Bridgwater

Bridgwater is a historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the River Parrett at the edge of the Somerset Levels. The parish had a population of 38,310, at the time of the 2021 census, while the wider built-up area had a population of 47,860. The town plays host to an annual carnival in November, the largest of the Somerset carnivals.

A town was already established here by the time of the Domesday Book, great survey. It first became a borough and a castle was built in 1200, although the castle was destroyed after the English Civil War. The town had a politically radical tendency and the Battle of Sedgemoor was fought nearby in 1685, ending the Monmouth Rebellion.

At one time it was the largest port in Somerset. It developed as an industrial centre with brick and tile works, ship building and railway engineering. Its many notable buildings include the Church of St Mary, which played a part in the Battle of Sedgemoor, and the Blake Museum, which was the birthplace of Admiral Blake in 1598.

History

It is thought that the town was originally called Brigg, meaning quay. It has been argued that the name may instead come from the Old English brycg (gang plank) or Old Norse bryggja (quay), though this idea has been opposed on etymological grounds. In the Domesday Book the town is listed as Brugie, while Brugia was also used. After the Norman invasion the land was given to Walter of Douai, hence becoming known variously as Burgh-Walter, Brugg-Walter and Brigg-Walter, eventually corrupted to Bridgwater. An alternative version is that it derives from "Bridge of Walter" (i.e. Walter's Bridge).

Bridgwater is mentioned both in the Domesday Book and in the earlier Anglo-Saxon Chronicle dating from around 800, owing its origin as a trade centre to its position near to the mouth of the chief river in Somerset. It was formerly part of the Hundred of North Petherton. In a legend of Alfred the Great, he burnt some cakes while hiding in the marshes of Athelney near Bridgwater, after the Danish invasion in 875, while in 878 the major engagement of the Battle of Cynwit may have been at nearby Cannington.

The Lord of the manor of Bridgwater was granted to William Briwere in 1201 by King John.

Bridgwater Castle was a substantial structure built in Old Red Sandstone, covering a site of . A tidal moat, up to wide in places, flowed about along the line of the modern thoroughfares of Fore Street and Castle Moat, and between Northgate and Chandos Street. The main entrance opposite the Cornhill was built with a pair of adjacent gates and drawbridges. In addition to a keep, located at the south-east corner of what is now King Square, documents show that the complex included a dungeon, chapel, stables and a bell tower. Built on the only raised ground in the town, the castle controlled the crossing of the town bridge. A portion of the castle wall and water gate can still be seen on West Quay, and the remains of a wall of a building that was probably built within the castle can be viewed in Queen Street. The foundations of the tower forming the north-east corner of the castle are buried beneath Homecastle House.

William Briwere also founded St John's hospital which, by the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII, was worth a substantial sum of more than 120 pounds. He was also responsible for starting the construction of the town's first stone bridge and went on to found the Bridgwater Friary.

Other charters were granted by Henry III in 1227 (confirmed in 1318, 1370, 1380). These gave Bridgwater a guild merchant which was important for the regulation of trade, allowing guild members to trade freely in the town, and to impose payments and restrictions upon others. Bridgwater's peasants under Nicholas Frampton took part in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, sacking Sydenham House, murdering the local tax collectors and destroying the records.

alt=In the foreground is a statue of a man on a plinth above steps, with person sitting on them. In the background is a church tower. The picture is arranged so that the outstretched arm with a pointing finger of the figure appears to be touching the top of the tower.|thumb|upright|The [[Blake Statue|statue of Robert Blake at Cornhill, Bridgwater, with St Mary's Church in the background (1998).]]

Bridgwater was incorporated by charter of Edward IV (1468), from 4 July 1870 the town was incorporated within the county constituency of West Somerset. When parliamentary seats were redistributed for the 1885 general election, a new county division of Bridgwater was created. A variety of markets were granted to the town during the Middle Ages including a Midsummer fair (on 24 June), one at the beginning of Lent was added in 1468, and one at Michaelmas. The importance of these markets and fairs for the sale of wool and wine, and later of cloth, declined after medieval times. The shipping trade of the port revived after the construction of the new dock in 1841, and corn and timber have been imported for centuries.

