At the cutting edge of industry

Lucy Anna Scott discovers an all-female organisation helping to keep local industry alive in Somerset

- Lucy Anna Scott

Watchet never stands still. This fact is obvious walking around the harbour, where you are reminded by an information board of the town’s relationship with innovation. Over 1,000 years it has thrived on cotton trading, seafaring, exported seaweed and been a UK paper manufacturing titan.

Now, from a cabin on the seafront, an all-female organisation has been created, born and bred here, working out where its story goes next. It is the headquarters of the community interest company, the Onion Collective, which has been working since 2013 to pioneer a sustainable industry for the future.

The eight-strong collective has a clear aim, as director Sally Lowndes explains: “We want to create a 21st century industry that cares about people. This is about jobs and a healthy environment, developed with and for the people.”

Watchet’s 250-year-old Wansbrough paper mill closed in 2015, taking almost 200 jobs with it.

“We lost our identity and soul,” says Sally. “But we want a new kind of economy for Watchet.”

It was a complex problem that only the town could solve. So the Onion Collective got cracking.“We had to figure out our strengths, explore which industries were doing well worldwide, and work out if they fit with Watchet,” says Onion director, Georgie Grant.