An interview of Keith Baker January 2026 by Anne Stone
We moved to Bendall’s Bridge in 1967, Where we live, there were previously two cottages which were number 47 on the Earl of Warwick's 1920 sale. When we came, they’d been bought and one of the two cottages had been demolished. We weren't here in time to see that, but one day we had a knock on the door from a lady who turned out to be a doctor and she'd emigrated from Clutton to Australia with her father years before. When she returned, he dug out a photograph of her and her sister standing in the garden of the house, which showed the development of one of the cottages. It also showed the old cottage as it was in days gone by, it was about half the height and the windows or doors were next to no height. When the second cottage was altered, they just built a single story with a pitched roof. Outside there was a terrace and a wall. At one point we were having problems with the wall and had to repair it a bit. And when we opened it up, there was a chimney in there. So it was obviously the left hand end of the cottage, but much lower. I don't know who lived in our house originally, but when our doctor once visited, he remembered the house, because the man who lived here had been burgled: the burglars assaulted him, took his money and ran off across the field and he was left in a bit of a state.
At this end of Bendall’s Bridge there was our house, then the stream, then the tip for dust carts which was still being used - the Elms were there then and he kept going out there trying to dig trenches and then possibly his uncle, Mr. Spriggs, who was an older man who lived with them, used to go out and try and light bonfires. Nora Whitfield used to say that before the tip was there, the land sloped right down to the stream and there was a barn - but it would have been very low down. I'm sure before the bridge was built in 1913 there must have been a way through the stream. If you look you can see some of the stones at the bottom are worn. Kings Oak Meadow was built behind us in the 1980s. Carlton Close was earlier, being built in 1967, because when I came out to see the house from an estate agency in Bristol, I wasn't quite sure where to go, so I went into Carlton Close and spoke to the builders who were building the bungalows and of course they pointed across the field and said that's where you want to go over there.
The workhouse wasn't running when we came, but we used to pick up a couple of men from Goldney House to take them to church and they were both born in the workhouse.
Highbury, towards Hallatrow, is a vestige of an ancient fortification where British weapons had been found. Apparently, the remains of walls of a Roman encampment could still be seen and a solid gold chain was once found there. Rumour said there's a golden coffin buried there, so our kids used to go off with a shovel. They never came back with a coffin though.
The coal mines had closed but there was one occasion that I saw a goods train go along and I found out that there was a pit in Radstock that still produced coal of the right quality for the furnaces at Portishead power station. Unfortunately a few months later, we had a great storm, after which there were concerns for the safety of the embankments and the bridges and the line was stopped.
Mike Williams told me that there was a coal tip - just a hole. It was only wide enough for one man to go down at a time and the coal was sent up in buckets. It was across the railway line past where Willow Farm now is, where it's bumpy on the right hand side. [Rudges Pit]
There was a cottage there too and from that cottage* they had to come along and collect all their water from our corner of Rudges field where there was a standpipe.
* Additional Information
| 1921 CENSUS |
|---|
| House has 5 Rooms. Rudges, Clutton, Somerset. |
| First name(s) | Last name | Relationship | Sex | Birth year | Age | Birth place | Occupation | Employer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herbert J | Lester | Head | Male | 1865 | 55 | Dorset | Game Keeper (Retired) | Mr Cooper Timsbury |
| Minnie | Lester | Wife | Female | 1875 | 45 | Woollard | Home Duties | |
| Howard | Lester | Son | Male | 1908 | 12 | Clutton | ||
| William H | Clark | Nephew | Male | 1905 | 16 | Queen Charlton | Colliery Labourer (Above Grnd) | Pensford Colliery |
| Bessie | Golledge | Sister-in-law | Female | 1873 | 47 | Woollard | Home Duties | |
| James | Golledge | Nephew | Male | 1918 | 2 | Clutton |
1844 to 1888 OS Map
The house in Rudges filed is not shown on the 1947 to 1965 OS Map – so it was probably demolished.