Tag Archives: wincanton

A deserted dairy product factory in a small town in Somerset

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WHEN TRAVELLING BETWEEN London and Cornwall, we often stop at the small town of Wincanton in Somerset. Close to the A303 trunk road, it has retained a certain ‘ye olde worlde’ charm. Once. It was a town with many coaching inns, but although many of these have closed, the buildings that housed them are still recognizable. One of the buildings on the main street houses a small museum of Wincanton. Amomgst the exhibits, there was a glass case containing old objects connected with the ‘Cow and Gate’ dairy products company. Amongst these, there were two glass feeding bottles used for feeding milk to babies.

The Cow and Gate company began life in 1882 as the ‘West Surrey Central Dairy Company’. In 1904, Dr Killick Millard developed a powdered milk, which in 1908 was marketed by the company as ‘Cow & Gate Pure English Dried Milk’. In 1929, the West Surrey Central Dairy Company Limited was renamed ‘Cow and Gate’. None of this information was available in the form of a label or information notice next to the Cow and Gate exhibit. So, I asked the lady looking after the museum why there were Cow and Gate exhibits in the museum.  She explained that until (before [?]) the 1990s. Cow and Gate had a large factory in Wincanton, which had its own railway line, a branch of the now closed (in 1966) Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway.

We strolled downhill to the south of the old part of the town, and came across the former Cow and Gate factory. With three storeys, a centrally located clock tower. and windows fitted with Crittall frames, it is a fine example of interwar Modernist industrial architecture. Today, many of the windowpanes are broken and the building has a deserted, neglected appearance. Boards with the name of Myakka – a design company – are attached, but there was no sign of life within the building and the yard surrounding it. We could not enter the old factory, but Myakka have posted pictures of its interior on it company website (https://blog.myakka.co.uk/home/myakka-architecture/). Although nobody seems to remember who designed it, it is a well-known landmark in Wincanton. Everyone we asked directions to it, knew it well.

Over the years, Cow and Gate expanded, and needed a fleet of vehicles to transport its products all over the country. This led to them founding a logistics company, ‘Wincanton’, which is still thriving more than 70 years after it was formed. In 1958, Cow and Gate merged with United Dairies to become ‘Unigate’, which was taken over by Irish foods firm Greencore in 2011. As for the derelict Modernist factory in Wincanton, nobody seems to know what will become of it.

Victoria slept here once

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LOVINGTON BAKERY AND CAFÉ in Wincanton (Somerset) provides a superb range of breakfast items, all prepared beautifully. No effort was spared to ensure that we had a most enjoyable breakfast. The café, which is housed on the Market Place close to the Town Hall, is almost opposite a former coaching inn, once called ‘The Greyhound’.

The elegant three-storey building that used to be the Greyhound has a centrally located archway that has a cobbled driveway passing beneath it. There is a bas-relief depicting a royal coat of arms above the archway. A cast-iron inn sign showing a greyhound with its broad neck collar remains suspended over the pavement above the archway. An oval panel above the archway but at the level of the roof has a faded painting of a greyhound.

The Greyhound was built in the 18th century, probably by the local builder Nathaniel Ireson (1685-1769), whose impressive funerary monument, which includes a handsome statue and carvings of builder’s tools, can be seen in the graveyard that surrounds the town’s large church of St Peter and St Paul.  The building was first mentioned in parish records in 1743 and advertised as being “new” in 1760 (https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1238740). The greyhound is the armorial symbol of the Churchey Family of Tout Hill.

In 1825, when the future Queen Victoria was a child aged about six years, she visited Wincanton and stayed for one night at The Greyhound. This visit is recorded on a plaque attached to the building. Where she was going, I have not yet been able to ascertain, but she was not the only royal visitor to be associated with Wincanton. In 1688, William of Orange (reigned 1698-1702) not only visited the town but also his Dutch troops fought and won a battle against troops loyal to the deposed King James II in the town. After his victory, he spent a night in Wincanton A plaque attached to a picturesque old building not far from the former Greyhound inn commemorates the Battle of Wincanton (20th of November 1688).

The Greyhound is one of many pubs (former and still working) that line the main road through Wincanton. In the olden days before motor transport superseded horse-drawn transport, these inns served as staging posts for travellers, places for being fed and for resting overnight. The Greyhound no longer serves the traveller but houses a gallery and has also become part of a housing unit. We spent the night in a modern hotel not far from the modern highway (the A303), which takes traffic past Wincanton rather than through its winding hilly streets. From our bedroom window, we can see a concrete factory and a tall sign advertising a KFC food outlet. Had Victoria been staying here, I am certain that she might have said or thought “We are not amused”.