Childhood Reminiscences
By Adrian Prior-Sankey

Aged 7 in the late 1960’s, my perspective of my adopted town was set at the level of the car window. Originally from London, we had holidayed in Devon for a number of years in order to house-hunt in Taunton. In those days the main holiday route ran through the town, and mine will be the last generation to recall the gridlock of the town centre by holidaymakers. An AA patrol box at Halcon Corner on the junction of the Old Ilminster and Bridgwater Roads was kept fully employed in the summer months. I still have my Grandfather’s old yellow enamel and chrome AA badge, which in those days could prompt a smart salute from a uniformed AA patrolman. 

Much later, the M5 construction near Trull afforded me my one great claim, resulting from easy access to the site - I once rebelliously cycled along the North bound carriageway of the M5 in a Southerly direction. The motorway opened to more compliant road users a week later! 

Whatever the perceived problems of traffic in Taunton today double-parking in the High Street was commonplace. My father, who was initially the only driver in the family, would have to remain in the car on the look out for the driver of the car parked on the inside whilst my mother made a dash to the butchers for the Sunday joint. 

We were removed from London by the Taunton firm of Chapmans who ran the Department Store now taken over by Debenhams. We had spent the months prior to our move purchasing the latest ‘state of the art’ home appliances and furnishings, which were then delivered direct to Somerset. Our new Expo lighting, fridge freezer and G Plan Dining Room suite were quite a novelty in rural Trull. 

I was a pupil at Trull Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School. The Church calendar had a great influence on the school year, and I recall with a smile the ritual of Ascension Day when the Vicar would appear mid Morning, conduct a short, usually open-air Service and then declare a Half Day holiday. It certainly endeared one aspect of Christianity to me at an early age and I marvelled for many years at the apparent power of the Vicar over the otherwise regimented routine of the school, which could seemingly be set aside on a whim. 

The long summer holidays were largely spent in or around the Sherford Stream. Rafts, ‘camps’ or ‘dens’ were constructed from natural materials, sausages in baked beans were heated in their cans over small fires and tasted like a King’s banquet. Rival gangs threatened rights of tenure along the riverbank and issued challenges to daring acts of bravery, more often than not an excuse to send the smallest child scrumping. With no concept of child abuse we were never troubled by unwanted adult attention and would swim unsupervised in deeper stretches of the water. Pocket money was earned from paper rounds at the crack of dawn and helping the farmer next door with what we delighted to call ‘cow-walloping’ — fetching the herd in for milking in the early morning mist. 

Few children have ever enjoyed lengthy shopping trips, although in London’s traditional, heavy wood panelled emporia I had been entertained by the vacuum tubes, which whizzed a customer’s payment to the cashier’s office. In Taunton, accompanying my mother to one of the emerging supermarkets, notably the Co-Op in East Street, was a highlight for the novelty factor alone - it was the expanse of shelving in such a light and airy space that held me spellbound. 

In the 1970’s, Tesco’s purpose-built store in Taunton’s pedestrian High Street, now The Toad, incorporated a simple concrete fountain. It became a popular pastime for local students to purchase a packet of washing powder and empty the contents into the water creating a foam river that ran the length of the High Street. 

In my teenage years I benefited from the demise of the Owen Owen Store in East Street when, using the meagre funds saved from my pocket money, I purchased a shelving unit and swivel chair for the grand sum of 50p each. 

Some things never seem to change and the powerful aroma of the ground coffee wafting from the gratings of the County Stores can still evoke childhood Saturday mornings spent waiting for Mum in Taunton Town Centre.  

Adrian Prior-Sankey