MEM25336 - 19th Century turnpike road south of Dyehouse Cross to Dunster (Monument)

The road of the Minehead United Trust was built between 1824-7. It is probably the most scenic main road in Somerset, following the valleys of the Rivers Exe, Quarme and Avill to Dunster. At SS 923 329 the "navvies" cut the date 1824 onto a rock face. [1] The route of the road is shown on the 2022 MasterMap data, and on historic mapping available to the HER. [2-10] The inscribed date in the rock face mentioned by [1] is visible at SS 9235 3291 on Street View images taken in June 2015. [11] A history of the turnpike road is discussed in detail in a publication by the Somerset Industrial Archaeology Society. [12] At Bridgetown Weir, on the east side of the River Exe the A396 road is terraced into the slope. The road widens at this point and is retained by a tall rubble stone wall which runs for more than 400 metres alongside the road, adjacent to the weir. This may have been designed to create a viewing point along the historic tourist route following the river up to Dunster. A culvert is carried under the road to be fed into the River Exe. The construction of the road suggests this led to the development of a number of buildings adjacent to the road at Bridgetown, perhaps requiring the removal of some existing structures. [13]