08/06/2026
Thanks to everyone who came to last Thursday's event on the history of flax and the mills of the River Isle. It was a wonderful turnout, and we all came away knowing a great deal more about local history and the history of The Millhouse.
John Highnam and Jim Sainsbury were exceptional. They painted a picture of a Somerset that most of us had never quite seen before — a county whose fields grew flax, whose rivers powered a network of mills from the Blackdown Hills to the Levels, and whose working families created the ropes, sails and rigging of the Royal Navy at the height of its power.
It was an industrial heartland, and the River Isle ran through the middle of it. We also heard how that world came to an end: the canals, then the railways, then the roads, each drawing trade and production away until the mills fell quiet.
We were delighted to welcome members of the Somerset Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers, and to have people travel from as far as Exeter and Cornwall. The Guild is doing quietly vital work — keeping traditional methods alive, working with local wool and natural fibres, and carrying forward skills that connect us directly to the kind of labour the mills of the River Isle once knew well. Through those crafts, natural materials become more than thread: they become the ties between people, generations, a place and its story.
The Millhouse is one of a small number of former mill buildings still genuinely in use — for craft, for culture, for community. Past industry shows us the footsteps our ancestors took as we become who we are today; buildings like The Millhouse are part of keeping that story alive.
We'd love you to help us keep weaving it. Come and see what we do, join the Millhouse Weavers or Writers Group, attend a workshop, exhibit here, give a talk, browse the antiques, catch a performance, or sit by the river and let the pace slow down for a while.
Hold in mind the people who worked in these mills. The retting, breaking, scutching, weaving — hard, physical, often damaging work, done by men, women and children whose names are mostly unrecorded.