In the English Civil War the town and the castle were held by the Royalists under Colonel Edmund Wyndham, a personal acquaintance of the King. British history might have been very different had his wife, Lady (Crystabella) Wyndham, been a little more accurate with a musket shot that missed Oliver Cromwell but killed his aide de camp. Eventually, with many buildings destroyed in the town, the castle and its valuable contents were surrendered to the Parliamentarians on 21 July 1645. The castle itself was deliberately destroyed (slighted) the following year, while in 1651 Colonel Wyndham made arrangements for Charles II to flee to France following the Battle of Worcester.

In the 1685 Monmouth Rebellion, the rebel Duke of Monmouth was proclaimed King on the Cornhill in Bridgwater and in other local towns. He eventually led his troops on a night-time attack on the King's position near Westonzoyland. Surprise was lost when a musket was accidentally discharged, and the Battle of Sedgemoor resulted in defeat for the Duke. He was later beheaded at the Tower of London, and nine locals were executed for treason.

Industrial expansion

The Chandos Glass Cone was built in 1725 as a glasswork firing kiln by James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos as part of an industrial development. After a short period of use for glassmaking it was converted for the production of pottery, bricks and tiles, which continued until 1939. The majority of the brickwork cone was demolished in 1943. The bottom has been preserved and scheduled as an ancient monument.

Bridgwater became the first town in Britain to petition the government to ban slavery, in 1785.

In 1896, the trade unionists of Bridgwater's brick and tile industry were involved a number of strikes. The government sent troops to the town to clear the barricades by force after the reading of the Riot Act.

Twentieth century and after

alt=Old map showing the main roads and the river.|thumb|right|upright=1.35|A map of Bridgwater in 1946

Journalist Vernon Bartlett was elected Member of Parliament in the 1938 by-election 1938. He stood as an independent candidate with an anti-Hitler campaign and campaigned against the Government's policy of appeasement.

In World War II the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal formed part of the Taunton Stop Line, designed to prevent the advance of a German invasion. Pillboxes can still be seen along its length. The first bombs fell on Bridgwater on 24 August 1940, destroying houses on Old Taunton Road, and three men, three women and one child were killed. Later a prisoner of war camp was established at Colley Lane, holding Italian prisoners. During the preparations for the invasion of Europe, American troops were based in the town.

The first council estate to be built was in the 1930s at Kendale Road, followed by those at Bristol Road. The 1950s saw the start of a significant increase in post-war housebuilding, with council house estates being started at Sydenham and Rhode Lane and the former cooperative estate near Durleigh.

On 4 November 2011 West Quay alongside the River Parrett and 19 adjoining properties were evacuated after a stretch of the retaining wall partially collapsed after heavy rain and flooding. The old hospital in Salmon Parade, which was built in 1813, closed in 2014 and has been replaced with a community hospital in Bower Lane. The old hospital site has been sold for development at a price of £1.6 million, and may be turned into a hotel.

Governance

thumb|Bridgwater Town Hall

As a result of the Local Government Act 1972, the Borough of Bridgwater was amalgamated into Sedgemoor District Council, which became one of the original five district councils established within the administrative county of Somerset. Sedgemoor itself was merged into a new Somerset Council on 1 April 2023.

A new Bridgwater Town Council was created in 2003. It meets in Bridgwater Town Hall and has sixteen elected members representing six wards of the town: Bower (three), Eastover (two), Hamp (three), Quantock (three), Sydenham (three) and Victoria (two). The town council is responsible for matters allotments, bus shelters, play areas, street cleaning, cemeteries, certain parks, open spaces and heritage sites.

In 2018, Diogo Rodrigues became the first Portuguese national to be elected as a mayor in England, also becoming Bridgwater's youngest ever mayor.

The Bridgwater constituency has been represented in Parliament since 1295. After the voting age was lowered in January 1970, Susan Wallace became the first 18-year-old to vote in the UK, during the 1970 Bridgwater by-election that elected Tom King, who took the title Baron King of Bridgwater in 2001.

At the 2010 General Election, Bridgwater became part of the new Bridgwater and West Somerset constituency. Following the completion of the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, the seat was re-established as plain Bridgwater for the 2024 general election, primarily formed from the now abolished of Bridgwater and West Somerset seat but excluding the area comprising the former district of West Somerset. The current MP, elected in 2024, is Ashley Fox, a member of the Conservative Party.

