Street Town in Somerset

Location

Previously known as 'Lantokay', 'Lega' and 'Leigh', the town of Street lies in East Somerset. It currently has a population of about 11,500.

Street lies at the eastern end of the Polden Hills, about 2 miles southwest of Glastonbury with the River Brue marking the boundary between the two towns. There is evidence of Roman occupation but there may have been a settlement here since celtic times. The history of Street was dominated by Glastonbury Abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII. Its modern name thought to come from a 12th century causeway from Glastonbury. For centuries Lega remained a hamlet, dependent on agriculture and quarrying - for the local blue lias building stone.

In mid-Victorian times, Street was a tanning centre for the manufacture of sheepskin rugs and shoes, but as the industrial revolution spread, so shoe making developed from a "craft-outworker" cottage industry to a factory, mass-production activity. One Quaker family, the Clarks, started a business in sheepskin rugs, woollen slippers and, later, boots and shoes. This later became C. and J. Clark which still has its headquarters in Street, but shoes are no longer manufactured there. Instead, in 1993, redundant factory buildings were converted to form Clarks Village, the first purpose-built factory outlet in the United Kingdom. The Shoe Museum provides information about the history of Clarks and footwear manufacture in general.

The Clark family's former mansion and its estate at the edge of the town are now owned by Millfield School, an independent co-educational boarding school, well known for its sporting prowess. Street is also home to Crispin School and Strode College.