25th June 2023
In 1623, the town of Axbridge was given its third royal charter. At the time, the town Bailiff and Sergeant at the Mace – predecessors of the modern police force – were each given ceremonial silver maces. Four hundred years later the history of these now fragile artefacts was celebrated as they were retired and placed for safekeeping into a display cabinet in the town’s King John’s Hunting Lodge Museum. The current Bailiff and Sergeant at the Mace now proudly carry wooden replicas of the original maces that were carved by Axe Valley Men’s Shed.
