Editing Shepton Mallet (section)

==History==
===Etymology===
The name Shepton derives from the [[Old English]] ''scoep'' and ''tun'', meaning "sheep farm"; the [[Domesday Book]] of 1086 records a settlement known as ''Sceaptun'' in the [[Hundred (county division)|hundred]] of [[Whitstone (Somerset hundred)|Whitstone]].<ref>[https://opendomesday.org/place/ST6143/shepton-mallet/ Open Domesday: Shepton (Mallet)]. Accessed 6 November 2022.</ref><ref name="bush">{{Cite book |last=Bush |first=Robin |author-link=Robin Bush (historian) |title=Somerset: The Complete Guide |publisher=Dovecote Press |location=Wimborne |year=1994 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/somersetcomplete0000bush/page/179 179–181] |isbn=1-874336-26-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/somersetcomplete0000bush/page/179}}</ref> The current spelling is recorded at least as far back as 1496, in a letter from [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]]. The second part of the name derives from that of the Norman family of [[William Malet (Norman conquest)|Malet]]. Gilbert Malet, son of [[William Malet (companion of William the Conqueror)|William Malet, Honour of Eye]], held a lease from [[Glastonbury Abbey]] around 1100. The second letter "l" appears to have been added to the spelling in the 16th century.<ref name="ford">{{Cite book |last=Ford |first=Eric |title=Shepton Mallet: An Historical and Postal Survey |year=1958 |publisher=Published by the Author |place=Oakhill, Somerset |pages=9–10 and 102}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=Stephen |title=Somerset Place Names |year=1992 |publisher=The Dovecote Press Ltd |location=Wimborne, Dorset |isbn=1-874336-03-2}}</ref>

===Prehistoric settlement===
[[File:somerset sm market.jpg|alt=Open stone building on five pillars with a spire above.|thumb|upright|[[Market Cross, Shepton Mallet|The Market Cross]]]]
Archaeological investigations have found evidence of prehistoric activity in the Shepton Mallet area, with large amounts of [[Neolithic]] [[flint]] and some [[Sherd|pottery fragments]] of the late Neolithic period. Two [[tumulus|barrows]] on Barren Down, to the north of the town centre, contained [[cremation]] burials from the [[Bronze Age]]; another Bronze Age burial site contained a skeleton and some pottery. The remains of [[Iron Age]] [[roundhouse (dwelling)|roundhouses]] and artefacts such as [[quernstone]]s and beads were found at [[Cannard's Grave]], as was a probable Iron Age farming settlement at Field Farm.<ref name="gathercole">{{Cite web |url=http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/hes/downloads/EUS_Shepton_MalletText.pdf |title=Shepton Mallet |last=Gathercole |first=Clare |work=Somerset Urban Archaeological Survey |publisher=Somerset County Council |year=2003 |access-date=2 February 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717063246/http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/hes/downloads/EUS_Shepton_MalletText.pdf |archive-date=17 July 2011}}</ref> Nearby countryside provides evidence of Iron Age cave dwellings in Ham Woods to the north-west, and several burial mounds at Beacon Hill, a short distance to the north.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.sheptonmallet.info/site/index.php?page_id=194 |title=Shepton Mallet Prehistory |publisher=Shepton Mallet Town Council |access-date=13 February 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100122030345/http://www.sheptonmallet.info/site/index.php?page_id=194 |archive-date=22 January 2010}}</ref>

===Roman occupation===
Shepton Mallet is about halfway between the [[Roman Britain|Roman]] towns of [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] and [[Ilchester]] on the [[Fosse Way]]. Although there are no visible remains apart from the line of the [[Roman road]], there is archaeological evidence for early military and later civilian settlement lasting into the 5th century. Domed [[pottery]] [[kiln]]s, with pottery still present, were identified on the site of the [[Anglo-Bavarian Brewery]] in the mid-19th century, suggesting military activity in the 1st and 2nd centuries. Several hoards of [[Roman coin]]s ranging from the 1st to 4th centuries have been found and more than 300 [[fibula (brooch)|fibula brooches]], [[Sherds|potsherd]]s and other artefacts. A few isolated burials near the Fosse Way were found in the 19th century.<ref name="gathercole"/>

