1100th Anniversary Books

Designed especially for children, a bright and lively collection of short stories highlights some of the key figures and events in the history of Christianity in Somerset, each illustrated by humorous line drawings penned by Jennie Reed.

Find out about the temptation of St Dunstan by the devil; schooldays at Barlinch Priory in the early sixteenth century and the discovery of the Alfred Jewel and its links with Somerset. Here you can learn about the part played by Bishop Thomas Ken during the Monmouth Rebellion and just how bishops lived and feasted during the fifteenth century. Read about Hannah More and how she established schools on Sundays in North Somerset and how rioters locked up Bishop Ralph of Shrewsbury in the church at Yeovil. Remember Bishop Jim Thompson's Thoughts for the Day and meet the current bishop, Peter Price.

Besides these and other stories, there is a simple explanation of what a diocese is and how the Diocese of Bath and Wells came into being. Big Drips from Bath andWells tells a serious tale but in a witty and lively way, designed to appeal to all ages.

Hilary Binding is a local historian, writer, former teacher and a licensed reader. She has worked with children on behalf of the National Trust, the Somerset Record Office and the Exmoor National Park Authority.

ISBN:978-0-95564-779-6

The diocese of Bath and Wells was founded in 909 and in 2009 celebrates its 1100th anniversary. Over those centuries its bishops, some famous, some notorious, and at least one saintly, have been responsible for its religious life.This is the story of their attempts at ensuring order and discipline over clergy and laity alike and of the failures of all. It is the story of struggles for the truth, of deep disputes and divisions, but also of rebirth and revival.The exquisite churches of Somerset were expressions of the devotion of men and women to whom these bishops were both pastors and judges, and their continuing survival is but one expression (and an important one) of a community of faith that has, over these 1100 years, been an essential part of our national heritage.

Robert Dunning ranges widely over 1100 years of history and across the diverse county of Somerset, from the windswept heights of Exmoor to the pastures of South Somerset, and from the seaside resorts of the coast to the glories of medieval Wells and Georgian Bath, to paint a vivid portrait of this community of faith through more than a millennium.

Robert Dunning has been licensed by five bishops of Bath and Wells as a reader in their diocese and long ago wrote a thesis on the activities of five of their predecessors. He was for nearly forty years the official historian of the county of Somerset.

ISBN:978-0-95564-778-9