Bridgwater was in the South West England constituency for elections to the European Parliament until the UK left the European Union in 2020.

Geography

Bridgwater is centred on an outcrop of marl in an area dominated by low-lying alluvial deposits. There are local deposits of gravels and sand. and is designated as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. The risks to wildlife are highlighted in the local Oil Spill Contingency Plan.

Climate

alt=Street scene with pedestrians and vehicles in road lined with shops. There is snow on the ground.|thumb|Fore street with a rare covering of snow. [[Admiral Robert Blake statue and Cornhill just visible in the background]]

Along with the rest of South West England, Bridgwater has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of the country. The annual mean temperature is approximately . Seasonal temperature variation is less extreme than most of the United Kingdom because of the adjacent sea temperatures. The summer months of July and August are the warmest with mean daily maxima of approximately . In winter mean minimum temperatures of are common. and by 1901 had risen to 14,900. At the 2021 census, Bridgwater civil parish had a population of 38,310 people in 16,543 households.

!scope=row| 2021

|| 38,310

|| 18,920

|| 19,390

|| 16,543

The Office for National Statistics also define a Bridgwater 'Built-up Area', which includes contiguous urbanised areas outside the civil parish such as Dunwear and King's Drive in Bridgwater Without, and new build housing on the southern and western periphery of the town in North Petherton, Durleigh and Wembdon parishes (excluding the old villages and rural parts of those parishes); this area had a population of 47,860 in 2021. In 1971 the population in the 'Bridgwater Built-up Area' was 20,639 and by 2001 was given as 35,000.

Economy

alt=Three and four-storey buildings on the far side of a river.|thumb|West Quay and the River [[Parrett]]

As early as 1300, the port of Bridgwater exported wheat, peas and beans to Ireland, France and Spain, and by 1400 was also exporting cloth from Somerset and the adjoining counties. By 1500 it was the largest port in Somerset. By 1845 the town's shipping quays were defined as extending at least downstream from the town bridge, on both banks of the Parrett. In its heyday, imports included wine, grain, fish, hemp, coal and timber. Exports included wheat, wool, cloth, cement, bricks and tiles. Unlike Bristol, Bridgwater was never involved in the Atlantic slave trade and, in 1785, was the first town in Britain to petition the government to ban it.

In 1578, a smallish seagoing vessel, sometimes referred to as the Emanuel of Bridgwater, and believed to be deep-sea fishing vessel or small trader, formed part of a fleet of 15 vessels accompanying Martin Frobisher on his third and final voyage to the New World, to what is now a part of Canadian territory. The year before, in 1577, Frobisher had found Meta Incognita during his second voyage; and he had claimed this area in the name of Queen Elizabeth I of England, by planting a flag. On this third voyage Frobisher had a large fleet as he planned to create a settlement in Meta Incognita. There was also a larger vessel, known as Emanuel, within this fleet. However, the Emanuel of Bridgwater got into difficulties near Beare Sound and was left behind by the other ships in the fleet.

Emanuel of Bridgwater managed to rescue herself and started sailing westwards, to return home on her own. During this part of the voyage, the English writer Richard Hakluyt claimed that the ship found an unknown land, a phantom island referred to as Buss Island, four-days later. 33 vessels were registered to the Port of Bridgwater in 1786. By 1874 this had increased to 159 but the registrations then started to reduce, down to 132 in 1882.

Industry

Bridgwater was the leading industrial town in Somerset, becoming a major manufacturing centre for clay tiles and bricks in the 19th century; including the famous Bath bricks, which were mostly used as scouring or polishing pads rather than as a construction material. These goods were exported through the port; at the peak of production some 24 million bricks were exported from Bridgwater every year from 10 manufacturers. These industries are featured in the Somerset Brick and Tile Museum on East Quay. These industries collapsed in the aftermath of World War II due to the failure to introduce mechanisation, although the automated Chilton Tile Factory, which produced up to 5 million tiles each year, lasted until 1968.

During the 19th century, Castle House (originally named Portland Castle after Portland cement), reputedly the first domestic house in the UK to be built from concrete, was constructed in 1851 by John Board, a local brick and tile manufacturer. The building is now Grade II* listed, It was featured in the BBC's 2004 television programme Restoration.

