If parked 'n' walked you should have seen the old Arthur Hart webbing mill
which has been there since 1789. It was started by a Samuel Sparks and used to
<
make sailcloth for boats in the Napoleonic wars like that of Nelsons ship the 'Victory'.
The factory used water power back then from the river a tributary of the river Parrett.
The company still produces woven narrow fabrics & webbings to the aerospace, defence,
industrial & fashion industries such as parachute harness webbing on the space shuttle!
It has an office in Piedmont, South Carolina and is a subsiduary of Am-Safe Bridport.
Now the site is mainly home to lots of pigeons in their coops!