A lead coffin in a rock-cut grave was discovered at a site by the Fosse Way in 1988. This discovery and impending commercial development of the site by the landowner, Showerings, led [[Archaeology|archaeologists]] to excavate more extensively in the 1990s. The grave belonged to a cemetery containing 17 burials aligned roughly east and west, indicating probable Christian beliefs. Two smaller cemeteries had graves aligned north–south, possibly signifying [[pagan]] religious practices. One burial was in a substantial stone coffin positioned beneath a [[mausoleum]], whose foundations remained.<ref name="gathercole"/><ref name="leach">{{Cite book |last=Leach |first=Peter |title=Shepton Mallet: Romano-Britons and Early Christians in Somerset |year=1991 |publisher=[[University of Birmingham]] Field Archaeology Unit and Showerings Ltd |location=Birmingham |isbn=0-7044-1129-6|pages=24–25}}</ref>

One find in the Fosse Way burials was a [[Labarum|''Chi-Rho'']] [[amulet]], thought then to be from the 5th century and considered among the earliest clear evidence of [[Religion in England|Christianity in England]].<ref name="leach"/> A copy was presented to the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], [[George Carey]], by the churches of the [[Diocese of Bath and Wells]]. The amulet is in the [[Museum of Somerset]], but analysis by [[Liverpool University]] in 2008 using [[inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy]] showed it was a fake: its silver content dates from the 19th century or later.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/sep/19/archaeology.anglicanism |title='Roman' amulet adopted by archbishop is a fake |last=Morris |first=Steven |date=19 September 2008 |work=The Guardian |access-date=19 September 2008 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902223645/http://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/sep/19/archaeology.anglicanism |archive-date= 2 September 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/2982490/Ancient-Christian-amulet-declared-a-fake.html |title='Ancient' Christian amulet declared a fake |last=Savill |first=Richard |date=18 September 2008 |work=Daily Telegraph |access-date=18 September 2008 |location=London |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919034411/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/2982490/Ancient-Christian-amulet-declared-a-fake.html |archive-date=19 September 2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7622395.stm |title=New tests challenge age of amulet |date=18 September 2008 |work=BBC News |publisher=BBC |access-date=18 September 2008}}</ref>

Excavations in the 1990s confirmed the presence of a linear settlement along the Fosse Way for perhaps a kilometre, with cobbled streets, wooden and stone workshops and houses (some with two storeys) containing [[hearth]]s and ovens, workshop areas and a stone-lined well. The many artefacts found included local and imported pottery such as [[Samian ware]], items of jewellery such as brooches, rings and bracelets, toilet items including tweezers, ear scoops and nail cleaners, bronze and iron tools, and a lead [[ingot]] which probably originated from the Roman lead mines in the [[Mendip Hills]]. Coins minted across the [[Roman Empire]] were also found. The finds indicate occupation from the late 1st or early 2nd centuries to the late 4th or early 5th centuries. As no public buildings were found, the settlement was probably not a town.<ref name="gathercole"/><ref name="leach"/>

===Saxon and Norman periods===
Evidence of [[Anglo-saxon|Saxon]] settlement includes some Saxon stonework in the [[Church of St Peter and St Paul, Shepton Mallet|parish church of St Peter and St Paul]].<ref name="gathercole"/> A charter of King [[Ine of Wessex]], from 706, witnessed by nine bishops including the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], records that the area where Shepton Mallet now stands was passed to Abbot Berwald of [[Glastonbury Abbey]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ford |first=Eric |title=Shepton Mallet: An Historical and Postal Survey |year=1958 |publisher=Published by the Author |place=Oakhill, Somerset |pages=1–3}}</ref> According to some legends [[Indract of Glastonbury]] was buried in Shepton.<ref name="robionsonwj">{{Cite book |title=West Country Churches |last=Robinson |first=W.J. |year=1915 |publisher= Bristol Times and Mirror Ltd |location=Bristol |pages=144–149}}</ref> The town was in the [[Whitstone (Somerset hundred)|Whitstone]] [[Hundred (county subdivision)|Hundred]]; the hundred courts were held at Cannard's Grave, just south of the town.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Farbrother |first=John E. |title=Shepton Mallet: Notes on its History, Ancient, Descriptive and Natural |year=1872 |place=Bridgwater |publisher=Reprinted by Somerset County Library 1977 |isbn=0-9503615-3-4 |pages=31–32|edition=Memorial}}</ref><ref name="story">{{Cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Fred |last2=Blandford |first2= Alan |last3=Beckerleg |first3=Lewis |title=The Shepton Mallet Story (2nd Ed) |year=1977 |publisher=The Shepton Mallet Society |location=Oakhill, Somerset |isbn=978-0-9500568-1-4 |page=16}}</ref>