In the 19th century, Bridgwater was also home to a number of iron foundries. George Hennet's Bridgwater Iron Works worked on bridges, railways and machinery for Brunel and Robert Stephenson. This location allowed the import by boat of raw materials from Wales and the dispatch of finished work to south Devon using the Bristol & Exeter Railway. The carriage workshops for the latter were on an adjacent site. The works passed to his son and then traded as Hennet, Spink & Else. Some of the ironwork was produced for the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash, Cornwall. In 1873 it became the Bridgwater Engineering Company Limited but this failed in 1878. W&F Wills Ltd produced steam engines and fingerposts.

British Cellophane Ltd, a joint venture between La Cellophane SA and Courtaulds opened a major factory producing cellophane in Bridgwater in 1937. The factory produced Bailey bridges during World War II for the invasion of Europe. After the war, it returned to making cellophane. The company was bought by UCB Films (now Innovia Films) in 1996 but closed in 2005.

Landmarks

River Parrett and its bridges

The River Parrett flows through the town. The town centre grew up on the west bank; the old part of the town on the east bank is known as Eastover. The Drove Bridge, which marks the current extent of the Port of Bridgwater, is the nearest to the mouth and the newest road bridge to cross the river. With a span of , the bridge was constructed as part of the Bridgwater Northern Distributor road scheme (1992), and provides a navigable channel which is wide with headroom at normal spring high tides. Upstream of this is the retractable Telescopic Bridge, built in 1871 to the design of Francis Fox, the engineer for the Bristol & Exeter Railway. It carried a railway siding over the river to the docks, but had to be movable to allow boats access to and from the quays further up river. An section of railway track to the east of the bridge could be moved sideways, so that the main girders could be retracted, creating a navigable channel which was wide. It was manually operated for the first eight months, and then powered by a steam engine, reverting to manual operation in 1913, when the steam engine failed. The bridge was last opened in 1953, and the traverser section was demolished in 1974, but public outcry at the action resulted in the bridge being listed as a scheduled ancient monument, and the rest of the bridge was kept. It was later used as a road crossing, until the construction of the Chandos road bridge alongside it, and is now only used by pedestrians. Parts of the steam engine were moved to Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum in 1977. It replaced an earlier bridge, which was the first cast iron bridge to be built in Somerset when it was completed in 1797.

A new reinforced concrete road bridge, the Blake Bridge, was opened in March 1958 as part of a bypass to take road traffic away from the centre of Bridgwater. It now carries the A38 and A39 roads. On the southern edge of Bridgwater there is a bridge which carries the Bristol and Exeter Railway across the River Parrett. Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed a brick bridge, known as the Somerset Bridge, with a span but a rise of just . Work started in 1838 and was completed in 1841. Brunel left the scaffold supporting the centre of the bridge in place as the foundations were still settling but was forced to remove it in 1843 to reopen the river for navigation. Brunel demolished the brick arch and had replaced it with a timber arch within six months without interrupting the traffic on the railway. This was in turn replaced in 1904 by a steel girder bridge. The otherwise empty spaces in the buildings have been reused to house many of the original moulds and handtools used by Bridgwater brick and tile makers; together with advertising material and tile pattern books; on special days visitors - children in particular - are allowed to make small clay objects, but that can't 'fire them'. The museum will fire them in an electric oven, and the children can collect them a day or so later.

A house in Blake Street, largely restored, is believed to be the birthplace of Robert Blake in 1598, and is now the Blake Museum. It was built in the late 15th or early 16th century, and has been designated as a grade II* listed building. The Bridgwater Town Mill, originating in the Middle Ages is located at the end of Blake Street, next to the Blake Museum. A statue of Robert Blake, made by F. W. Pomeroy in 1898, is positioned in front of the Corn Exchange to face down Cornhill.

Castle House on Queen Street was built in 1851. It was one of the first buildings to make extensive use of concrete. It is also listed grade II*. For many years, since at least the 1990s, it has been empty, boarded up, listed on the Heritage at Risk Register, and held together with large bands, to stop it collapsing outwards. More recently, in November 2018, Castle House was full restored externally; awaiting a new use, a source of funding for internal restoration; and tenants. It is now occupied.

