Talk:Street, Somerset

Village or town?
From the lead paragraph: "Street is a village... The town has a population of...". I think its a town, and http://www.mendip.gov.uk/visiting/ says "Mendip has five historic towns Frome, Glastonbury, Shepton Mallet, Street and Wells and many enchanting villages." which also suggests town. In the UK and particularly Somerset) the status as one or the other is not entirely logical so I haven't changed anything yet. Thryduulf 00:19, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

I've changed it to town a while back I hope that's ok. It is indeed a town. I used to live there up until 6 years ago. It has two swimming pools, a theatre, a college, a secondary school, used to have a cinema, over 200 shops etc. Everything a town would have and a population of over 10,000 which would be considered a quite a sizeable city in the US. It is also the 2nd largest town in the Mendip district of Somerset, bigger than the nearby city of Wells. I may be interested in expanding this article sometime. There is certainly more that can be said about the place and compared with the Glastonbury article, a nearby town it is rather short.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Technically, it is still a village, as it doesn't have a town hall. But it is quite a large village all the same.

Technically you are correct it has "Crispin Hall", but it is quite absurd that a place with a population close to 12,000 now is a village and everyone there calls it a town. There are signposts in the place directing to the "town centre" as well. I think town is more appropriate as village belittles the place so i've reverted it back. YourPTR! 13:27, 23 June 2007 (UTC) ___

Expanding the entry for Street, Somerset
As the 'town or village' discussion points out, the entry for Street is short in comparison with its smaller neighbour Glastonbury, for instance.

I have been thinking how it can be expanded, and so far have come up with this:

* 1 Names

o 1.1 Lantokay (an entry based on the existing History section) o 1.2 Lega (Domesday Book. Correct the misleading sentence about Lower Leigh, MiddleLeigh and Overleigh.) o 1.3 Strete, Street (Mention the burning of Glastonbury Abbey and the use of blue lias from Street in the rebuilding. Correct the sentence about the Roman road (which was 100 yards to the south of the medieval and modern road)

* 2 History - fossils (strictly prehistory, but an important element in Street's identity). Mention the 19th century fossil hunters.

St Gildas first Civil War skirmish on Street Hill

o 2.1 Sharpham Park (it has been disputed since the middle ages whether this belongs to Street or to Glastonbury) and its notable residents (see Notable People below)

o 2.2 19th and 20th centuries - the expansion into a company town

* 3 Industry o 3.1 Quarrying o 3.2 Manufacturing - Clarks and Morlands. o 3.3 Present

* 4 Education o 4.1 Further Education college - Strode College o 4.2 Secondary schools - Crispin School; Millfield School o 4.3 Special school - Avalon School o 4.4 Primary schools - Brookside School; Elmhurst School; Hindhayes School

o 4.5 Nursery and infants schools

* 5 Arts - Strode Theatre; <a href="http://www.atkinsongallery.co.uk/">Atkinson Gallery</a>; <a href="http://www.millfield.somerset.sch.uk/content.php?module=content&element=174">Meyer Theatre</a>; <a href="http://www.millfield.somerset.sch.uk/content.php?module=content&element=173">Concert Hall</a>; <a href="http://www.streetandwalton.co.uk">Parish Church</a> as concert venue

* 6 Sport - Swimming Pools: <a href="http://www.greenbankpool.co.uk/">Greenbank open air pool</a>; <a href="http://www.avalonleisure.co.uk/index.cfm?otbcreate=c.showPage&pageID=33">Strode Pool</a>;

<a href="http://www.streetfootballclub.co.uk/">Football Club</a>;

Cricket;

<a href="http://www.victoriatennisclub.org.uk/">Tennis</a>;

Victoria Club

* 7 Annual events

* 8 Notable people - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fielding">Henry Fielding</a> (bought Sharpham Park); <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_X._Merriman">John X Merriman</a>; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fuge_Lowder">Charles Fuge Lowder</a> (Slum priest, hero of the London cholera epidemic, commemorated by the Church of England) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Polkinghorne">John Polkinghorne</a> (He was educated at Elmhurst Grammar School, not The Perse School as stated in his wikipedia entry) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Housman">Laurence Housman</a>

o 8.1 Millfield alumni

* 9 Natural environment

* 10 Twinning: France; Germany

* 11 References: McGarvie The Book of Street - and McG's other works on Street; other books in Street Library.

* 12 External links o 12.1 Arts, entertainment and social o 12.2 Historic o 12.3 Tourism

I'd like the Street Society to have a link, but since I run the site I'm not sure if that is allowed. Davidparsons 13:15, 7 August 2007 (UTC) David Parsons

Town or village - revisited
See this Mendip council link which talk about "village councillor". This Mendip council liknk which talks about "the village". This conservation area document talks about the village centre. The Street Society website front page talks about "The village".

