AT the South Petherton Local History Group meeting, Steve Minnitt have a talk on Somerset museum treasures.

He explained that there were three million items, most of which were in the museum as only thousands were on display. The three main museums storing them are Taunton County Museum, Glastonbury Rural Life Museum and the Bridgwater Tile Museum. Archaeology has the largest collection; Cadbury Castle alone has 500 boxes of clay, 500 boxes of bones and 300 of stone.

The Somerset Museum Society was formed in 1849, Somerset being an area in the UK showing most initiative on this front. Members had to be elected, an elite society composed mainly of vicars and the gentry. The curator, Benjamin Baker, was paid £25 a year, and in those years, there was very little excavation but they laid the foundations for the present flourishing museum.

The Low Hams Roman mosaic was discussed and slides shown of the intricate floor. Mr Minnitt explained that only a Roman of standing could afford mosaics of people instead of patterns in his bathroom.

In 1990, while working on a new housing estate in Shepton Mallet, east-west graves were found, indicating Christian worship. He went on to talk about the finding of the South Petherton and Montacute cauldrons, located by the work of the SPLHG.