Abbot's Fish House, Meare

When sea levels rose after the end of the last Ice Age around 10,000 years ago, and before the Somerset Levels were drained in the Middle Ages, the area around the present village of Meare was an island of slightly higher land surrounded by marshes. Three miles north west of Glastonbury and to the north of Meare village was a large lake.  In Saxon times it was called Ferramere or Ferlingmere but it later became known as Meare Pool. 

The monks of Glastonbury Abbey, who owned large areas of the Somerset Levels, drained large parts of them in the Middle Ages to use for livestock grazing and crops.  In the mid-13^th century they diverted the courses of the Rivers Brue, Hartlake and Sheppey to flow into Meare Pool, which improved the drainage of the area around Glastonbury and increased the size of Meare Pool.

Meare Pool now had a circumference of 4 miles in winter (but less in summer) and provided the monks with a year round supply of fresh fish (including pike, tench, roach and eels) and swans, which were eaten by royalty and nobles on special occasions.

Adam de Sodbury, Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, had a manor house built at Meare in the 1330s for the monks to use as a relaxing and contemplative summer residence.  The manor house was surrounded by herb and fruit gardens, a vineyard and orchards. 

Abbot Adam also built a church close to the Manor House and a smaller house on the southern edge of the Meare Pool to house the chief fisherman or water bailiff, which became known as the Fish House.  There were 3 rooms on the ground floor: a hall, a parlour and a service room (used for food storage, preparation and serving). There was also a latrine on the west side, which was linked to the parlour.   The first floor, which was reached by an external staircase on the south side of the building, had two chambers and a latrine. There were three small ponds outside the Fish House, which were used as live-tanks for keeping fish caught in the lake, and a boat house.

Glastonbury Abbey was dissolved in 1539 and Meare Pool was drained between the late 16^th century and 1718.  The Fish House was then used for various agricultural purposes for several centuries until it caught fire in the 1880s and the interior and roof were destroyed.  It was subsequently repaired and re-roofed by the Ministry of Works in 1912 and 1955.  In 2002 major repair work was carried out on the Fish House, which is now cared for by English Heritage.  The external staircase and the latrine were demolished at some point in the past and the floor of the upper storey has not been replaced. It is the only surviving monastic fishery building in England.

The Fish House, which now stands in a meadow close to the south bank of the River Brue, is kept locked but the key can be obtained from Manor House Farm next to the Fish House.    In the summer months the field in which the Fish House stands is grazed by cattle and for this reason dogs are not allowed to visit.  When I visited in August 2017 at first the cows ignored me but then they all started to run towards me and I ran for the gate.  I decided I would come back in the winter when the cows will most likely not be there and borrow the key to have a look at the interior.  I think they were just curious but I wasn't taking any chances.

Fish House

 

Fish House

 

Map showing the location of the Fish House in relation to Meare Pool and the Manor House

 

Manor House with Adam de Sodbury's Statue over the porch

 

St Mary and All Saints Church, Meare

The West Somerset Oil Field

In c1914 a mining engineer called John Berry realised that there were oil shales in the Jurassic Lower Lias rocks in the cliffs at Kilve. Oil had been extracted successfully from oil shales in Scotland since the 1850s.  An exploratory borehole was sunk at Kilve in 1921. This found oil shales at a depth of 91 metres and they continued to at least 168 metres.  It was later claimed that the oil bearing beds extended to a depth of 300 metres, covered an area of 8,000 acres and extended two miles inland. 

A company called Shaline Ltd (spelt Shalime in some sources) was proposed in 1924 by a Scotsman, Dr William Forbes-Leslie.  He was also involved in the unsuccessful development of an oilfield at Setchey in West Norfolk in from 1918-1926.  He planned to build a crude oil works at Kilve, an 11 mile long light railway to connect Kilve with Bridgwater and an oil refinery and dock at Combwich. 

An experimental plant was built at Kilve Pill in 1923 with one oil retort and an adjacent shed.  The shale used came from open cast quarries but the sulphur content was too high and the yield was only 5-10 gallons per ton.  The lower sulphur seams were much deeper and it wouldn’t have been cost effective to mine them, so the site at Kilve was abandoned. 

Dr Forbes-Leslie was not the oil shale expert that he claimed to be and in London in 1935 he and two other men were convicted of conspiracy to obtain money under false pretences in a confidence trick involving a fictional trust fund.

The remains of the oil retort can still be seen at the north end of the car park at Kilve Pill.  A small tree is growing out of the chimney in a shape reminiscent of smoke. (Grid reference ST 144 443).

Oil Retort at Kilve

Oil Retort and associated iron shed at Kilve

Porchester's Post, Exmoor

As its name suggests, Porchester's Post is a tall wooden post.  It is located high up on Exmoor between Withypool Hill and Halscombe Allotment (grid reference SS 828 334).  The plaque on it reads as follows:

"First erected in 1796 to mark the boundary of the Carnarvon Estate.

Re-erected in memory of Lord Porchester, Earl of Carnarvon, the Chairman of the 1977 inquiry into the protection of moorland on Exmoor and to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 2002."

Pixton Park is a stately home half a mile to the south east of Dulverton.  It was built for the Acland family c1760 and altered internally c1820 and again in 1870. The Earls of Carnarvon acquired the house and estate from the Acland family by marriage in 1796. 

In 1977 Henry Herbert, Lord Porchester (later the 7th Earl of Carnarvon) chaired a public inquiry, which examined the loss of moorland on Exmoor due to ploughing.  He proposed Moorland Conservation Orders, which would give the National Park Authority to power to prevent farmers from ploughing up moorland if voluntary agreements could not be reached.  Landowners would have received financial compensation.  However the Labour government's Countryside Bill of 1978, which included many of the recommendations of the Porchester Report, was not passed by the time of the 1979 General Election, which they lost to the Conservatives.  The Conservative government introduced their own legislation, which became the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Under the terms of this act management agreements with financial compensation for farmers and landowners were to be voluntary.

Porchester's Post

White Post to the Left, Withypool to the Right

 

Plaque on Porchester's Post

 

Windswept Tree near Porchester's Post

 

Porchester's Post on a sunny day