Celebrating 100 Years of Shepton & Wells Vets: A Look Back at a Century of Caring for Animals
Published on: Jun 24, 2022
It’s quite a moment to celebrate 100 years of an organisation, and I’ve been really lucky to be supporting Shepton & Wells Vets as they achieve their centenary this year. They pride themselves on being part of the local community and remaining an independent practice.
As part of this significant milestone, we’ve been looking back on and collating memories, stories and photographs from throughout the years. A kind of “Vet’s Diary” compilation from the last 100 years if you like. I thought for this week’s extract, it would be nice to share some of the recollections from the decades gone by.
“In the 1920s, members of the Somerset NFU were saying they were dissatisfied with the veterinary service in the Shepton Mallet/Castle Cary area. The expertise was adequate but it was often difficult to locate the two veterinary surgeons because of their drinking habits. It was not unusual for a farmer to have visit all the public houses in Shepton Mallet to find them. Tom Patterson – a veterinary assistant working in Wincanton – was put into a new branch practice at Evercreech, and began serving the local area on his motorbike and sidecar.”
“During the war, not a lot happened in Shepton Mallet of a veterinary nature, except that the practice became busier. A string of bombs was offloaded by the Germans after a raid on Bristol and some cows were killed and injured.”
“In 1953, the telephone number of the practice was Shepton Mallet 119. To ring another number, one picked up the phone to speak to the operator, giving the number required. This all changed when the automatic telephone exchange was built in Paul Street in the early 1960s and numbers could be obtained by direct dialling. In 1966, it was decided to improve communications by installing radio telephones in the veterinary surgeon’s cars. This involved a receiving and transmitting unit in each car and a base unit at the surgery with a 50ft mast above the building.”
“When the new surgery was built in the 1970s, the old one was buried under Allyn Saxon Drive houses. Everyone threw in ideas for a pleasant, functional building – the only slight niggle was the colour of the waiting room, chosen by Roger Eddy. Roger was colour blind. The new practice had all the mod cons, including a beast of a computer with removable hard drives the size of dustbin lids for the farm side. The pet practice still relied on a card system, carefully ordered by Olive and there was hell to pay if a card was out of strict alphabetical order.”
“As Foot and Mouth Disease continues, we have been able to send two vets to assist in other parts of the country. We have changed our work schedule to allow this, which means more nights and weekends on call but we all have to do our best.”
“New equipment and techniques became part of day-to-day working. Dentistry was no longer just scraping off tartar and pulling teeth – ultra sonic scalers and air turbine drills become part of the treatments available. Some complementary treatments became part of our armoury. I remember a cat with a paralysed bladder piddled all over the table when I used an acupuncture needle on its tail!”
“Covid struck and that, of course, deeply affected everybody and the way that services could be delivered. The whole team rolled up their sleeves and embraced consulting in the car park and garden in all weathers. Medicines were also delivered to vulnerable clients who might miss out on vital medications for their pets.”
We’ve documented these recollections – and many, many more – in a commemorative book. You’re likely to recognise the featured contributors, including staff past and present, and smile at lots of their stories.
We were also pleased to share an evening with a number of colleagues and clients at the Bath and West Show the other week, reminiscing on our memories about the practice over the years. We were especially delighted to welcome our guest of honour, Bill Patterson – whose father Tom founded the practice in 1922. Many local suppliers and venues kindly donated raffle prizes, which helped us raise over £3,000 for Farming Community Network.
Over the coming months, we’ll be continuing to celebrate Shepton & Wells Vets centenary with more events and activities and hope you will join us in some of the celebrations.
Shepton & Wells Vets | 100th anniversary | Shepton Mallet vet | veterinary history | Farming Community Network | Bill Patterson | Tom Patterson
