Town Profiles » Street
Street
"The most southerly town in Mendip, Street stands just over a mile from Glastonbury and has a population of around 11,000. It is the closest Mendip town to the M5 motorway."
Street became significant as a tanning centre and for the manufacture of sheepskin products, but really grew to prominence during the 19th and early 20th centuries as the home base of C& J Clark Ltd, Britain's largest footwear manufacturer. The company still has its headquarters here, although its manufacturing is now largely based overseas.
The redundant factories have become ‘Clarks Village’ the first factory outlet shopping centre in the UK.. Clarks Village attracts around 3 million visitors each year and is a popular destination for coach trips from all over the country. Featuring a host of famous brands, over 80 discount stores are located in a picturesque landscaped setting with picnic and children’s play areas and restaurants.
The outlet is a popular destination for shoppers and attracts millions of visitors to the area each year.
Street also boasts many amenities unusual for a village – including the modern Strode Theatre and two swimming pools (one outdoor). It is also home to the well-known public school Millfield, which houses regularly changing art exhibitions in the Atkinson Gallery and Sculpture Park.
When you enter the village, you may find an odd creature adorning the ‘Welcome to Street’ signs. This is an ichthyosaur. Fossil evidence of these long-extinct creatures – around eight feet long, and similar to dolphins but with enormous eyes – was discovered here in the early 1800s in a limestone quarry. The ichthyosaur was adopted as the village emblem in 1984 by Street Urban District Council.
The area is immensely rich in wildlife and many national rarities live here, including unusual dragonflies and damselflies. The nationally renowned starlings of the Somerset levels can be found within a few miles of Street.
There are several reserves locally open to the public. It is thought that the summer grazing land on the levels and moors may have given rise to the name Summersata – ‘land of the summer people’ from which Somerset gets its name.