Street is a village. --TimTay (talk) 09:30, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

The village/town debate should really be mentioned on the main page, because feelings run high! There are arguments on both sides, and Mendip Council is just being pragmatic in calling Street and Wells (technically a village and a city) both towns. Glastonbury is a town with a mayor and a town council. Street has a parish council and a council chairman. Davidparsons (talk) 22:31, 11 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Other official sources refer to Street as a town. See the tourist information centre website.  The fact that it has a parish council which has not decided to call itself a town council is not conclusive.  There is no official designation of town status in England, unlike city status and borough status.  Not all towns have mayors - usually only boroughs and former boroughs have mayors.  See Town.  In any case, the opening statement "Street is a small village" cannot stand, and I agree that the issue needs to be mentioned in the article.--Mhockey (talk) 14:59, 1 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Article now amended to mention the difference of opinion.--Mhockey (talk) 21:41, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

What else is needed to get this article to GA?
I've been looking at the guidelines at WP:UKCITIES and would be interested in what other editors think is need to get this article to meet the Good article criteria? Obviously we need to reference (or remove) the uncited claims, but is there anything else which would be required?&mdash; Rod talk 09:30, 4 July 2010 (UTC)

I'm well impressed with the recent expansion of this article, it's really starting to take shape. Christopedia (talk) 07:50, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Town or village - again!
For some years, following previous discussions on the matter, the article has had this sentence in the lead: "Some local inhabitants and local government sources refer to Street as a village, despite its large population. Others prefer to call it a town. " An editor has now objected to the statement that some people prefer to call it a town, and deleted references to "town".

The issue has been debated at length in the past, and as a result the article reflected both points of view and was stable. The argument that it cannot be a "town" because it has no town hall and no town council is not supportable (plenty of towns have neither). Reliable sources, including the local council in the draft Local Plan (here at page 63) and the Victoria County History, refer to it as a town (as well as a village in the case of the local council). (The previous cite from the tourist information centre is now a dead link and needs to be replaced.)

I am proposing to reinstate the deleted material (but with updated cites).--Mhockey (talk) 22:32, 23 November 2014 (UTC)


 * Street is a good case of the local population/the parish council seemingly not taking any interest in being a town, despite having quite a sizeable population. It is officially a village as it neither has a town council (its parish council could resolve at any time to be one, but have chosen not to) nor is it a market town (neither holding a historic charter or a present-day market). Quickly mooching through some Google searches, it is more often described as a village. It is the size of a small town however, especially when compared to other Somerset settlements. I suspect, rather like Cheddar and Axbridge, that its proximity to the well-known and historic town of Glastonbury might be "to blame".


 * I propose adding a quick sentence or two explaining that officially it is not a town — but that it is the size of a small one (and has the facilities, etc, of one) and that it is sometimes described as a 'town'. (See also the Axbridge and Cheddar articles.) Argovian (talk) 17:14, 24 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Well the parish council has not decided to call the parish a "village" either (as it can under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007). There are other examples of towns where the parish council has not decided to call itself a town council (e.g. Ilkley).  The problem is that there is no "official" definition of a town (or a village for that matter).  You have to look at the evidence for what people call it, and the sources show that some call it a town and some call it a village.--Mhockey (talk) 21:17, 24 December 2014 (UTC)


 * A town is an actual status (village is not... though I get your point about the parish council being able to call itself a village council) - I know not all towns have a town council (some are, for example, unparished chief settlements of boroughs, such as Taunton) but an "official" acknowledgement of one sort of another gives a place "proper" town status, rather than just "local/common usage". This can be from a town or market charter, or by way of a town council, or borough status, etc. Street - as far as I'm aware - doesn't have any of these. So all it has is that some (and it is "some" - certainly the majority of sources I can find describe Street as a village) call Street a town. Which is fine - this can be mentioned in the article as I proposed in my previous paragraph here - but all-considered Street is on balance a (large) village (or - if you want to be really 'neutral' - a "settlement"!) and of course a civil parish (with a parish council). As I mentioned before, if the population of Street really felt that they are a town then surely they'd by now rename their parish council and call its chairman "mayor"? There are a few parish councils that haven't resolved to become a town council yet contain a town (eg Cleobury Mortimer) but that's often because they cover a much wider area than the town. (In the case of Cleobury Mortimer, the parish council website describes it as a town, cf Street's which describes the place as a village, and Cleobury has a market charter that is still actively used). Argovian (talk) 22:14, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

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