Somerset pubs

From Chard to Chewton Mendip and from Witham Friary to Withypool, "Somerset Pubs" is a journey into the past, with photographs of over 140 pubs in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Coaching inns rub shoulders with back-street beerhouses, time-worn taverns wtih roadside hostelries.

Although many are still open, the way of life captured in these photographs is one that has gone forever, destroyed by the onward march of time.

Yet this is not just a wistful look at the past. After decades of rationalisation and standardisation, local pubs and breweries are staging a comeback, while farmhouse cider is more popular than ever. "Somerset Pubs" celebrates a tradition that, despite all the efforts of the multinationals, never really went away.

This virtual pub crawl into the past is not so much an exercise in nostalgia as an inspiration for the future - and for journeys in search of Somerset's pub tradition.