Avishays Clock Tower, Chaffcombe

Avishays or Avishayes House (it seems to be spelt both ways in different sources) is located in the parish of Chaffcombe about half a mile south of the village.  It is also a mile to the east of the edge of the town of Chard.  The house was built in the 17th century but substantially altered 1745-59.  It was owned by the Sealy and Marwood families from 1697 until 1859 when it was sold to a Chard solicitor called Edward Clarke.

200 metres east of the house on Castle Hill and on the site of a ruined sham castle, a single storey decorative building was constructed from rubble stone and flint and dressed with Ham stone.  It was probably built for Edward Clarke  The parapet was castellated. It was a water tower supplying water to the house but also acted as an eye-catcher when viewed from the house. 

The building became known as the Monmouth Tower, in memory of Elias Sealy who owned Avishays at the time of the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685.  He supported Monmouth and narrowly avoided arrest after Monmouth's defeat at the Battle of Sedgemoor by hiding in a tree in the grounds of Avishays.  The tower is also known as The Castle.

The clock tower was apparently added to the top of the Monmouth Tower in around 1985 by the then owner of Avishays, David Cavender.  The chiming clock, which has only one face, was made by Gillet & Johnson of Croydon and dates from the 19th century.

At the time of writing in October 2016 the Avishays Estate (main house, coach house, 3 lodge houses, 2 cottages, outbuildings, Monmouth Tower and 90 acres of gardens, paddocks and parkland) is up for sale for £4.7 million.

Avishayes House

 

Monmouth Clock Tower

Romano-British Mosaic, Lopen

One evening in October 2001 George Caton was using a mechanical digger to create a new access road behind Mill Farm at Lopen near Ilminster for the Osborne family when he noticed some coloured cubes of stones.   He stopped work and the next day he and the Osbornes dug down and uncovered a small section of a Romano-British mosaic floor.  They contacted Somerset County Council's archaeological team and over the next three weeks the mosaic was fully excavated, cleaned, recorded and then covered over again to protect it from the elements. 

An 8 roomed villa was revealed, which is thought to date from about 360AD.  The site is just over 1 km south of the Fosse Way, which runs from Lincoln to Exeter.  The mosaic is believed to be the work of the Saltire School, who were based at Corinium (now Cirencester).  The designs used in the mosaic included large squares, saltires, a dolphin, a cantharus (two handled cup), flowers, fish, heart shaped leaves and guilloche (plaits or braids).  The southern part of the mosaic is almost 7 metres square, while the northern section is 4.5 metres square.

The tesserae used for the mosaic were made from local stones:

• Dark blue grey to light grey - blue lias
• White - very pale blue lias or chalk
• yellow-brown - inferior oolite (limestone stained by iron compounds)
• sandy or pale yellow - inferior oolite
• golden - Ham stone
• red - terracotta cut from roof tiles or bricks

The mosaic was laid on a prepared surface with a layer of rubble at the bottom called the statutum. Above this was a layer of compacted rough mortar called the rudus.  Above this was a layer called the nucleus which consisted of powdered terracotta and mortar.  The top layer was fine mortar and the tesserae were laid on this.

The loose tesserae, which were found in the soil around the mosaic were donated to the village by the land owners and used to recreate a section of the mosaic.  Volunteers washed and sorted the pieces and Nicholas Durnan and Gina Wright placed the 3,000 or so pieces into lime mortar to create a cantharus.  It was completed in 2002 and is now on display on the floor of All Saints Church in Lopen.  The surround is made from Ham Stone.

 Reconstructed Mosaic in All Saints Church, Lopen

Reconstructed Cantharus Design

The Underground Bunker, Chard

In 1938 construction of a massive underground concrete bomb proof bunker began in the garden of the Westminster Bank in Fore Street, Chard.  It was built by Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons and was finished in August 1939.  Its purpose was to store duplicate copies of the bank's customer records, in case their headquarters at Threadneedle Street in London was destroyed by a German bomb.  The emergency supply of bank notes for the Bank of England was also held there until 1943.  There is also speculation that the Crown Jewels were stored there during the Second World War, although this has never been confirmed.

The side of the bunker and its entrance can be seen from Combe Street Car Park.  However the bunker itself is very overgrown.

Entrance to the Bunker

 

Overgrown bunker from Combe Street Car Park

Powder House, Green Hill Nature Reserve, Charlton Mackrell

At the eastern end of Somerset Wildlife Trust's Green Down Nature Reserve and half a mile to the west of the village of Charlton Mackrell there is a Powder House.  This was built to store gunpowder and lamp oil during the construction of the railway, which is located 200 metres to the south.  The railway line from Castle Cary to Cogload Junction to the east of Taunton was built between 1903 and 1906.  In order to build the section between Charlton Mackrell and Langport a succession of cuttings and embankments and a tunnel to the west of Somerton had to be constructed.

The Powder House fell into a state of disrepair but was restored by Somerset Wildlife Trust with the help of grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and South Somerset District Council.  It has two rooms.  The main one is accessed via a porch.  The building was built with dressed local lias stone and red brick.  A similar store was constructed at Monday's Court Lane near Long Sutton to the south of the Somerton Tunnel.  This one also still exists, although apparently not in such a good state of repair.

Green Down Nature Reserve, which has been managed by Somerset Wildlife Trust since 1989, is a stronghold of the re-introduced large blue butterflies.  Other relatively rare butterflies which can be seen on the reserve include the dark green fritillary, brown argus and brown hairstreak.  Badgers, weasels, green woodpeckers, lesser whitethroats and nightingales live around the site, which is grazed by Dorset sheep and North Devon cattle.  A number of different types of orchid can be found on the 14 acre reserve, including bee, greater butterfly and autumn ladies tresses.

The quickest route to get to the Powder House from a public road is up the steep Sug Hill Track from the unclassified road that runs from the B3153 to the north east of Somerton to the hamlet of West Charlton.  There is parking for one car by the side of the road near the start of the bridleway up the hill.  It is only a walk of 300 metres from there, although it is all up hill.  Grid reference: ST 521 287

Powder House, Green Down

 

Main Entrance to the Green Down Powder House