Updated - November 2022

Most will know that the Bridgwater & Taunton College took over Canonsgrove as their Halls of Residence after Avon & Somerset sold the site. What you might not know is that at the start of the first COVID lockdown, the County Council took a lease on the site to provide sheltered accommodation for the homeless. According to the Receptionist on site, Council Staff went around Somerset ‘scooping up’ anyone that they found sleeping rough and brought them to Canonsgrove!

At the height of the operation around 65 rough sleepers were looked after on the site. As of November this year, only 12 remain to be re-housed. This will be achieved by March 2023, when the site is due to close, and the lease expires.

I haven’t been able to find out what the College then plan to do with it. They have obviously managed without it since the end of the last lockdown when students returned, but the future seems uncertain. It will certainly need considerable sums of money spend on it. It is in a ‘unloved’ state of repair and fairly run down. It’s a shame to see a place that has such good memories for so many of us, looking so sad. However, as we were there more than 45 years ago, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised!

‘Then & Now’ photo page - I hadn’t planned to visit Canonsgrove and therefore didn’t go prepared with any of the ‘Then’ photos from which to try and recreate exactly the ‘Now’ ones. I therefore just took a selection of shots around the site and tried to match them up with the old ones as best I could.

Abseiling - I knew there was a photo of someone abseiling down the outside of the gym. I did my practices on the car park side and assumed that we had all done the same. Unfortunately, when I got home, I realised that the ‘Then’ photo was taken on the back gym wall facing the woods. However, if you look quickly, you might not notice!

Garages - It’s a shame but it seems that we took lots of photos in front of the garages, located further on after the gym. Unfortuantely, the garages have been demolished and a further accommodation block built. Hence I wasn’t able to take any ‘Now’ photos to match the ‘Then’ ones!

Pete