CAN you guess where this week’s Mystery Photograph was taken?

Each week, the Journal invites readers to test their local knowledge by identifying a historic location from the past.

This week, however, we have a different challenge. Radstock Museum has identified this image as local and historic but cannot confirm its exact location. We are turning to you, our readers, to help solve the mystery—can you identify it?

Clandown, like many villages in the region, likely has medieval origins, with agriculture forming the backbone of the local economy before the rise of mining. The village remained relatively small and rural until the Industrial Revolution.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Clandown became heavily involved in the coal industry. The Somerset Coalfield was one of the key coal-producing areas in the country, and several collieries operated in and around the village. The Clandown Colliery, which opened in the early 19th century, was a significant employer and shaped the development of the village. Mining led to population growth and the construction of workers’ housing and community facilities.

Like much of the Somerset Coalfield, Clandown's mining industry began to decline in the mid-20th century as coal reserves became harder to access and demand for local coal fell. The last mines in the region closed by the 1970s, leading to economic challenges and changes in the village’s character.

Today, Clandown is a quiet residential area with reminders of its industrial past. While much of the infrastructure from the mining era has disappeared, traces of the old coal industry remain in the landscape.

The Ham Buildings in Clandown were a row of miners’ cottages built to house workers from the nearby collieries. These buildings were a typical example of the type of housing constructed for coal miners and their families during the peak of the Somerset coal industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries.