Editing Shepton Mallet (section)

===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"/>