The public library in Binford place was designed by the architect, E Godfrey Page, and the oldest parts date back to 1905. It is listed as grade II. The money to build the library was provided by the American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, so the library is 'member' of various groupings of libraries, mostly in America and perhaps a handful' in England and Wales, known as Carnegie libraries. The architectural style of this building is, was known as, Edwardian Gothic. There is a plaque on the side of the building recording the generosity of Andrew Carnegie, and the date of its formal opening by the town's Mayor, on 21 September 1906. The library was extended in 1970; and a part of the Carnegie building was damaged by fire in 1978 and needed to be restored.

Sydenham Manor House, built in the early 16th century but rebuilt after 1613, is another grade II listed building. It is currently a constituent part of the workers campus site for Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, off Bath Road.

Transport

Water

thumb|Bridgwater Town Bridge, the original highest point of navigation on the [[River Parrett]]

alt=Old photograph of a crane on the quayside.|thumb|Bridgwater Docks South Side in 1968

Bridgwater was part of the Port of Bristol until the Port of Bridgwater was created in 1348, covering of the Somerset coast line, from the Devon border to the mouth of the River Axe. The main port on the river developed at Bridgwater where the lowest bridge was situated; the first bridge was built in 1200. Quays were built in 1424; another quay, the Langport slip, was built in 1488 upstream of the Town Bridge. A Customs House was sited at Bridgwater, on West Quay; and a dry dock, launching slips and a boat yard on East Quay. The river was navigable, with care, to Bridgwater Town Bridge by vessels. By trans-shipping into barges at Bridgwater, goods could be carried further up the river as far as Langport and (via the River Yeo) to Ilchester. After 1827, it was also possible to transfer goods to Taunton via the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal at Huntworth. A floating harbour was constructed between 1837–1841 and the canal was extended to the harbour. The harbour area contained flour mills, timber yards and chandlers. Marine sand and gravel accounted for of the total tonnage of using the Port facilities in 2006, with salt products accounting for in the same year. Pilotage is important because of the constant changes in the navigable channel resulting from the large tidal range, which can exceed on spring tides.

Railways

thumb|[[Bridgwater railway station, on the main line from Bristol to Taunton.]]

Bridgwater railway station is on St John Street. It is served by Great Western Railway services between , and . Some services continue beyond Taunton to and from or even . There are also a small number of through trains to via Bristol temple Meads and .

The Bristol & Exeter Railway opened on 14 June 1841 from Bristol to Bridgwater. The railway also opened a coach and wagon works in the town; the last of the buildings was in 2005 scheduled for demolition. Bridgwater railway station, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel is now a grade II listed building. An end to the unequal competition between rail and canal came in 1867 when the Bristol & Exeter Railway purchased the canal.<

Another station, the terminus of a Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway branch line from was opened in 1890 but closed in 1952. It was situated where Sainsbury's supermarket is today

Road

thumb|A First South West electric bus on the A38 Taunton Road

Bridgwater can be reached by the M5 motorway. Junction 23 is at Puriton to the north of the town, and junction 24 is at Huntworth to the south. The A38 road connects the town to Bristol and Taunton, the A39 road connects with Watchet, Glastonbury and Bath. The A372 road leaves the town through Westonzoyland and continues towards Yeovil.

Bridgwater bus station is on Watson's Lane near East Quay. but staff and community services for Hinkley Point C are contracted to Somerset Passenger Solutions. Express services operated by

is served twice daily by Berrys Coaches, Flixbus and National Express call at the bus station. Megabus Falcon services call at a bus stop by the motorway junction 24.

Education

The Bridgwater campus of Bridgwater and Taunton College is on Bath Road. The southern hub of the National College for Nuclear was launched at the Bridgwater campus in February 2018 as a scheme to provide trained staff for Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.

Bridgwater was selected as the first town in the South West, outside Bristol, to be selected for the UK government's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative, which aimed to rebuild and renew nearly every secondary school in England. Within Bridgwater, BSF was to redevelop all of the four secondary schools and two special provision schools at an expected cost of around £100 million. This included the complete relocation and rebuilding of a new school combining both the Haygrove and Penrose Schools. In July 2010, several components of the Bridgwater BSF programme were cancelled and others were singled out for further review. Following a meeting with Education Secretary Michael Gove, Bridgwater MP Ian Liddell-Grainger announced that the fate of all six affected schools would be subject to review, including the ones that were cancelled.

