Permanent Displays include:

• Mining Section & replica coalface
• Miner's Cottage kitchen, scullery and privy
• Geological Section, William (Strata) Smith & Diorama
(Click for more information)
• Victorian Classroom
• Village Co-op Shop
• Radstock Town Centre Model (Circa.1930)
• Agricultural Implements
• Memories of Wartime
• Friendly Society Sashes and Banners
• John Wesley & Methodism (Click for more information)
• Chapel and Commemorative China
• Nelson Connection (Click for more information)
• Forge & Carpenter's Shop
• Somersetshire Coal Canal
• S&D and GWR railway artefacts and memorabilia
• The Reverend John Skinner of Camerton (Click for more information)

Temporary exhibitions are held throughout the year (see Events).

William Smith FGS and North Somerset.
Father of English Geology.

Bearing the encomium of Father of English Geology, William Smith
brought his enquiring mind to the study of rock and fossil formation
in the North Somerset Coalfield.

Born in 1769, he first learned land surveying as a young man in
Stow-on-the-Wold, a place where he became aware of contrasting
rock formation with that of his native Oxfordshire.

Moving to the vicinity of Radstock in 1791, he was employed both
as a land surveyor and civil engineer, primarily engaged in the
execution of a canal connected to local collieries. He was to remain
working to promote the canal venture for 8 years.

On descending into some of the pits, he was increasingly aware of
the regular sequences of rock strata and the position of coal seams
in relation to them. In this, he added to the descriptions given by
John Strachey of Sutton Court in 1721.

He collected fossil specimens, making detailed drawings of the
strata associated with the coal measures. In the course of time,
he became acquainted with the geological stratification in a wider
area around Bath, and was encouraged by a local clergyman with
interests in geology to make a map of his findings in 1799.

Five years earlier, he had attended Parliament on behalf of the
Somerset Coal Canal Company, representing their interests and
projections. His employment with that enterprise came to an end in
1799, the year of his arrival from surveying in the Quantocks, freeing
him for undertaking his interests in other parts of the country.

Smith found a number of accommodations, and is closely associated
with Rugbourne Farm at High Littleton and the Swan Inn at Dunkerton.
A plaque at the former commemorates his contributions to his seminal
contributions to the subject of geology, able to accurately relate
fossils embedded to particular rocks.

Eventually leaving the district, he interpreted strata as far north as
Newcastle, linking rock formation from one county to another.
Over succeeding years, he published geological maps of many
counties, earning him the name 'Strata Smith.'

He died at Northampton at the age of 70 in 1840, having been elected
a Fellow of the Geological Society.

The Radstock Museum acknowledges his importance as a man with
an enquiring mind, and one who helped to make the North Somerset
Coalfield better known in scientific circles. A new geological display
is envisaged by the Trustees.

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John Wesley and North Somerset.

The Wesley brothers were well known Methodist preachers in old
North Somerset, particularly through their work among the colliers.

Taking over from George Whitfield, John Wesley continued evangelical
work at Publow on the slopes of Priestdown, having been excluded by
the clergyman from use of the parish church. Large numbers of
hearers attended, attracted by the appeal of the message spelling
out hope for the hereafter.

From 1739 until 1789, John Wesley was a regular visitor to many
communities, helping them to establish Methodist Societies that
enjoined a discipline of bible study, hymn singing and prayer.
Other preachers from the Methodist New Room at the Horse Fair
in Bristol lent support to the emerging groups of people who
discovered a living Christianity, so different from the set and staid
moralising Anglican services at which they were inactive observers.

Life for most working Somerset people entailed either working on the
land as agricultural labourers or as colliers. The latter particularly
was a dangerous and uncertain occupation, with little recreation
beyond drinkingalcohol and living a coarse existence.

The Wesleys brought a sense of self worth through their gospel of
hope, encouraging sobriety and mutual respect, literacy through
attending meetings, and an individual eloquence in men who became
lay preachers in their own right. John Wesley's unique genius was in
organising his converts so that the Christian message was reinforced
and refreshed through weekly group activity known as the class
system. Here Methodists shared their spiritual progress.

Erecting their own Meeting Houses added to their sense of
independence, although they were strongly encouraged to attend
the parish church for communion. Licences obtained from the bishop
of the diocese legitimised 'dissenting' preachers using these buildings;
that is, men who had not been ordained in the Church of England
permitted to take religious services without penalty of persecution.

Meeting Houses produced a spontaneity and release of spiritual
emotion that held members together, reinforced by Watch Night
services and revivalist schedules. Methodism gave a purpose and
relevance to lives that otherwise were set in repetitive drudgery.
Hard earned pence were put aside as regular contributions to pay
for a visiting preacher's fare. At a practical level, pamphlets on simple
dress, general spiritual advice and home medicine were circulated.
Children too, were not neglected but given their own classes.

