West Country Bylines Real stories, real people, real West Country

Real stories, real people, real West Country

West Country Bylines

Stories, ideas & perspectives — thoughtfully written, beautifully told.

Reading the Hedgerows: The Botanist Quietly Saving the West Country's Forgotten Plant Wisdom
Cover story

Reading the Hedgerows: The Botanist Quietly Saving the West Country's Forgotten Plant Wisdom

Tucked into the lanes of mid-Devon, a botanist named Ros Trevithick is racing against time — and against the slow disappearance of the elderly people who carry centuries of plant knowledge in their heads. Her mission is part science, part oral history, and entirely urgent.

Read the story →

Latest Articles

Walls That Breathe, Rules That Don't: The Fight to Save Devon and Cornwall's Cob Cottages 02
Culture

Walls That Breathe, Rules That Don't: The Fight to Save Devon and Cornwall's Cob Cottages

They've stood for three hundred years through storms and Somerset floods, but Devon and Cornwall's cob and thatch cottages are now facing an enemy their builders never anticipated: modern building regulations. We investigate why the rules designed to protect homes are quietly destroying some of the most irreplaceable buildings in the West Country.
Tuned, Tenacious and Terribly Proud: The Villages Refusing to Let Their Colliery Bands Fall Silent 03
Culture

Tuned, Tenacious and Terribly Proud: The Villages Refusing to Let Their Colliery Bands Fall Silent

Long after the last pit wheel stopped turning, something unexpected kept spinning in the villages of Somerset and north Somerset's old coalfields: the sound of brass. We went to find the bandsmen and women who refuse to let this working-class inheritance go quiet, and the teenagers who are — against all odds — picking up cornets.
Before the Last Speaker Goes: One Woman's Race to Bottle the Sound of the West Country 04
Culture

Before the Last Speaker Goes: One Woman's Race to Bottle the Sound of the West Country

Somewhere in a Devon farmhouse, an 84-year-old man is describing the way his grandfather used to call the cows in — and a linguist with a digital recorder is hanging on every syllable. Meet the archivist quietly building a sound library that could save centuries of West Country speech from disappearing without a trace.
Mud, Memory and the Magic of the Kiln: One Cornish Potter's Fight to Keep Ancient Craft Alive 05
Culture

Mud, Memory and the Magic of the Kiln: One Cornish Potter's Fight to Keep Ancient Craft Alive

In a ramshackle studio on the edge of a Cornish village, a retired potter is pulling centuries-old techniques back from the brink — one lump of clay at a time. Margaret Treloar spent decades watching traditional ceramics get swallowed up by factory lines and fast homeware, and she's decided she's had quite enough of it. Now she's passing on what she knows to a new generation before the old ways disappear entirely.
Grease, Ghosts and Glory: The Somerset Man Breathing Life Back into Forgotten Machines 06
Culture

Grease, Ghosts and Glory: The Somerset Man Breathing Life Back into Forgotten Machines

Deep in a Somerset barn that smells of old oil and older stories, Ray Calloway is doing something quietly extraordinary — rescuing motorcycles and classic cars that everyone else gave up on. Each machine that rolls in carries a history, and Ray feels honour-bound to uncover it.
Pull the Rope, Mind the Ceiling: Inside Dorset's Last Stand for the Ancient Art of Change Ringing 07
Culture

Pull the Rope, Mind the Ceiling: Inside Dorset's Last Stand for the Ancient Art of Change Ringing

In the flint-walled towers of rural Dorset, a small but fiercely dedicated band of ringers is fighting to keep one of England's oldest musical traditions from falling permanently silent. We spent a Tuesday evening with one of the county's most passionate campanologists to find out what it actually takes to keep the bells ringing — and why it matters more than most of us ever stop to think.
Press, Patience and Printer's Ink: The Somerset Studio Keeping a 500-Year-Old Craft From Going Under 08
Culture

Press, Patience and Printer's Ink: The Somerset Studio Keeping a 500-Year-Old Craft From Going Under

Tucked behind a market town high street in Somerset, a working letterpress studio is doing something quietly radical — teaching young creatives to slow down. We visited the printer who's spent three decades refusing to let moveable type become a museum piece.
Warp and Weft: The Devon Artist Pulling the West Country's Mill Stories Back from the Brink 09
Culture

Warp and Weft: The Devon Artist Pulling the West Country's Mill Stories Back from the Brink

In a cluttered studio on the edge of Dartmoor, textile artist Rachel Penhaligon is doing something quietly radical — turning scraps of forgotten industrial cloth and centuries-old weaving traditions into art that stops people dead in their tracks. Her work isn't just beautiful. It's a rescue mission.
Chisels, Dust and Devotion: The Dorset Stonemason Putting Young Hands to Ancient Stone 10
Culture

Chisels, Dust and Devotion: The Dorset Stonemason Putting Young Hands to Ancient Stone

In a yard tucked behind a Purbeck village, master stonemason Ray Holbrook is doing something quietly radical — teaching a new generation to read the grain of stone the way their great-grandparents once did. His apprenticeship scheme is small, unhurried, and possibly one of the most important things happening in the West Country right now.
Words on the Wind: The Retired Teacher Racing to Rescue the West Country's Vanishing Voice 11
Culture

Words on the Wind: The Retired Teacher Racing to Rescue the West Country's Vanishing Voice

Somewhere between 'dreckly' and 'proper job' lies a whole world of language that's quietly slipping away. One former Devon schoolteacher has made it her mission to capture it before it's gone for good — one crackling recording at a time.
Light Still Burning: The Passionate Few Keeping the West Country's Lighthouse Legacy Alive 12
Culture

Light Still Burning: The Passionate Few Keeping the West Country's Lighthouse Legacy Alive

From the craggy headlands of Cornwall to the windswept shores of Devon, a dwindling band of keepers and community campaigners are fighting tooth and nail to preserve the West Country's beloved lighthouse towers. Automation may have silenced the keeper's lamp-room routine decades ago, but these coastal sentinels are far from finished — not if their guardians have anything to say about it.
Salt, Nets and Stubbornness: The Cornish Fisherman Who Won't Let the Old Ways Sink 13
Food & Drink

Salt, Nets and Stubbornness: The Cornish Fisherman Who Won't Let the Old Ways Sink

Down on the Cornish coast, where the mornings smell of diesel and brine, one fisherman is quietly waging a personal war against the industrial tide. Mick Treloar still fishes the way his grandfather taught him — and he's determined to pass it on before the knowledge disappears entirely.
Hammer, Tin, and Time: The Devon Man Refusing to Let a Centuries-Old Craft Go Quiet 14
Food & Drink

Hammer, Tin, and Time: The Devon Man Refusing to Let a Centuries-Old Craft Go Quiet

In a cluttered workshop on the edge of Dartmoor, Rob Trevithick is doing something almost nobody else in England still does — and doing it properly. We spent a morning with Devon's last working tinsmith to find out why a trade older than the Industrial Revolution is quietly finding its feet again.
Roots, Orchards and Rough Cider: Meet the Somerset Family Who've Been at It Since Napoleon Was Causing Bother 15
Food & Drink

Roots, Orchards and Rough Cider: Meet the Somerset Family Who've Been at It Since Napoleon Was Causing Bother

Long before craft beverages became a marketing buzzword, the Hatchwell family of Somerset were pressing apples the way their great-great-grandparents taught them. We spent a morning in their orchard to find out how one family has quietly outlasted empires, supermarkets, and the rise of alcopops.