Memorial to Bridget Thomas, Crewkerne

On the wall of St Bartholomew's Church in Crewkerne there is a brass memorial.  It says on it:

"To the memory of Bridget, the daughter of John and Bridget Thomas who was buried near this place Aug 1723 in the 4th year of her age."  

At the top of the brass there is a clock face showing the time of nine minutes to seven.  This is believed to be the time at which little Bridget died.  A skeleton holding an hourglass in his right hand and a scythe in his left, is engraved to the left of the clock.

The brass also commemorates "Biddy Thomas, who died the 20th December 1741 aged 14 years."

Memorial brass

Coronation Commemorations

Many Somerset communities have celebrated coronations with one-off events, such as street parties and bonfires.  Some have chosen to commemorate the occasions with more permanent features, for example community halls, seats, fountains, promenades, stones, gardens and public parks.  There are also many roads named after various coronations.

Coronation Hall, Bleadon

Note the crowns on the flower barrels

Coronation Road, Worle

Coronation Close, Ruishton

Judging by the age of the houses in this road, I think this road must have been named to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

Coronation seat, Holford Bowling Green

Fountain in Westcombe to commemorate the Coronation of King George V and Queen Mary

Coronation Fountain, Somerton

This was built in 1902 to celebrate King Edward VII's coronation.  It was manufactured in Coalbrookdale for the Somerton ironmonger T.C. Head.  It provided water for people, horses and dogs and also incorporated a lamp.

Coronation Stone at the top of Brent Knoll

Coronation bonfires were held here in 1902 for the Coronations of King Edward VII in 1911, King George V in 1911, King George VI in 1937 and Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

Jubilee Stone, Backwell

This also commemorates the Coronations of King Edward VII and King George V & Queen Mary

Jubilee Stone, Backwell

This side of it also commemorates the Coronations of King George VI & Queen Elizabeth in 1937 and Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

Coronation Promenade, Knightstone Island, Weston-super-Mare

Plaque commemorating the re-opening of Coronation Promenade by Queen Elizabeth II on 20th July 2007

Wellington Park

Wellington Park was presented to the town by Fox Brothers & Co Ltd at the time of the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902

Wellington Park Plaque

Pulpit and Rood Screen, Holy Trinity Church, Long Sutton

Holy Trinity Church in Long Sutton has an unusual coloured wooden pulpit on a wine-glass stem with a fly approach stair.  It dates from c1455-58 and is older than the church, which dates from 1493.  The pulpit was restored and re-coloured in 1872 by Mr W King Lucas.  It took him 13 weeks to restore it. The wooden statues of the apostles in the niches were obtained by Mr W. King Lucas and put into the niches in 1910. The pulpit bears the initials of Abbot John Petherton of Athelney and Vicar William Singleton.

The wooden rood screen, which runs across the chancel and aisles, is ornately carved and dates from the late 15th century.  It has been painted in red and blue with the slender tracery painted dark blue and white.  There is a small green owl in the vine above the centre arch.  This may be a pagan symbol relating to the Athena/Minerva, who was the goddess of wisdom.  Alternatively, it may be there to frighten bats.

Pulpit

Pulpit

Statues in niches on the pulpit

Rood screen

Side of the rood screen

Green owl in the centre of the rood screen

Angel roof

Holy Trinity Church

Sundials

A sundial is an instrument used outdoors for determining the hour of the day, when the sun is shining.  The shadow of an upright object (known as a gnomon) falls on a flat or curved surface, which is marked with the hours.  The earliest known sundials were used by the Egyptians in around 1500 BC.  In medieval and early modern Europe the sundial was the most popular way of telling the time.

Sundials can be either altitude dials or direction dials.   With altitude dials the time of day is determined by the altitude of the sun.  Altitude dials can be sub-divided into plane, cylinder, scaphe and ring.  With direction dials, the time is determined by the sun's azimuth (compass direction) or hour angle.  Direction dials can be sub-divided into horizontal (including analemmatic), vertical, polar, equinoctial/equatorial (including armillary spheres), azimuthal and multiple/polyhedral.

Piles Mill near Allerford

This double-sided equatorial sundial was given by the Minehead and West Somerset Centre of the National Trust in 1984 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Richard Dyke Acland's gift of the Holnicote Estate to the National Trust in 1944. It was unveiled by his son Sir John Acland.  It is made from Limpley Stoke limestone and was designed by David Brown to look like a millstone and carved by the National Trust's stonemason John Salter. 

Piles Mill Sundial

Scratch dial, East Stoke Church

Scratch dials are also known as mass dials.  They are medieval (1100-1600) sundials found on the south side of many churches.  They are thought to have shown the times of mass and other church services.  There would once have been a metal or wooden rod or gnomon in the hole in the centre of the dial, which would have cast a shadow.

Scratch dial, East Stoke Church

Scratch dial, St Mary's Church, East Brent

Scratch dial, St Michael's Church, Creech St Michael

Scratch dial, St Michael's Church, Creech St Michael

Barrington Court

This is a dodecahedron dial with pentagonal faces. 

Barrington Court

Barrington Court

Armillary Sphere, Tintinhull Gardens

This is a type of equinoctial/equatorial sundial.

