Wincanton's high street, and the case for keeping it independent

Ninety-five per cent of Wincanton's high street shops are independently run, according to OnePlanet Wincanton, a local sustainability and community group. That's worth protecting, because a street full of independents is a reason to visit in itself, and no head office decides what goes on its shelves. The catch is that goodwill alone won't bring anyone through a particular shop's door.

The figure is the group's own, and it doesn't say how or when it counted. Even so, it sounds about right to anyone who has walked the street, where the supermarket sits outside the centre and the centre is almost all one-off businesses.

That figure can mean two quite different things. Either independents chose Wincanton, or the shops are small, awkward and badly connected, so no chain wanted them and independents filled the gap. The same number fits both stories.

From the inside, it looks like some of each. Some locals head to Bruton for their coffee; others stay in town, at The Lovington Bakery on the Market Place among others. There are new reasons to come, too. The Plaza cinema reopened in February 2026, run by S&B Cinemas, after years as a church and then standing empty. A little cobbled alleyway off the High Street is worth finding. Highstreet Records, a record shop in the Applegarth Emporium, sits at its front, with more small shops beyond it, a fruit and veg shop among them.

I argued in 2017 that the town was starting to pull people in on its own terms, off the back of one good bakery and a few new arrivals. Its best-known shop of the last twenty-five years, the Discworld Emporium, shows both versions at once: it drew fans from everywhere, but it still left the high street when its founders retired. What has changed since 2017 is how many people go into Wincanton's pubs and cafés. From what I've seen, it dropped considerably after the mid-2000s, picked up a little before Covid, and has dropped again since.

Race days tell a similar story. They're quiet in the town these days, apart from Boxing Day, which still has a fantastic draw: on that one day the high street feels the way it used to feel all the time. The racecourse lists the season's dates, and for a shop, café or pub in town, Boxing Day is the one worth planning around.

What an independent street gives the people who shop on it is plain. More of the money tends to stay local, in wages, suppliers and rent. Prices are set in the shop, which cuts both ways. And the range is whatever the owner thinks is worth stocking, which is why a street like this feels nothing like a retail park.

None of that earns a shop a free pass, though. It still has to be easy to find when someone searches, open when people expect it to be, and clear about what it sells. Our page for Somerset businesses covers being found locally, including the search quirk that comes with Wincanton's name.