Rare medallion donated to heritage centre

STAFF at the Community Heritage Access Centre in Yeovil are thrilled to have been gifted a rare 1835 medallion.

The Yeovil Guardian Friendly Society medallion, 1835, was amongst a donation of important items concerning the history of Yeovil. The donation included medallions awarded to the Mayor of Yeovil to commemorate Royal events including the wedding and later the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary and their silver jubilee medals.

The collection was donated to CHAC by Mr D. Stuckey, a descendant of Albert Henry Stroud, a former mayor of Yeovil.

The medallion is the only one staff from CHAC know of in existence. The Yeovil Guardian Friendly Society also issued tokens and these are considered very rare, in fact there was no known examples of them until 2 came to light in the 1990’s. One token was gifted to the Community Heritage Access Centre from a museum in Wakefield, Yorkshire.

The Yeovil Guardian Friendly Society was founded in 1835 and had its headquarters at the Mermaid hotel in the town.  By 1863 it had a membership of over 300 and often paraded at local events with their banner including the opening of the Railway in Yeovil in 1853.

The CHAC is run by South Somerset District Council and Cllr Sylvia Seal said they were grateful to Mr Stuckey for donating the items.

Cllr Seal, the council’s leisure and culture spokesman, said: “The medallion and other items will be important assets at CHAC and we hope that many people will come to visit and view these rare items.”

 To view the donation or any other items at CHAC call (01935) 462855 and leave a message or email heritage.service@southsomerset.gov.uk. To keep up to date with the Heritage Service visit www.southsomersetheritage.org.uk.

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