The [[Liber Exoniensis|Exeter Domesday Book]] records that on the death of [[Edward the Confessor]] in 1066, the site was held (probably by lease from the Abbey) by one Uluert, and then by Roger de Corcella at the time of the [[Domesday Book|Domesday survey]] in 1086. When Corcella died, sometime before or around 1100, the land passed to the [[William Malet (Norman conquest)|Malets]], a Norman family whose name was added to that of the settlement (and another of their holdings, Curi – now [[Curry Mallet]]).<ref name="story"/><ref name="autogenerated10">{{Cite book |last=Ford |first=Eric |title=Shepton Mallet: An Historical and Postal Survey |year=1958 |publisher=Published by the Author |place=Oakhill, Somerset |page=10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.sheptonmallet.info/site/index.php?page_id=222 |title=Shepton Mallet Norman History |publisher=Shepton Mallet Town Council |access-date=13 February 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100121065818/http://sheptonmallet.info/site/index.php?page_id=222 |archive-date=21 January 2010}}</ref><ref name="middle ages">{{Cite web |url=http://www.sheptonmallet.info/site/index.php?page_id=223 |title=Shepton Mallet Middle Ages History |publisher=Shepton Mallet Town Council |access-date=13 February 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100121065823/http://sheptonmallet.info/site/index.php?page_id=223 |archive-date=21 January 2010}}</ref>

===Middle Ages===
The Malets retained the estate until the reign of [[King John of England|King John]], when on the death of [[William Malet (Magna Carta)|William Malet]] ([[floruit|fl.]] 1192–1215) and the payment by his sons-in-law of a fine of 2000 [[mark (money)|marks]] for participating in a rebellion against the king) it passed through his daughter Mabel to her husband [[Hugh de Vivonne]]. Some generations later, the part of the estate containing Shepton Mallet was sold to a relative, Sir Thomas Gournay. His son, also Thomas, took part in the murder of [[Edward II of England|Edward II]]. His estates were confiscated by [[Edward III of England|Edward III]] in 1337, but returned some years later. When Mathew de Gournay died childless in 1406, the estate reverted to the Crown and was then granted to Sir John de Tiptoft. It was again confiscated from his son by [[Henry VI of England|Henry VI]] during the [[Wars of the Roses]], when the family sided with [[Edward IV of England|Edward IV]], but restored to Sir John's grandson, Edward Tiptoft, when Edward IV regained the throne. He died without issue, and there followed a succession of grants and reversions until [[Glastonbury Abbey]] was [[Dissolution of the Monasteries|dissolved]] by [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]], and its lands, including Shepton Mallet, were granted to the [[Duchy of Cornwall]] in 1536.<ref name="autogenerated10"/><ref name="farbrother">{{Cite book |last=Farbrother |first=John E. |title=Shepton Mallet: Notes on its History, Ancient, Descriptive and Natural |year=1872 |place=Bridgwater |publisher=Reprinted by Somerset County Library 1977 |isbn=0-9503615-3-4 |pages=7–11|edition=Memorial}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Fred |last2= Blandford|first2= Alan|last3=Beckerleg|first3= Lewis|title=The Shepton Mallet Story (2nd Ed) |year=1977 |publisher=The Shepton Mallet Society |location=Oakhill, Somerset |isbn=978-0-9500568-1-4 |pages=23–24r}} (but with some probable errors due to confusing [[William Malet (Norman conquest)|William Mallet (died 1071)]] with [[William Malet (Magna Carta)|William Mallet (fl. 1192–1215)]])</ref>