Charles Wesley's hymns and own dynamic preaching in the 1740's
created a powerful effect, helping to inspire and unite Somerset
converts into a happy fellowship with each other. The eloquence of
sermons transformed ordinary people's minds and helped preserve
social order, but would also be the basis for articulating grievances
against employers in later years.

While there was disquiet and even resentment among some clergy
and middle class parishioners, Methodism's dogged persistence in the
face of hostility won the day. Eventually, church membership suffered
loss, as Meeting Houses became more widespread and independent,
evolving into chapels with their own structure, separate training and
administration.

Radstock Museum holds a collection of Wesleyana, some of which is
on display.

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Revd. Horatio Nelson Ward
Nelson and the Radstock Connection

The Reverend Horatio Nelson Ward served as rector to Radstock
between 1855 until 1888, dying from complications of a chest infection.
His middle name was in honour of his naval grandfather, Admiral Lord
Nelson, whom he never met on account of his birth date occurring
several years after the Battle of Trafalgar.

The kinship arose through the passionate liaison and infidelity of the
admiral with Lady Hamilton, leading to the illegitimate birth of the
rector's mother named Horatia, the latter never knowing the identity of
her mother. Upon marriage to a clergyman, Horatio was her firstborn.

However, the paternity of the rector's mother was fully accepted by
the family, who amassed a number of important items once belonging
to Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton. Some of these items remain in
family keeping; others have joined national museum collections.
A beaker traditionally associated with a drink proffered to the dying
Nelson on HMS Victory is owned by the Radstock Museum.

Horatia maintained a lifelong contact with her son, even after his move
to Radstock in the mid 19th Century, visiting him and attending divine
service when he did duty. After her death in 1881, the rector added the
second Nelson name to his own, thus becoming Revd. Horatio Nelson
Nelson-Ward.

Perhaps imbued with the family association, his childhood ambition had
been to-join the navy, but objections from his mother to securing this
early aspiration were reluctantly heeded: she being anxious to avoid
another death at sea in the family. Another brother, christened
Marmaduke did go to sea however, rising through the ranks to become
an admiral, eventually dying during a visit to the Radstock rectory.

Continuing the tradition, a grandson of the rector also pursued a naval
career, and becoming an admiral.

The parish of Victorian Radstock was a thriving coal mining and railway
centre, with a constantly growing population to administer unto. Strikes
and political protest were part of the working-man's scene, but cordial
relations between church and chapel, and church and collieries were
maintained throughout.

Life on land was a complete contrast to the discipline at sea.
The rector oversaw the evolution of a non-church school, and served
the community with a social conscience, and at the time of his own
passing, the people mourned his loss. The local church has memorials
to the Nelson connection, while the museum has a small permanent
display on the subject. A book detailing the full story can be obtained
from the museum bookshop.

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Revd. John Skinner

Without the Journals assiduously kept by this profoundly learned
clergyman who held the rectory of Camerton between 1800 until
1839, we would lack the detailed knowledge of life in a local North
Somerset parish.

While his temperament and family tragedies affected his personality,
and doubtless the cause of much psychotic depression, his accounts of
parishioners and events, albeit subjective, were at least first hand.

We gain insights into everyday incidents, epidemics, peccadilloes, frailties
of human nature, tensions between the rector and dogmatic dissenters.
Both the lower orders and the higher orders came in for his vitriol and
condemnation. Above everything, he was convinced of the inherent
rightness of the Church of England, equating its institutions with the
status of kingship and the state, and refusing to quit his position.

An unshakable Tory by conviction, his political views brought him into
occasional conflict with what he saw as revolutionary elements.
Skinner's death preceded the growth of Chartism by only a few years
but the signs were apparent, even allowing for his pessimism for the
future of his otherwise beloved country.

His lofty sense and personal dignity was the target of mockery and
spiteful comment; while his inability to command overflowing
congregations and his vexations caused by rebellious church singers
and bell ringers cast himself as a martyr.

Some of his troubles were undoubtedly the result of losing his young
wife after only six years of marriage. Lacking support for bringing up
surviving children, with their illnesses, needs and challenges,
superimposed on his sensitive person a burden that would eventually
lead him to take his own life.

He found relief in antiquarian interests, partly supplied by archaeological
finds in his own and neighbouring parishes. Congenial company was
found with fellow gentility of like mindedness, but his own company in
the privacy of his study brought a degree of solace.

Although mistaken in his interpretation, his fixation with a supposed
historical Roman significance of Camerton brooked no challenge, and
he found comfort in searching for documentary evidence and copious
writing of his convictions.

In a sense, his Journals were his alter ego, and through the often
tortured commentaries, the pages reveal both his own feelings and the
scenes in which he found himself. A background of legal training enabled
his obsessions with detail to be pursued in minute thoroughness.

His will asked that no Journal should be read for fifty years after his
death. Had it been different, the Journals may have risked the fate of
a public bonfire by irate subjects mentioned unfavourably.

The Museum Society is indebted to the 'intellectual' legacy of this man,
whose extensive record abounds with items that would never make
newspaper headlines of the day, but were the very stuff of parish life.

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