The High Street is a doorway to our communal history, a constantly changing reflection of our social and commercial community - a map in need of tracing.

Glastonbury High Street is unique. A distinctive town, with a profound and resonant history, it is a place of tourism, pilgrimage, invasion. Transforming from a sleepy market town to a pilgrimage centre and “new age mecca”, most of the traditional businesses flourishing in the town fifty years ago have been replaced by new ventures. Openings, closures. A constantly changing High Street.

Over the past four months, extensive interviewing across generations of residents and shopkeepers has produced an extraordinary archive. All the original material will be lodged with the Rural Life Museum in Glastonbury for future generations.

This programme is not intended as a definitive study of the High Street, or even a detailed account of the history. It is a picture, a portrait, a poem, charting some of the extraordinary changes that Glastonbury has seen. Out of the twenty hours of collected material, only 45 minutes exists here.

In making this unique documentary to celebrate the turning of the Millennium, Glastonbury Net Radio would like to thank all the people who took part in this programme, for helping to create a glimpse of the past century, not only for our own reflection, but as a time capsule for future generations.