Charters for markets and fairs were granted in 1235, but revoked in 1260 and 1318 after objections by the Bishop of Wells to the competition it represented to the market in his city. This shows that the town was developing and prospering in the 13th and early 14th centuries.<ref name="gathercole"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ford |first=Eric |title=Shepton Mallet: An Historical and Postal Survey |year=1958 |publisher=Published by the Author |place=Oakhill, Somerset |pages=26–29}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Fred |last2= Blandford |first2= Alan |last3=Beckerleg |first3=Lewis |title=The Shepton Mallet Story (2nd ed.) |year=1977 |publisher=The Shepton Mallet Society |location=Oakhill, Somerset |isbn=978-0-9500568-1-4 |page=32}}</ref> The [[Black Death]] struck in 1348, reducing the population to about 300.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Fred |last2=Blandford |first2=Alan |last3=Beckerleg |first3=Lewis |title=The Shepton Mallet Story (2nd ed.) |year=1977 |publisher=The Shepton Mallet Society |location=Oakhill, Somerset |isbn=978-0-9500568-1-4 |pages=32–33}}</ref> In the late 14th and early 15th centuries, the population and economy were boosted by craftsmen and merchants arriving from France and the [[Low Countries]], who were escaping wars and religious persecution. They introduced cloth-making, which together with the local [[wool trade]], became a major industry in Shepton and other Somerset and [[Wiltshire]] towns.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Farbrother |first=John E. |title=Shepton Mallet: Notes on its History, Ancient, Descriptive and Natural |year=1872 |place=Bridgwater |publisher=Reprinted by Somerset County Library 1977 |isbn=0-9503615-3-4 |pages=13–14|edition=Memorial }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Fred |last2= Blandford|first2= Alan |last3=Beckerleg |first3= Lewis |title=The Shepton Mallet Story (2nd ed.) |year=1977 |publisher=The Shepton Mallet Society |location=Oakhill, Somerset |isbn=978-0-9500568-1-4 |pages=33–34}}</ref> Wool became such a source of riches that when [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]] needed money to fight the Scots in 1496, he called on the wool merchants of Shepton to contribute £10.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ford |first=Eric |title=Shepton Mallet: An Historical and Postal Survey |year=1958 |publisher=Published by the Author |place=Oakhill, Somerset |pages=32–34}}</ref>

{{cquote|To our trusty and wellbeloved John Calycote of Shepton Malet...<br />...because as we here ye be a man of good substaunce—we desire and pray you to makelone vnto us of the som of ten poundes whereof ye shal be vndoubtedly and assuredly repayd in our Receipt at the fest of Seynt Andrewe next coming...
| author = [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]]
| source = Letter under King's [[Royal sign-manual|sign manual]] and [[Privy Seal of England|Privy Seal]], 1 December 1496
}}

===Stuart era===
In 1675, a House of Correction was set up in Shepton Mallet.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.sheptonmallet.info/site/index.php?page_id=189 |work=Shepton Mallet Town Council |title=Historic Buildings of Shepton Mallet |access-date=30 August 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118052345/http://www.sheptonmallet.info/site/index.php?page_id=189 |archive-date=18 January 2012}}</ref><ref name="Disney">{{Cite book |last=Disney|first=Francis |title=Shepton Mallet Prison (2nd ed.) |year=1992 |publisher=Published by the Author|isbn=0-9511470-2-1}} Also updated as a CD-ROM (2001), see [http://www.prison-history.co.uk "Shepton Mallet Prison: 390 years of prison regime"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120142419/http://prison-history.co.uk/ |date=20 November 2008}}</ref>

In the [[English Civil War]], the town supported the Parliament side, although Shepton appears largely to have escaped conflict apart from a bloodless confrontation in the market place on 1 August 1642 between Royalists under Sir [[Ralph Hopton]] and Parliament led by Colonel [[William Strode]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ford |first=Eric |title=Shepton Mallet: An Historical and Postal Survey |year=1958 |publisher=Published by the Author |place=Oakhill, Somerset |pages=11–12}}</ref><ref name="davischap4">{{Cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Fred |last2= Blandford |first2=Alan |last3=Beckerleg |first3=Lewis |title=The Shepton Mallet Story (2nd ed.) |year=1977 |publisher=The Shepton Mallet Society |location=Oakhill, Somerset |isbn=978-0-9500568-1-4 |pages=44–49}} which contains a full account of the events of 1 August 1642.</ref> In 1645 Sir [[Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron|Thomas Fairfax]] led the [[New Model Army]] through the town on the way to capturing [[Bristol]],<ref name="bush"/> and in 1646 the church organ was apparently destroyed by [[Oliver Cromwell|Cromwellian]] soldiers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Farbrother |first=John E. |title=Shepton Mallet: Notes on its History, Ancient, Descriptive and Natural |year=1872 |place=Bridgwater |publisher=Reprinted by Somerset County Library 1977 |isbn=0-9503615-3-4 |page=14|edition=Memorial }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ford |first=Eric |title=Shepton Mallet: An Historical and Postal Survey |year=1958 |publisher=Published by the Author |place=Oakhill, Somerset |page=19}}</ref>

