The Knowhere Guide

Local Heroes in Bridgwater, Somerset*

Bridgwater, Somerset Famous Residents

Cringing Cult of Celebrity (Famous residents and ex-residents.)

• Mrs Johnson, the estranged maths teacher, oh where thou art the Johnson
• Charlie Dimmock went to Cannington college (just outside Bridgwater)
• Richard Herring claims to be from Cheddar, but there are local rumours that he's a Bridgwater escapee. Personally I'm not sure, as he is articulate and has the normal ratio of fingers to thumbs.
• Joe Strummer- RIP
• Jordon and Peter Andre apparently visited Brean leisure park last summer and were thinking of moving to the area!!
• well recently the cheeky girls came to put the christmas light on thats bout all i no of celebrities! apart from they say princess diana opened splash swimming centre
• Julan Temple (Director of Sex pistol documentary ' the filth and the fury' fame) lives just outside bridgwater apparently.
• tessa shaw lives in North Petherton just outside bridgwater. shes the posh women that used to present home front
• Anne Diamond used to work for the Mercury Newspaper There's also an ex - Chilton Trinity pupil who is quite well known for his tennis skills, but I've forgotten his name
• some blake bloke dont know what he done but they named a chip shop after him
• Joe strummer the man. grot baggs
• Sorry Rosalind Plowright does or did not live in Bridgwater, but her sister lives near by.
• the chap who invented the fireman's pole was born and is buried in wembdon road
• admiral blake himself. (ex-resident obviously)
• Well Gary Glitter used to love there.....before the PC thing!!!
• Hopeful Liam Bull - under 19's England footballer, went to East Bridgwater and everything! - is going to be a Premiership 'keeper one day, because past that, we're struggling. I think the bloke who does "backwater" in the freebie newspaper wrote a book once.
• Disco Geoff, top lorry impersonater and Car Kicker (self explanitory) are both still prominent pillars of the community.
• Wasn't there some famous mass murderer?
• Rosalind Plowright who is one of the principle sopranos for the English National Opera is from Bridgwater - so who thought Bridgwater people had no class!
• angela rippon once recorded a documentry on the town of bridgwater.
• You are mis-informed about Jeffery. He had his own reasons for 'driving' his bus. I believe he may have stopped it now, but he is one of the most honest, loyal, decent people in town. Quit crapping on him and you will find a friend that would NEVER let you down. Do YOU like the whole town crapping on you?
• Joe strummer - lead singer of the clash (arguably one of the best bands in the world) lives in one of the villages near-by.
• Chris ( The Voice Of Carnival ) Hocking, Well, he thinks he is famous anyway. Famous for making carnival look like playschool maybe.
• You can't spell Michael - as in Ball - whose father was born in the town.(Michael wasn't). Tony Ball is famous in his own right as, amongst other things, the man who launched the Mini (car, not skirt) and produced and organised that fabulous Opening Ceremony for the Rugby World Cup in Cardiff last year.
• Micheal Ball.... he's a singer I think.
• Does anyone remember the old guy who wore womens shoes, carried a handbag, had long hair (well about three hairs to be accurate) and wore tiny shorts even in the cold depths of winter? Or what about Elvis in the tasteful white suit with that fringe your nan has around the bottom of her sofa...and of course THAT radio? How about Casey Jones and his brother YoYo (who is also no doubt his father,uncle and cousin!!!) he's the one who collected all the cardboard boxes and pulled them along on a trolley which usually had about two dozen kids hitching a lift....didn't he realise that cardboard isn't that heavy!?! Not forgetting BMX Granny, a strange old lady (she was probably about 30, but Bridgwater ages you fast!) she wore a big fishermans coat (even in the middle of summer), long socks and scooted along on the BMX, she never actually rode it.
• I run a record label and have produced several bands - most of our stuff goes to Japan and the states but the CDs turn up in collectors stores in Bristol now and again, does that make me famous? perhaps not :-)
• Donald Crowhurst - suposedly sailed single handed around the world in the late sixties, except he just went round the Falklands and back. He went completely ga-ga and jumped overboard before making it back to Teignmouth - couldn't stand the thought of returning to Bridgwater I guess.
• Admiral Blake - look him up if you don't know.

