Situated a little to the east of Wells, Shepton Mallet lies in a fold amongst the Mendip Hills. Its many pale-grey limestone buildings lend it a somber appearance, relieved in places by bright colour washes.
Garston Street approaches the centre of town from the east. On the northern side are terraces of older stone cottages of mixed design, whilst the southern side has narrow garden plots that appear to belong to the opposite properties. Modern industrial units bacl onto thse garden plots in a most unsympathetic fashion. At the eastern end of the road is a brewery and the western end overlooks a substantial mill.
|
| |
| View west along Garston Street. Several of the properties in the street are Grade II listed. | View east along Garston Street | View towaed the town centre frm the bottom end of Garston Street |
| ||
On the 1841 Census, the twelve year old Henry CURTIS is listed as living in Garston Street, with an older female member of the CURTIS family and another CURTIS lad of similar age to himself.
Cowl Street approaches the centre of town from the north. It contains a miscellany of stone cottages that are probably old enough to have been there when my ancestors were, together with more recent infill. The street scene is dominated by two bridges, at the upper end a railway viaduct and midway down, by a bridge carrying a road to a cemetary.
 |  |
 |  |
| Cottages at the top of Cowl Street, which appear to be built on the floor of an old quarry. The Bath Road Viaduct carried the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, which was opened in 1874 and reconstructed in 1946. | Looking up Cowl Street, from the bridge to the cemetary, a Grade II listed structure built in 1856 by Wainwright and Heard. | Looking down Cowl Street from the bridge to the cemetary. | Longbridge House aloready stood at the bottom of Cowl Street in when James, Duke of Monmoth, stayed there prior to his defeat at the battle of Sedgemoor in July 1685. |
 |
|||
On the 1851 Census, the twenty-three year old Henry CURTIS is listed as living in Cowl Street, as the only CURTIS in a house occupied by the JENNETT family. No relationship is given to the JENNETTs.
Various census records gave the place of birth of Henry CURTIS as Shepton Mallet, and he certaily spent part of his youth and his earlier working life in the town. More information may be found elsewhere on this site in the Biography of Henry CURTIS.
On the 1891 Census, Richard SHARP, one of the sons of John and Mary SHARP of Langridge, near Bath, Somerset, is listed at Shepton Mallet, though it is not yet certain where.
A selection of links to other sites with information about this place: