Culture of Somerset
It has a varied cultural tradition ranging from the Arthurian legends to The Wurzels, a band specialising in Scrumpy and Western music.
Many traditional rural trades such as basket making have survived, and many other crafts such as jewelry, leatherwork and pottery can be found at studios around the county.
The Bard uses the title to develop artistic projects in the area and leads evening bardic walks around the city.
The auditorium has tiers of ornate plasterwork, with sumptuous red and gilt decoration, and a majestic trompe l'oeil ceiling and glittering chandelier.
It is the home of Britain's largest annual international festival of adult puppetry, and a venue for an eclectic range of drama, dance and classical music.
The Grade II listed Victorian building houses the eponymous 'egg'-shaped auditorium, around which an arts cafe, rooftop rehearsal space and basement technical workshop are arranged.
In 2007, the Peter Hall Company made use of the space in order to stage a production of George Orwell's Animal Farm.
The auditorium is unique in the UK enabling both fully day-lit or blacked out theatre and is usable end-on, in the round, flat floor and traverse.
It is now owned by the Bath and North East Somerset Council, which has granted a lease to occupy and use the building as a 100-seat theatre, arts centre and multi-purpose facility for community activities.
[12] Also in Weston is The Playhouse a 664-seat theatre that hosts a largely entertainment based programme of shows all year round including opera, ballet, comedy, music and pantomime performances.
[13] For the next 18 years this theatre, The Playhouse, provided the town with a great variety of entertainment and played host to stars including Frankie Howerd, Bob Monkhouse and Ken Dodd.
The Brewhouse Theatre on the banks of the River Tone in Taunton, opened in March 1977, and now offers a 350-seat auditorium and supporting studio and exhibition spaces.
[18] The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts takes place most years in Pilton, near Shepton Mallet, attracting over 170,000 music and culture lovers and entertainers from around the world.
[20] It is an annual celebration featuring a parade of illuminated floats (termed "carts" locally), in the English West Country.
[21] The event's purpose, as it has always been from the start, is to raise thousands of pounds for local charities from money collection carts in the two-hour procession.
It claims to be "the oldest above-ground Christian church in the World"[26] by dating the founding of the community of monks to AD 63, the year of the legendary visit of Joseph of Arimathea, who was supposed to have brought the Holy Grail to England.
The Stanton Drew stone circles are said to have been formed when a wedding party continued to dance on the Lord's day.
After a battle a dragon was formed from the pile of corpses and it began terrorising the area by devouring children and destroying crops.
A young man took on the beast and after a long and bloody struggle, he pierced the dragons heart and cut off its head.
Other visitor attractions reflect the cultural, historical and industrial heritage of the county: Claverton Pumping Station, Dunster Working Watermill, Nunney Castle, King John's Hunting Lodge in Axbridge, Radstock Museum and Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum.
Somerset has 11,500 listed buildings; 523 scheduled monuments; 192 conservation areas; 41 parks and gardens including those at Barrington Court, Holnicote Estate, Prior Park Landscape Garden and Tintinhull Garden; 36 English Heritage sites; and 19 National Trust sites including Clevedon Court, Fyne Court, Montacute House and Tyntesfield; as well as Stembridge Tower Mill, the last remaining thatched windmill in England.
Among the county's most distinctive architectural assets are the Somerset Towers—more than 90 late medieval square-topped church towers, some intricately adorned with delicate tracery window openings, pinnacles, golden hamstone arches, gargoyles, and merlons.
They won promotion to the Football League as Conference champions in 2003, and had long been established as the most successful non-league team in the FA Cup - having defeated major Football League teams, most famously Sunderland in the 4th Round in 1949, going on to play in front of more than 81,000 against Manchester United at Maine Road.
The oval shaped circuit is used for racing hot rods, stock cars, Hotstox, bangers and demolition events.
In addition to the English national newspapers the county is served by the regional Western Daily Press and local newspapers including; the Bath Chronicle, Chew Valley Gazette, Clevedon Mercury, Mendip Times and the Somerset County Gazette.
