laden with silt, whereas the canal contains fresh water. Not only is there a risk of silt entering the canal, but the salt water cannot be allowed to contaminate the fresh, as the canal is still used for the transport of drinking water for Bridgwater's population. The Crossways Swing Bridge over the canal in the parish was built in 1827 by John Rennie. It is a wooden bridge which rotated on steel ball-bearings in a circular track, a very early example of the use of ball bearings in this way. It was designated as a Grade II listed building but the mechanism was removed in 1987. The Higher and Lower Maunsel locks on the canal are either side of the Maunsel bridge which carries the A361. The stone Coxhill road bridge dates from the same time. Woolmersdon House in Woolmersdon is a Grade II listed late Georgian residence. In 1906, North Petherton became the first town in Britain (and perhaps the only one) to have street lights lit by piped acetylene gas, supplied by the North Petherton Gas and Carbide Company, operating from a plant in Mill Lane (photo). The plant was demolished towards the end of the 20th century to form a car park for the local doctor's surgery. Acetylene was replaced in 1931 by coal gas produced in Bridgwater, as well as by the provision of an electricity supply, and the Gas and Carbide Company was wound up. The North Petherton Rosco Acetylene Company (dating from at least 1898) may have supplied gas to the adjacent church prior to the Gas and Carbide Company. In 1926 the Bridgwater Beam Wireless Station was opened north east of the town. It was the UK receiving station for Marconi's UK-to-Canada Beam Wireless Service, (part of the Imperial Wireless Chain,) the first transoceanic shortwave wireless telegraph service in the world and operated until 2002. In 1984 North Petherton was provided with a small public library. As a result of a revitalised fund-raising campaign (originally begun decades earlier), this was followed a few years later by the construction of a Community Centre, opened in 1987, which was extended in 1991. Governance The civil parish of North Petherton includes the villages of North Newton (on the route of the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal) and Northmoor Green (also known as Moorland) in the Somerset Levels, as well as a number of other smaller settlements. Despite