Nailsea Tithe Barn

Four of us trustees of the Stroud Preservation Trust drove together to the south of Bristol today, where we attended a meeting of the South West Association of Preservation Trusts. We meet approximately every quarter at a venue arranged by one of the trusts, where we not only exchange information but also get to see any restoration work they have achieved locally.

A group in Nailsea, an old Somerset industrial town, invited us this month and we met at a local pub for the morning and then lunch.  Following this we went to visit the adjacent Tithe Barn, originally built in about 1490, which the local community raised money for and sympathetically restored in 2011. It is situated right next to the church, and as we walked up to the barn a funeral was just beginning. After the service a wake was being held inside this barn so we had to quickly have our conducted tour during which I quickly took this picture.

Then we drove across the small town to where the remains of a very important coal mining area still exists, thanks to the protection arranged over many years by various local groups. The site was reckoned to be nearly unique and one of the few remnants of the coal mining industry not completely destroyed after the mines' closure. The site was very overgrown now but we were allowed to explore and persue some of the buildings and the archaeological remnants. Hopefully money will be raised in due course for its proper restoration but it will take a long time as it is now owned by the local authority who have many calls on their funds and energy. I wish the project well however.


From the Tithe Barn's website:
The Tithe Barn is thought to originate from 1480. There was a hamlet of 28 subsistence farmers recorded in the area in Doomsday Book of 1086.
As early as the 14th century the community was large enough to need a church and Holy Trinity was built. The Tithe Barn adjoins the Church on one of the highest points of ground, overlooking the flat and boggy surrounding moors.
Medieval Middle Ages
Tithes were a payment in kind (one-tenth of the produce of a land holding, paid to support the local rector) until the system was changed to a monetary payment, under the Tithe Commutation Act 1836.
Coal mining flourished locally for some 400 years. Documents report that in 1507 Nailsea coal was being sold in nearby Yatton for the firing of lime kilns. The early shallow bell pits were replaced in the mid nineteenth century with deep mines.
The availability of good coal supplies attracted glass making to Nailsea. By the 1850s Nailsea boasted the fourth largest glass works in England. The fine work of skilled glass blowers resulted in a style which developed an international reputation as 'Nailsea' glass. Established in 1788 it operated until 1873 when it ceased production. Coal mining in Nailsea ceased in 1882.