Religious sites

The main church in Bridgwater is the Church of St Mary in the town centre. It has a north porch and windows dating from the 14th century and a distinctive slender spire; but it has been much altered by restoration. It possesses a fine painted reredos, and has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building. There is also Christ Church Unitarian Chapel on Dampiet Street, built in 1688, it still retains many of its original features from 1688 and its remodeling in 1788. It has been designated as a grade II* listed building.

The Church of St John the Baptist in Blake Place, Eastover, was designed by John Brown and built by John More Capes in 1843. There is a Salvation Army Citadel located in Moorland Road on the Sydenham Estate, and St Joseph's Roman Catholic in Binford Place.

The Quaker Meeting House on Friarn Street was sold in 2014 to become the Bridgwater Islamic Centre. The Elim Pentecostal Church on Church Street became a public house after being used as a church and is now a shop.

Culture

thumb|The Willow Man

Nearing Bridgwater on the M5 motorway it is possible to see the Willow Man sculpture, a tall striding human figure constructed from willow. It was created by sculptor Serena de la Hey and is the largest known sculpture in willow, a traditional local material.

The Bridgwater Arts Centre was opened on 10 October 1946. It is situated in a Grade I listed building in the Georgian Castle Street, designed by Benjamin Holloway for the Duke of Chandos, and built over the site of the former castle.

Somerset Film (then Somerset Film & Video) opened the Engine Room community media centre on the High Street in March 2003. The centre allows the public to drop in and use the computers and equipment to teach themselves how to edit video, design websites or screen films at open evenings.

Bridgwater Fair normally takes place in September, starting on on the last Wednesday in September and running for four days. The fair, now a funfair, takes place on St Matthew's Field which is known locally as the Fair Field. The fair was recorded in 1249 and in 1587, originally on and around St Matthew's day (21 September) which gave the venue its name, it was later changed to the four days starting on the last Wednesday in September.

Bridgwater carnival

alt=Night time photograph of lorry and trailer decorated with hundreds of coloured light bulbs passing through a street lined by crowds of people.|thumb|A cart in the 2016 carnival

The annual Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival is the largest of the many West Country Carnivals. It attracts around 150,000 people from around the country and overseas. It is held on the Saturday nearest to 5 November (Guy Fawkes Night) although it was previously held on the first Thursday of November. The carnival parade follows a route over 2 to 3 hours and features more than 100 entries. Many of these are large vehicles (known as 'carts') up to long with sometimes as many as 22,000 lightbulbs. The carts carry dancers or people in static poses (known as 'tableaux') while other entrants ('masqueraders') walk around the route with the carts.

Cultural references

Castle Street was used as a location in the 1963 film Tom Jones.

A sailor who had sailed 'from Bridgwater with bricks' and found 'there was lice in that bunk in Bridgwater' features in James Joyce's Ulysses.

Twinning

Bridgwater is twinned with the following towns and cities:

Uherské Hradiště, in the Czech Republic, since 1992
La Ciotat in France, since 1957
Homberg, Efze in Germany, since 1992
Marsa in Malta, since 2006
Priverno in Italy, since 2015
Camacha in Madeira, Portugal, since 2019

Media

Local television news programmes are BBC Points West and ITV News West Country.

The BBC local radio station covering Bridgwater is BBC Radio Somerset. Sedgemoor FM is a local community radio station.

Sport and leisure

Bridgwater United Football Club is the town's football club. The first Bridgwater was founded in 1898. It closed in 1902 but was reformed in 1904 and renamed Bridgwater Town F.C. in 1921. It merged with the Yeovil United Women's Football Club in March 2021 when it became Bridgwater United. It plays at Fairfax Park.

Rugby union club Bridgwater & Albion's ground is at College Way off the Bath Road. It has senior, junior and women's teams. The Bridgwater Cricket Club has both senior and junior teams based at College Way.

Bridgwater's swimming pool is now at Chilton trinity; and it opened in 2013. The town's first swimming pool opened in 1890 in Old Taunton Road. This was replaced by the Bridgwater Lido on Broadway in 1960. This, in turn was replaced by the indoor water park, Sedgemoor Splash, in Mount Street. The 'Splash, officially opened by Diana, Princess of Wales on 16 April 1991, contained: several swimming pools; a fully-enclosed spiraling water slide, which went out through the building wall at a high level before spiraling down and re-entering through the building wall at a lower level; wave machines; paddle machines; and palm trees. Some 18 years later, it needed to be upgraded but the local council were unable to raise the funds needed and it closed in 2009. In 2016, the 'Splash' buildings were demolished, and the cleared site became a car park. It was intended to sell it for redevelopment as a new supermarket, with the site-sale money being used to fund a new pool.