During the [[Monmouth Rebellion]] of 1685, the [[James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth|Duke of Monmouth]] was welcomed when he passed through Shepton Mallet to stay at Longbridge House<ref>{{NHLE |num=1296498 |desc=Longbridge House |access-date=15 February 2010 }}</ref> in Cowl Street on the night of 23 June, with his men quartered around the town, before setting out for Bristol next day. Many Shepton men joined the cause, but Monmouth failed to take [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] or [[Bristol]] and had to return to Shepton on 30 June. After the [[Battle of Sedgemoor]], the Duke fled, spent the night of 6 July at Downside, a mile north of Shepton, and was captured two days later. After the [[Bloody Assizes]], twelve local supporters of Monmouth were [[hanging|hanged]] and [[Hanged, drawn and quartered|quartered]] in the market place.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Farbrother |first=John E. |title=Shepton Mallet: Notes on its History, Ancient, Descriptive and Natural |year=1872 |place=Bridgwater |publisher=Reprinted by Somerset County Library 1977 |isbn=0-9503615-3-4 |pages=16–20|edition=Memorial}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ford |first=Eric |title=Shepton Mallet: An Historical and Postal Survey |year=1958 |publisher=Published by the Author |place=Oakhill, Somerset |pages=13–14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Fred |last2= Blandford |first2= Alan |last3=Beckerleg |first3=Lewis |title=The Shepton Mallet Story (2nd ed.) |year=1977 |publisher=The Shepton Mallet Society |location=Oakhill, Somerset |isbn=978-0-9500568-1-4 |pages=50–60}}</ref><ref name="scott">{{Cite book |title=The hidden places of Somerset |last=Scott |first=Shane |year=1995 |publisher=Travel Publishing Ltd |location=Aldermaston |isbn=1-902007-01-8 |page=56}}</ref>

In 1699 Edward Strode built [[almshouse]]s, close to the rectory that his family had built, to house the town's [[grammar school]], which lasted until 1900.<ref name="bush"/>

===18th–20th centuries===
In the 17th and 18th centuries thriving wool and cloth industries were powered by the waters of the [[River Sheppey]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.mendip.gov.uk/Documents/MinutesAndReports/Meetings%202004/Shepton%20Mallet%20&%20Wells%20Area%20Board/13.07.04/Agenda%20Item%2016%20-%20appendix%201.doc |title=The Inclusion of the Anglo Bavarian Brewery area in the Shepton Mallet Conservation Area |access-date=3 January 2008 |format=Microsoft Word |work=Mendip District Council |date=June 2004 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611185859/http://www.mendip.gov.uk/Documents/MinutesAndReports/Meetings%202004/Shepton%20Mallet%20%26%20Wells%20Area%20Board/13.07.04/Agenda%20Item%2016%20-%20appendix%201.doc |archive-date=11 June 2011 }}</ref> There were said to be 50 mills in and around the town in the early 18th century,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/hes/downloads/EUS_Shepton_MalletText.pdf |title=Shepton Mallet |last=Gathercole |first=Clare |work=Somerset Urban Archaeological Survey |publisher=Somerset County Council |year=2003 |access-date=2 February 2010 |pages=22–23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717063246/http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/hes/downloads/EUS_Shepton_MalletText.pdf |archive-date=17 July 2011}}</ref> and a number of fine clothiers' houses survive, particularly in Bowlish, a hamlet on the western edge of Shepton Mallet.<ref name="Bowlish houses">{{NHLE |num=1172927 |desc=Old Bowlish House |access-date=15 February 2010}}<br />{{NHLE |num=1058419 |desc=Bowlish House |access-date=15 February 2010 }}<br />{{NHLE |num=1058420 |desc=Bowlish House Gate Piers and Mounting Block |access-date=15 February 2010}}<br />{{NHLE |num=1345223 |desc=Combe House, Bowlish |access-date=24 February 2010}}<br />{{NHLE |num=1172922 |desc=Park House, Bowlish |access-date=29 July 2019}}</ref> Although these industries still employed some 4,000 towards the end of the century,<ref name="Ford30">{{Cite book |last=Ford |first=Eric |title=Shepton Mallet: An Historical and Postal Survey |year=1958 |publisher=Published by the Author |place=Oakhill, Somerset |page=30}}</ref> they were beginning to decline. Discontent at mechanisation of the mills resulted in the deaths of two men in a riot in the town in 1775. This apparently discouraged mill-owners from modernising further.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Fred |last2= Blandford |first2= Alan |last3=Beckerleg |first3= Lewis |title=The Shepton Mallet Story (2nd ed.) |year=1977 |publisher=The Shepton Mallet Society |location=Oakhill, Somerset |isbn=978-0-9500568-1-4 |page=78}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Farbrother |first=John E. |title=Shepton Mallet: Notes on its History, Ancient, Descriptive and Natural |year=1872 |place=Bridgwater |publisher=Reprinted by Somerset County Library 1977 |isbn=0-9503615-3-4 |page=25|edition=Memorial}}</ref> The decision resulted in Shepton's cloth trade losing out to the steam-powered mills in the north of England in the early 19th century.<ref name="Ford30"/> The manufacture of silk and crepe revived the town's fortunes somewhat,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Farbrother |first=John E. |title=Shepton Mallet: Notes on its History, Ancient, Descriptive and Natural |year=1872 |place=Bridgwater |publisher=Reprinted by Somerset County Library 1977 |isbn=0-9503615-3-4 |pages=26–27|edition=Memorial}}</ref> and Shepton's mills made the silk used in [[Queen Victoria]]'s wedding dress.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Fred |last2= Blandford |first2= Alan |last3=Beckerleg |first3= Lewis |title=The Shepton Mallet Story (2nd ed.) |year=1977 |publisher=The Shepton Mallet Society |location=Oakhill, Somerset |isbn=978-0-9500568-1-4 |page=83}}</ref> However, these industries also died out eventually.

