shorrocks, ‘The Role of the Society in the Preservation of the County’s Archive Heritage’, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 133 (1989), pp. 260-8.
↑"SOMERSET ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY CIO - Charity 1203584". prd-ds-register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk. Retrieved 2026-01-01.
↑James Bond and Bob Croft, ‘Professor Mick Aston (1 July 1946-24 June 2013)’, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 157 (2014), pp. 217-21.
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