Analemmatic sundial, Peile Drive, Taunton

The inscription on the sundial reads "The light of learning cast its shadow here from 1939-1994.  Stand facing your shadow with toes on the date scale."  Bishop Fox School was located here until it moved to its present site on Calway Road in September 1994. Analemmatic sundials are a type of horizontal sundial in which the gnomon (in this case a human being) is vertical and hour markings are marked in an elliptical pattern. The position of the gnomon varies, depending on the month of the year.

Analemmatic sundial, Peile Drive, Taunton

Analemmatic sundial on Minehead seafront

This sundial was provided by West Somerset District Council with the support of Minehead Town Council to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty, The Queen in June 2002. The names of the towns in West Somerset (Minehead, Williton, Watchet and Dulverton) are arranged around the centre and further out the names of all the parishes in West Somerset are listed in alphabetical order in a ring.

Close-up view of the centre of the Minehead analemmatic sundial

Scratch dial, East Quantoxhead Church

Vertical sundial, Stapley Mill

Sundial House, Wheddon Cross

Vertical declining sundial on Sundial House at Wheddon Cross

This sundial dates from c1850.  It shows the hours from 5aqm to 4pm and the half hours are shown by fleur de lys symbols.  The Latin motto shown on it is tempus edax rerum, which means time devours all things.

Lady Smith Memorial Institute/Parish Rooms, Somerton

This vertical sundial was commissioned by Somerton U3A to mark the new millennium and was unveiled on 8th July 2000.  It was made by Peter Walker and features a dragon at the centre. It shows the hours from 7am to 5pm in hours and half hours.

Vertical sundial, St George's Church, Ruishton

The Latin motto engraved at the top of the sundial says "concito gradu", which means "with hurried step".

Scaphe sundials, Church of St Peter & St Paul, Bleadon

Vertical sundial on Ilminster Old Grammar School

This sundial is dated 1586.  The Latin motto above it says "Sic transeunt dies tui", which means "So passeth your days".

Vertical sundial above the porch of St Augustine's Church, West Monkton

This sundial is dated 1725

Horizontal dial in the Dunster Village Garden

Vertical dial over the porch door of St Nicholas's Church in Brushford

This sundial is a memorial to William Wood.  It shows the hours from 6am to 6pm, with 30, 15 and 5 minute intervals shown.  The motto Memor esto brevis aevi, which means "Bear in mind how short life is" is inscribed on it.

Market Cross, Ilchester

This is made of Ham stone and also features a weather vane and a sundial at the top of a Doric column.  The original sundial dated from 1792.  This was damaged in a gale in 1990 and was replaced in 1991.  The original motto was indecipherable and the current one is tempus orbis.

Dawe's Twineworks, West Coker

Dawe's Twineworks in the village of West Coker is the only surviving Victorian twineworks with its original working machinery in Britain.  

The bedrock which underlies the West Coker area is Yeovil Sandstone and Lower Oolite Cornbrash, which is a crumbly limestone.  These rocks create brashy well-drained soils that are ideal for growing flax, hemp and corn.  Flax and hemp are the raw materials for making yarn (one thin strand of twisted fibre).  Twine is made by twisting together between 2 and 7 strands of yarn.  Twine is less than 3mm in diameter

From 1830 until 1875 Israel Rendall, who lived at Millbrook House in West Coker, operated one narrow twine walk in the grounds of his house.  In 1877 William John Dawe took over the business and used the existing facilities,  He died in 1894 and his brother Henry took over the business.  

Henry died in 1899 and his son Francis John Dawe took over. He had a purpose-built twineworks built in 1899.  The twineworks was built almost entirely of bolted together timbers and it was roofed in double roman clay tiles made by A.G. Pitts of Highbridge.  The east end of the walk, where the manager's office and drying area were located, had timber-boarded walls.  The twine walk has open sides. The only solid brick structure was the engine shed, which originally housed a steam engine.

Yarn was twisted into twine on the first floor.  Animal guts and skins were boiled up in an outside boiler to produce size.  This was applied to the twine by hand on the ground floor of the twine works after it had been washed in water.  The twine was then dried and then hanks of it were wound into balls and spools ready for sale.

In the 1920s an oil engine replaced the steam engine.  In 1937 Francis John Dawe died and his son Henry Stuart took over the business.  He retired in 1968 and closed the twineworks.  After his death in 1983, the site was bought by a boat and general dealer, who used it to store his stock.

In 2005 South Somerset District Council compulsorily purchased the twineworks to save it.  Scaffolding was erected around the twineworks in 2007 to prevent it from collapsing and the Coker Rope & Sail Trust was formed.  The main walk was lifted and straightened out in 2010 and in 2013 the restoration process began.  In 2015 a 1927 Shanks diesel engine was lent to the twineworks, to replace the oil engine, which had been sold off in 1968.  Funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund was secured in 2016.  A visitor centre was built in 2019 on the site of a derelict 1930s bungalow.  Dawe's Twineworks is open to the public on the 4th Saturday of every month.  Enthusiastic volunteers offer guided tours and run the engine.

Twine treatment on the ground floor

Water and size troughs on the ground floor

Twine walk

This is probably the largest roof of Bridgwater Double Roman tiles anywhere in the world.

First floor: twine twisting machines

Spooling, braiding and balling machines

Engine house

Size boiler

Millbrook House