Off the Beaten Track in Somerset: July 2018

Sunday 15 July 2018

Angels and an Arc of Angels

Angels are God’s messengers and they are most often found in places of worship. However in parts of Somerset they can also be found in some more unexpected places.

Angel Roofs
In the 15th and early 16th centuries several hundred angel roofs were built in England. Of these, more than 140 angel roofs survive. They are almost always found in churches, and over 80% are located in East Anglia, particularly in Norfolk and Suffolk. Bedfordshire, Devon and Denbighshire have a handful between them and Somerset has more than a dozen, depending on how many angels you need for it to count as an angel roof:

St Cuthbert's Church, Wells

Selworthy

Evercreech

Taunton Minster

Long Sutton

Westonzoyland

Muchelney

Leigh-on-Mendip

Cleeve Abbey

Martock

Norton St Philip

Doulting

St Decuman's Church, Watchet

The earliest known angel roof is at Westminster Hall in London. It was constructed between 1395 and 1398. Many angel roofs were destroyed by Protestant iconoclasts during and after the 1540s. However some survived, probably because being so high up they were out of easy reach. Some surviving angel roofs are colourfully painted, while others are plain wood.

Angel at Cleeve Abbey

Cleeve Abbey Refectory Roof

This wagon roof was constructed in the 15th century by Abbot David Juyner.

Cleeve Abbey Gatehouse

All Saints' Church, Selworthy

Entrance doors, St Mary Magdalene Church, Taunton

St Mary Magdalene Church, Taunton

St Giles' Church, Leigh-on-Mendip

Leigh-on-Mendip

Church of St Peter and St Paul, Muchelney

This is an unusual roof of painted angels, which were painted in the early 17th century

Mulchelney

Angels behind the altar at Holy Trinity Church, Chantry

St Peter's Church, Evercreech

St Cuthbert's Church, Wells

St Audries' Church, West Quantoxhead

All Saints' Church, Martock

The angel roof in All Saints' Church was completed in 1513. Sadly I wasn't able to get a good photograph of it, as the church was dark and the roof is very high.

19th century hammer beam trussed roof in the nave of the church of St Peter and St James at Norton St Philip with carved angels

Angel at Norton St Philip

Close to Bristol Airport and at the entrance to a track leading to Felton Common and St Katharine’s Church, there is an angel looking skywards, as if he is about to take flight. He was carved from a dead beech tree by Gloucestershire based artist Ant Beetlestone in 2010.

Felton's Angel

Angel looking skywards

Back of the Felton Angel

Arc of Angels, Portishead Marina

The Arc of Angels, which is located in Central Park, was designed by Rick Kirby and erected in 2002. It represents the new community at Portishead Marina, which gains strength and support from being united. The piece also commemorates the Second World War radio masts, which once stood near the site.

Portishead’s Arc of Angels

Arc of Angels

Angel in a wall painting at St Mary's Church, Stoke-sub-Hamdon

Angels painted on the east wall of the chancel of St Laurence Church, East Harptree

Etched angels on the door handle of the Minster in Ilminster

Four stained glass angels around St Catherine in the Minster at Ilminster

This window is a memorial to Charles & Elizabeth Bailey and their daughter Mabel Bailey.

It was dedicated in 1964.

Chainsaw carving of an angel in the woods on the National Trust's Tyntesfield estate

Angels on a kneeler in St Mary Magdalene's Church, Exford

St Decuman's Church, Watchet

Sunday 1 July 2018

Harry Patch: the longest surviving British veteran of the First World War

Henry John Patch (known as Harry) was born at Fonthill Cottage, Combe Down near Bath on 17th June 1898. His parents were William John and Elizabeth Ann Patch and he had two older brothers George and William. All of them lived to considerable ages. Harry left school in 1913 and became an apprentice plumber.

In October 1916 Harry was conscripted into the army. He travelled to France in June 1917 and was drafted to the 7th battalion of the Duke of Cornwall's light infantry as a Lewis-gunner. He fought at Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres). He was seriously injured by shrapnel on 22nd September 1917 and spent the rest of the war recovering from his injuries.

After the end of the First World War Harry returned to work as a plumber in Gobowen, Shropshire. In 1919 he married Ada Billington in Shropshire and they had two sons: Dennis and Gordon (known as Roy). Two years later Harry got a job in Bristol where he worked on the plumbing for the Wills Memorial Tower (part of Bristol University. He later set up his own plumbing business in Combe Down but had to sell it at the beginning of the Second World War. During the Second World War he served with the Auxiliary Fire Service in Bath.

After the Second World War Harry worked for a company near Yeovil until his retirement in 1963. Ada died in 1976 and Harry moved to Wells to live with his son Dennis. In 1982 he married Kathleen (known as Jean) Joy. She died in 1989.

Harry never talked about his experiences in the trenches until he was almost 100 when he was persuaded by Richard van Emden to take part in a television documentary called Veterans. He later made several trips back to the battlefields of the First World War. In 2008 Harry collaborated with Richard van Emden to write his autobiography: The Last Fighting Tommy.

When he was 100 Harry moved to the Fletcher House Care Home in Wells, where he met Doris Whitaker and they became close companions. He died in Wells on 25th July 2009 aged 111. His funeral was held at Wells Cathedral on 6th August 2009 and he was buried in the churchyard of St Michael's Church, Monkton Combe close to his parents and brother.

In 2012 a memorial stone was erected outside the Wells and Mendip Museum. It is made of Doulting stone and weighs 5 tonnes. It was unveiled in May 2012.

Let's leave the last words to Harry himself:

"Why should the British government call me up and take me out to a battlefield to shoot a man I never knew, whose language I couldn't speak? All those lives lost for a war finished over a table. Now what is the sense in that?^"