THE County Gazette reported on a new book, packed full of nostalgia from Somerset’s past after it hit the shelves back in January 2012.

Customs in Somerset put the spotlight on traditional events around the county, and included events in Taunton, Minehead and Watchet, some of which may have dwindled over the years.

Dick Richardson, of publishers Country Books, said the reason so many customs no longer take place is that a community loses interest, a village expands or a church becomes redundant.

Author Tony Foxworthy had been involved in traditional customs from a very early age when, as a child with his grandfather, he would guard the maypole at Lanreath, Cornwall, against people from surrounding villages who would try to steal it.

This, the eighth book in the series, included pictures from Taunton Carnival and the town’s cider barrel race, the Minehead hobby horse and the Bell Inn at Watchet, which was a meeting place for the town’s ancient Court Leet and reputedly where Samuel Coleridge penned part of his poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.