Things to Do

Watchet Carnival

Our annual carnival, organised by the Watchet Carnival Club, complete with parade, musical headline events, and fetes. Also involved in activities throughout the year.

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West Somerset Railway

Britain's longest, and possibly most picturesque, heritage steam railway running over twenty miles through West Somerset from Bishops Lydeard to Minehead, with Watchet its most popular destination.

Special journeys include: Sunset Specials, Murder Mystery Night Specials, Mother's Day, Father's Day. Halloween, Jazz Evenings, Dining Specials, Dunster by Candlelight, Santa Steam Specials, Carol Train plus events such as Steam Galas, CAMRA Real Ale Festivals and many, many more.

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Watchet Heritage Trail

For more than 1000 years Watchet has been a busy seaport, once thronging with all the activities of the sea. The Heritage Trail takes a trip back in history and gives you a chance to explore Watchet's fascinating past as you take a walk through the town. You will discover the harbour, for centuries the centre of trade, and now a new marina opened in 2001 by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. The oldest part of the town, with narrow streets, is around the harbour. In the Middle Ages this was a centre of cloth manufacturing as well as other trades, and a marketplace was situated behind the Esplanade near its junction with Swain Street. In more recent times the town has had foundries, sawmills and a paper mill, as well as the usual shops and small tradesmen.

Of course Watchet has an association with trains and in 1862 a broad gauge railway was built from Taunton and was later to extended to Minehead. During its lifetime thousands of people travelled on the railway before it was finally closed in 1970 only to reopen a few years later to be run by volunteers and steam enthusiasts as the West Somerset Railway. Watchet also once had another railway, The Mineral Line.

The Old Mineral Line

The Old Mineral Line runs between Watchet and Washford and once extended into the Brendon Hills. In times past it was used for bringing iron ore, mined in the hills, into Watchet so that it could be shipped to Wales. Although the track has long gone, the path of the railway can be followed on foot. Starting on the Esplanade from the Yankee Jack sculpture, past the statue of the Ancient Mariner, a walk along the Old Mineral Line Trail will take you past the Paper Mill. The Path continues through countryside past farms until you approach Washford passing the village school, winding its way through the village until it reaches Washford Station which houses the Somerset and Dorset Railway Museum.

Coleridge Cottage in Nether Stowey

Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived for some years in Nether Stowey and it is here that the Coleridge Trail starts, at the house that was once his home and has now been turned into a museum about the poet. The trail continues to Alfoxton, near Holford, where his great friends William and Dorothy Wordsworth lived, then across the spine of the Quantock Hills down into Watchet, where Coleridge is recorded as having stayed at the Bell Inn in Market Street. It is believed that Coleridge wrote his most famous poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner whilst staying in Watchet. A statue of the Ancient Mariner stands overlooking the harbour. From Watchet the trail goes on along the coast to Porlock, Lynmouth and beyond.

View from the Costal Path

At present the South West Coastal Path runs from Poole in Dorset through South Devon, around Cornwall, up through North Devon and then eastwards through to Minehead in West Somerset. There are now plans to extend the Coastal Path through Watchet to link with the River Parrett estuary near Bridgwater. This exciting project, managed by Somerset County Council, promises to open up another 30 miles of coastal path with yet more diverse landscape and environment, flora and fauna for the walker to enjoy.

The Coastline from the Pier

Watchet is served by a maze of footpaths that allow the visitor to closely explore the town and find delight in the many views and scenes each one offers together with the architectural diversity of the townscape itself. The Tourist Office offers a list of such footpaths that the visitor can use to explore the town and access the coast and country-side around.

Samba Band

Watchet is extremely fortunate in having two resident brass bands in the town who regularly play at functions, events and competitions. They are West Somerset Brass and the Watchet Town Band. For details of forthcoming performances please contact the Tourist Office.

The West Somerset Morris Men regularly perform throughout the district and one of their more favoured venues is the cobble on Watchet's Esplanade. Again for details of forthcoming performances, please contact the Tourist Office.

Watchet and District Choral Society also perform regularly in the Methodist Church, in Harbour Road. More details from the Tourist Office. Watchet also has its own Writers Circle and a community of painters and sculptors who can be contacted through the Lynda Cotton Gallery in Swain Street.

The Waterfront Theatre Company is a local Watchet-based award winning theatre group who regularly put on productions throughout the district.

Frequent arts and crafts events take place in Watchet, for further information contact the Tourist Office or check the calendar on this site.

Scooby Doo Too

Chartered fishing trips can be booked on DTI registered, fully facilitated boats which operate out of Watchet. At the moment the vessels are Seafire and Scooby Doo Too. Bookings can be made for short or long trips, and equipment and bait is provided. A variety of fish species can be caught depending on the season. Fish caught regularly include cod, ling, pouting, bass, skate and whiting.

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Fishermen can also use the West Pier with rod and line or the inner harbour with a crab line or a drop net for shrimps.

Seafire and Scooby Doo Too are also available on request for trips around the bay for views of the coastal scenery.

Pebble Mosaic

To the east of the harbour, beyond Splash Point, you come to Helwell Bay, while west of the harbour you have West Street beach, formerly known as Cridland's beach. Both are close to the town and are rich in fossils, as are the beaches beyond.

Ammonites, bi-valves and "Devil's Toe Nails" are all to be found here along with rock samples of quartz and alabaster. Fossil maps are available from the Tourist Office, and a display of finds can be seen on the Jubilee Geological Wall on the platform of Watchet Station. The Watchet Market House Museum also has exhibits of Watchet's geological past.

An interesting supplement to this is the pebble mosaic next to the side of the library on the Esplanade, which depicts St Decuman crossing over from Wales on a raft, with a cow as companion. Note also the old pebble pavements in Market Street.

West Street Beach

The tidal range of the Bristol Channel is the second largest in the world: only the Bay of Fundy, in Nova Scotia, has a greater high water/low water difference. As a consequence the beach scenery is always changing, with flotsam and jetsam making beachcombing an interesting pastime with new finds occurring regularly.

Rock pools containing sea anemones, limpets and crabs are a constant source of delight and exploration, as are seaweeds and rock formations on the foreshore.