[[Image:Anglo Trading Estate Shepton Mallet 1.jpg|alt=Four storey building with chimney behind gates and walls.|thumb|The former Anglo-Bavarian Brewery]]
While wool, cloth and silk declined, other industries grew. In the 19th and 20th centuries brewing became one of the major industries. The [[Anglo-Bavarian Brewery]],<ref name="Anglo">{{NHLE |desc=Anglo Trading Estate (former brewery, now warehouses) |num=1296561 |access-date=15 February 2010 }}</ref> built in 1864 and still a local landmark, was the first in England to brew [[lager]]. At its height, it was exporting 1.8 million bottles a year to [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]], [[British India|India]], [[South Africa]], [[South America]] and the [[West Indies]]. It closed in 1921.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Anglo: The History of the Anglo Bavarian Brewery, Shepton Mallet, 1864–1994 |last=Davis |first=Fred |publisher=J H Haskins & Son Ltd |location=Shepton Mallet |year=1994}}</ref> However the town, home of [[Babycham]], is still a centre for [[cider]] production.

For some of the [[Second World War]], Shepton Mallet Prison was used to store national records from the [[Public Record Office]], including the [[Magna Carta]], the [[Domesday Book]], the logbooks of {{HMS|Victory}}, dispatches from the [[Battle of Waterloo]] and the "scrap of paper" signed by [[Hitler]] and British prime minister [[Neville Chamberlain]] at the [[Munich Conference]] of September 1938. The prison also became a [[US Army]] detention facility. Between 1943 and 1945, 18 US servicemen were executed within the prison walls, after convictions for murder, rape or both.<ref name="Disney"/>

In the 1960s and 1970s many historic buildings were demolished to build Hillmead council estate in the north of the town and a retail development and theatre in the market place.<ref name="Mendip District Council">{{Cite web |url=http://www.mendip.gov.uk/Publication.asp?id=SX9452-A7821E79 |title=Shepton Mallet Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Proposals |year=2007 |publisher=Mendip District Council |access-date=30 December 2008 |page=15 |archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110927075028/http://www.mendip.gov.uk/Publication.asp?id=SX9452-A7821E79 |archive-date=27 September 2011}}</ref>

The population of Shepton Mallet was fairly stable through the 19th century and the first part of the 20th: 5,104 in 1801 and 5,117 in 1851, then 5,446 by 1901, falling back to 5,260 in 1951.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Farbrother |first=John E. |title=Shepton Mallet: Notes on its History, Ancient, Descriptive and Natural |year=1872 |place=Bridgwater |publisher=Reprinted by Somerset County Library 1977 |isbn=0-9503615-3-4 |page=45|edition=Memorial }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ford |first=Eric |title=Shepton Mallet: An Historical and Postal Survey |year=1958 |publisher=Published by the Author |place=Oakhill, Somerset |page=39}}</ref> By 2001, it had grown again to 8,981.<ref name="census"/>