Buskers, Street Entertainers

• I remember Jazzy Jeff being pushed through a shop window in St Johns street (Kellands) The Police arrived almost immediately and casually remarked that he was probably ram raiding!!!!
• Only Bridgwater would regard mentally ill people as street entertainment.
• Have none of you seen fart man?? He walks around and checks all the phone boxes for change then goes around picking up old fags that people have chucked!! he walks around making farting noises all the time and if you chuck money at him he dances for you!! LOL!!!!!
• local eccentrics include: trampus - guy whose turned black from dirt,requiring shop staff hold their breath,most shops in st.johns street pay him to leave, they then fumigate their shop with 3 cans of air freshener. he wears a sheepskin jacket with piss stains down the back,or a binmans jacket,loves brian ferry,his catchphrase is "dont worry my dear".
• Jeff is ok i saw him yesterday im sure and he was normal! I think he's better, ironically though he was walking to a car dealer!
• i think disco jeff has died as i havent seen him for ages i dont know what happened to him. was he gay?
• ok I think someone has been missed out here anyone remember mr woozy (woozy meaning "a little worse for ware after a night on the piss" quoted from the man himself, used to go around shouting woozy all the time and saluting the statue in town. Also I always used to see a woman who sang and walked around with a cup, I was never sure if she wanted money for her song or she really was just off it, I think the latter.
• I worked in a kitchen factory in St John street (with a showroom on Monmouth street that has never been completed) known as Studio K and Jeff the truck used to come in and ask if we had any broken lightbulbs, he would also climb into the skip and fill his pants with wood offcuts. He was harmless enough though so we would pay him to sweep up except during the summer when the smell of him was to much to bare. He was always boasting of his gay sexuality as well and propositioned us frequently.
• Has anyone noticed another Bridgwater character known as Lampost Man ! he is to be found standing by a lamp post at the junction of Coronation Row and Wembdon road , does no harm to anyone , wears a ear to ear grin , and has a cery large stomach , tall chap too , freqwuently there , worth a look
• I witnessed Jeffery once park his 'lorry' in a parking space in splash car park, only to have it run over by an actually car! He wasn't impressed and proceded to let the driver of the offending car exactly what he thought of him. Much to the bermusement of the driver!
• Where are "The Market Gardeners"?????
• There used to be some man playing christmas carols on his saxaphone
• every once in a while usually when the boar hits the river theres a really tall man who sits on the blake statue with large headphones on, and hes nearly always drinking a can of mango and mandarin lilt!!!
• Harry Handlebars :- Remember him , rides around on his grifter 120 (u know the one with the gear change in the middle of the frame) usually found sporting a couple of Cheapjacks flags and half a bag of spokey dokeys on the back wheel for style. Hours of fun could be had by stealing his bike and telling him that Car Kicker had Knicked it . Or how about Bumfluff Brenda usually found residing in blake gardens with her imagenary goat ted and a few empty bottles of martini extra dry on the floor , what was that strange smell ???? (ikse)
• i aint seen jeff around for a while n e 1 no wots happened 2 him
• bridgwater tramps r funny coz they mumble and swear a lot and they stink of cheap cider.i like winding em up for a laugh.
• Disco Jeff, the best entertainment in town ! Roger Road Hog, Very dangerous (he hits people) ! Especially schoolgirls who yell Oi Roger every day.
• Jeffry is alive and well! I saw him "trucking" along Quantock Road yesterday.
• If you talk about Jeffry you must mention Harper. Harper rides around the town on a bike with one hand on the stem and the other on one handlebar and always wears a wooly hat and a coat no matter what the weather. He is muttering all the time and when you can hear what he is saying it is rubbish linked with swear words. He has a fixation with cars and either shouts at them or goes into second hand car sales and strokes cars!! His fixation with cars can be dangerous as he has been arrested and chased from the motorway by the police more than once because he his on the hard shoulder shouting at the passing cars!! Unfortunately the police never have enough to put him into a home where he would be safe. He sleeps wherever he likes often on the side of the road and dumps his bike anywhere sometimes in the road. He can usually be seem on motorway intersection bridges just shouting at the cars but he seems harmless as if you approach him he rides off cursing all the time.
  Harper is also well known as 'car-kicker'. Why? You got it - he kicks cars! Rumour has it the poor f**ker was run down by a car as a child hence his strange perception of the world around him :-) I had a friend who used to work in the garage on Taunton Road (can't remember the name of the place, was years ago). All employees of this perticular garage were under strick intructions to sound the alarms if car-kicker pulled up on the forecourt (he is very distinctive - he rides a ladies 'shopper' bike and wears a nice wolley hat. the height of fashion). They would try to chase him away before he could do his thing. On one occasion he beat in every panel he could on one car and started on a second before he could be stopped. Like Jeffrey, his expoits have passed into folklore. I last saw him about a year ago, standing in the center of the Cannington by-pass urinating at the passing trafic, first one side, then the other.
• Does anyone remember the old guy who'd stalk the high street shouting nautical phrases?
• Bridgwater has Jeffry, a man who 'drives' (he isn't really driving, he is running down the middle of the streer and pretending to control a truck) around the town streets causing traffic problems. He once 'broke down' and held up traffic for a while. He has also been know to go into pubs and ask drivers to move their trucks. They have then been bemused as he walked backwards over the area they had previuosly been parked. He is as much a feature of the town as the Carnival or the Admiral Blake Statue.
  Is the guy's name really Jeffrey? We always called him 'flashback'. He'd go in the public library and harass the librarians and punters telling them that he had a mobile disco for hire. I'm surprised he's still around - I escaped Bridgwater in 1992!
  Jeffrey is also hard a fuck. I have personally witnessed an incident in the town center where Flashback layed out two blokes who were taking the piss and attempting to form a road block in his path. You've seen the movie 'Convoy'? You'll know what i'm talking about. BTW, he must be the fittest person in the town when you consider all the running around he does...
  Sadly Jeffry has been killed and I am not sure of the details. It is said that it was a road accident and with Jeffry's past possibly the poor individual who was involved did not know that Jeffry was a lorry. Perhaps someone else can fill in the details?
  Just found out this week that Jeffrey wasn't killed but badly injured and that he is likely to be out and about on the road again!!! Harper has been put into a home so he is out of circulation at the moment and in reality he should be kept there not only for his safety but for the others that he could involve in an accident.

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Last updated: 2006-12-08