Notable people

thumb|upright|[[Robert Blake (admiral)|Admiral Robert Blake]]

thumb|upright|[[Andrew Plimer National Galleries of Scotland]]

John de Ponz or John of Bridgwater (c.1248-c.1307), royal administrator and senior judge in Ireland.
Admiral Robert Blake (1598–1657), admiral and general at sea.
William Diaper (1685–1717), clergyman and innovative poet.
John Chubb (1746–1818), Bridgwater merchant and amateur artist, who painted portraits of his local contemporaries and street scenes. His work is kept at the Blake Museum, Bridgwater.
Sir Davidge Gould (1758–1847), an admiral in the Royal Navy.
Andrew Plimer (1763–1837), artist, whose brother was Nathaniel Plimer, also a painter of miniatures.
Henry Phillpotts (1778–1869), Bishop of Exeter 1830–1869.
Horace Smith (1779–1849), poet and novelist.
John Clark (1785–1853) created the first automated text generator, The Eureka, exhibited in 1845.
George Trevor (1809–1888), an English divine and writer on divinity matters.
Fanny Talbot (1824–1917), philanthropist, friend of John Ruskin, donor of the first property to National Trust.
James Sully (1842–1923), psychologist philosopher and writer.
Alexander Scoles (1844–1920), Roman Catholic priest and architect of Catholic churches: he served as parish priest in Bridgwater and designed and built St Joseph's church, Binford Place.
Annie Leigh Browne (1851–1936), educationist and suffragist.
Thomazine Mary Lockyer (1852-1943), astronomer, suffragist, and Unitarian.
Catherine Osler (1854–1924), social reformer and suffragist.
Harry "Breaker" Morant (1864–1902), soldier in the Second Boer War and war criminal.
Walter Farthing (1887–1954), politician, local Mayor, 1939/40, and MP 1945/1950.
Sir Paul Dukes (1889–1967) educated at Caterham School, and went on to be an SIS agent.
Jean Rees (1914–2004), artist and co-founder of the Bridgwater Arts Centre.
John Biffen (1930–2007), politician, MP for North Shropshire from 1961 to 1997.
Donald Crowhurst (1932–1969), who tried to fake a round-the-world solo yacht journey, set up his business in Bridgwater and was a borough councillor.
Peter Haggett (1933-2025), academic geographer and professor at University of Bristol, went to Dr Morgan's Grammar School.
Tom King, Baron King of Bridgwater (1933 - ), Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bridgwater constituency for thirty years, from 1970 to 2001. As an MP, he held various Secretary of State roles: Environment Secretary, Transport Secretary, Employment Secretary and Northern Ireland Secretary. He retired from the House of Commons during the 2001 General Election and joined the House of Lords, in 2001 as Life peer: Baron King of Bridgwater.
Carol Lee Scott (1942-2017), entertainer, played the antagonist Grotbags.
Chris Harris (1942–2014), actor, writer and pantomime dame.
Neil Parish (born 1956), farmer and former politician, MP, 2010 to 2022.

Sports people

thumb|upright|[[Robert Dibble, ca.1914]]

Robert Dibble (1882–1963), rugby player, played for Bridgwater & Albion & Newport RFC and played 22 games for England.
Tommy Woods (1883–1955), rugby player, played for Bridgwater & Albion & Rochdale Hornets.
Elizabeth Ferris (1940–2012), diver, bronze medallist, 3 metre springboard, 1960 Summer Olympics.
Charles Kent (1953–2005), rugby player, played for Bridgwater & Albion.
Richard Harden (born 1965), cricketer, played 253 First-class cricket games.
David Luckes (born 1969), field hockey goalkeeper and Olympian.
Richard Mantell (born 1981) and his brother Simon Mantell (born 1984) played field hockey for the England men's national field hockey team.
Matthew Villis (born 1984), footballer, played over 260 games including 101 for Weston-super-Mare A.F.C..