Latest news with #BurnhamonSea
BBC News
11-05-2025
- BBC News
Exhibition of historic Burnham and Highbridge photos opens
A collection of historic pictures and documents detailing life in a seaside town for the past 140 years have gone on pictures of Burnham-on-Sea and the nearby market town of Highbridge are being exhibited at the Burnham Community Centre to mark the 40th anniversary of the North Sedgemoor Local History of the group John Strickland said he hoped members of the public would identify some of the photos' subjects."We're hoping that their relatives will come along and help us fill in the jigsaw with their names," he said. The display will cover the history of brewers Holt's, brick and tile manufacturers Apex and Colthurst & Symons, and a collection of photos of the Portishead Radio station which was situated where Mullholand Way is Strickland has also collected pictures of schools from the Victorian era, and pictures of the former Burnham-on-Sea railway station. "A lot of people have moved to Burnham recently and they are often really interested in the history of that area and Highbridge," he said."I'm a big railway buff, and I grew up next to the railway line coming into Burnham. "With the photos we can travel by train through into Burnham and then you can travel to see a boat at the jetty, that's when the railway was used to bring holiday makers in."There's a real interest in local history," he added."People really love the 'now and then' photographs."
BBC News
08-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Woman, 90, completes eight-day hike of Hadrian's Wall for charity
A 90-year-old woman who walked the entire length of Hadrain's Wall for charity says the challenge was "tough and then even tougher".Mary Nicholson, from Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, raised more than £6,000 for The Beacon Centre, a cancer unit in Taunton, where her brother is receiving former midwife was joined on the eight-day trek by family members including her three daughters, youngest son and grandchildren, but said "I set the pace".Speaking to BBC West, she said she came close to "calling for the car" on several of the gruelling hills on the 85-mile (137km) route but never cracked. Mrs Nicholson said: "My feet are fine. No blisters. A bit sore but no blisters. It's not an easy walk - it was tough and then even tougher."She said it was thoughts of the Beacon Centre and her brother kept her going."It's his enthusiasm for the centre and all the care they have taken of him," she said."When you are going up the hills, and there are quite a few of them, it's quite stony and there's stony paths, wooden stiles to climb over, it's quite testing. I set the pace and off we went." She added: "Just when you think you've gone down the last hill, there's another one up ahead."I hit a physical barrier many times and I was going to call for the car many times, but we did it."Mrs Nicholson prepared by walking every day along Burnham beach and Brean Down, and began the hike on 25 April."I thought right 'I've cracked this, this is going to be a piece of cake' - [but it was] no piece of cake. It was much, much tougher than that." Mrs Nicholson moved to Burnham from Plymouth in 1972 with her husband John and their six died from cancer in 1988, and ahead of the challenge she urged people not to miss routine cancer screenings."I want to raise awareness. So much can be done if cancer is caught in time," she said."People mustn't be afraid to have their checks done. Sadly, my husband's was caught too late, my brother's was caught in time and that's made all the difference."
