In 1955, Leslie Wedlake published A History of Watchet ¿ a thorough, comprehensive,well-resourced and very readable account of the town¿s past which hadnever been attempted before. It was soon out of print and a second edition withsome updating was published in 1973. Both books are now difficult to obtain.This reprint of Wedlake¿s work includes much new material and many morephotographs. Paul Upton provides new material to bring the history up to thepresent day; adds a biographical chapter on Leslie Wedlake himself; and supportsthe original, unaltered text with additional notes.A. L. Wedlake¿s original book proceeds readably and in easy stages fromgeology and pre-history, through Saxon times and the middle ages the industrialperiod and the twentieth century.