It's fair to say that the folk of Shepton Mallet are a feisty lot.
But could riots in the 18th century have hurt the town in ways the residents could never have imagined?
Thanks to TV shows like Poldark , we are aware of the hardships endured by the working class and while there is no doubt things were rough for the Cornish miners, they were not so great closer to home either.
After the black plague in 1348, which bought the population of the town to less than 300 people, Shepton needed a new beginning.
By the early 15th century, merchants and craftsmen from France, Belgium and Holland fleeing religious wars and plagues arrived in the Mendips and bought with them technical and commercial skills.
They built woollen mills and taught the locals how to make fine cloth, and before long, West County cloth was considered the best in the country.
Before long, other trades were beginning to pick up pace in the town. Shepton soon became a major producer of knitted stockings, with residents farming the sheep, manufacturing the wool and making stockings, before selling them in Bristol and major cities.
Powered by the River Sheppey, the wool and cloth industries thrived, with 50 mills in the town and the surrounding area by the 18th century, employing around 4,000 people.
With their new-found wealth, Sheptonians built the Market Cross, extended the Parish Church and mill owners built several fine manor houses – only a handful of which still stand.
But while the landowners, mill and quarry owners prospered life was not as good for the working class. They earned a pittance, could barely eat meat other than what they could poach and most of their wages went on rent they had to pay to their employers.
Corn Laws helped to swell the coffers of large owners, while Poor Laws meant employers no longer had to pay a living wage.
The Poor Relief – designed to supplement the income of the low-paid – was raised from local taxes, meaning those who had a job had to work even harder.
Then came the Agricultural and Industrial revolutions – with fewer people needed to do the same amount of work.
It meant more profits for business and land-owners, and more local people unemployed and made homeless. On August 6, 1746, workers had enough and they began to riot.
Hungry, poor and badly treated, the people were desperate for anything that would give them food and a roof over their heads.
Just a few months later, on February 12, 1748 they rioted once again, and then a year to the day later in 1749.
In 1775, as the industrial revolution descended, Shepton began to worry. Formerly the spinning process was performed by hand and wheel, but the new machinery meant one person could direct the spinning of a large number of threads at once.
As mill owners worked to put in the new machinery, workers became afraid they would lose their livelihood. Once again, they assembled in large bodies and broke out into open riot at Bunker's Hill, where the old Norah Fry hospital now stands.
Mill owners called out the militia in fear of their lives and two of the rioters were killed in the chaos that followed.
The riots meant that many of the mill owners closed their mills and set-up business elsewhere. The factories, one by one, closed.
Those who stayed had were too afraid to modernise and simply could not keep up with the steam-powered mills in the north of England.
As the factories and mills closed, key craftsmen packed their bags and followed them and soon the huge houses, the mills and the factories emptied. Shops were shuttered, people lost their homes and hundreds besieged the poorhouse.
The mills and factories were burned by groups of disgruntled residents, or simply left to rot.
The introduction of the manufacture of silk and crepe and velvet, did briefly revive the town's fortunes in Shepton Mallet, silk was an important successor industry for a while, with four former cloth mills being used.
Silk made in the town was even used in Queen Victoria's wedding dress.
But sadly, many of the former mill sites in Shepton were considerably farther away from important markets in London and the Midlands.
Silk, in the face of increasing competition from overseas and the appearance of man-made fibres, shifted away from the area, and the cloth, wool and silk mills of Shepton fell to nothing more than memory.
But there is no denying the impact the industry had on the town can still be seen in the now-converted mill buildings, the remains of waterwheels and the millponds that still help to give the town its character.