Interesting excerpt from history of Shepton Mallett –

'On January 1813, disturbances broke out at nearby Radstock. The whole district rose in sympathy, and for two weeks, the situation was very tense. Order was restored only when the militia, the Yeoman Cavalry, and the volunteer infantry were all called out. The unrest continued for some years, with further outbreaks of popular violence in 1815, 1816, 1819, and 1823. In November 1830, West Country workers in Shepton, Bruton, Wincanton, Wells, and Glastonbury caused serious concern as it became evident that the dissatisfaction was by no means confined to a few disgruntled townsmen. Through the 1830s, the rioting spread throughout the country. 1831 saw a huge uprising in Bristol, and the 1832 Reform Bill riots were a clear signal to the Government that there was an urgent need for drastic and far-reaching social, not technological change. Unfortunately, the near-constant rioting achieved nothing in Shepton. Local mill owners, dismayed by the resistance to modernisation, simply closed their mills altogether and set up business elsewhere. Key craftsmen packed their bags and followed them, and soon the fine mansions stood empty. In the space of just a few years, from 1830-1840, the population of Shepton Mallet halved, and the once proud factories and mills were either burned by gangs of disgruntled navvies or were left to crumble into bleak ruins. Recovering from the decline of the Georgian era, a number of alternative industries grew up in Shepton Mallet, including the manufacture of cheese, lace, velvet, silk and crepe - the silk for Queen Victoria's and Queen Mary's wedding dresses was made here.

Brewing flourished here, and the Anglo-Bavarian Brewery was the first place in Britain to brew lager. The prosperity this brought the town led to a program of extensive civic improvement. '