Banner survey, South West Heritage Trust

The condition of the collection of 19th-century friendly society banners stored at the Somerset Archives and Local Studies Centre in Taunton was surveyed by Alison Lister in 2014.  Nineteen banners of various shapes, sizes and materials were examined and recorded to provide an assessment of their current state and recommendations on the conservation required to preserve them in the long term.  Following the survey one banner, the Seavington Friendly Society banner was conserved by the studio in 2017 and is currently on display in the Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury.  Two further banners from the collection, the Midsomer Norton Friendly Society banner and Nether Stowey Female Friendly Society banner, linked to the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge who lived in the Somerset village in the 1790s are due to be conserved for display in 2020/21.