RIP Bobby Booroff

On the wall of the churchyard in Barton St David there is a small plaque, which has the following inscription:

Allen Booroff

"Bobby"

Tragically drowned in the River Brue

23rd July 1939, aged 4

Buried in this churchyard

Allen George Rex "Bobby" Booroff was the only child of Mr Robert Booroff of Willesdon, London.   He was on holiday in Somerset with Mrs T. Coleman of Willesdon, who had fostered him nearly 3 years earlier.   They were staying with Mrs Coleman's parents, Mr & Mrs F. Cook, at Mill View, Barton St David.  At about 6.15pm on Sunday 23rd July, Bobby went for a walk with his 10 year old step-brother John Coleman, 14 year old Mary Louise Porter and Violet Cook, who was 5 years old.  He slipped down the bank, fell into the River Brue at Tootle Bridge and drowned. His body was recovered on the following day, from the river bed about 100 yards from Tootle Bridge.

Accounts of the inquest into Bobby Booroff's death, which was held in the Court House at Somerton, was recorded in the Taunton Courier & Western Advertiser and in the Bristol Evening Post of 29th July 1939.  Colston Victor Williams, aged 51 of Hotwells in Bristol, was fishing on the bank of the River Brue when he heard a child running nearby.  Then he realised that the young boy had fallen into the river.  The children asked him to go into the river to rescue Bobby.  He put his fishing rod into the water and shouted to the boy to catch hold of it, but he didn't manage to do this.  Mr Williams couldn't swim and hadn't fully recovered his grip after losing a finger, so he didn't dare venture further into the river.  He said he wasn't familiar with the River Brue at Tootle Bridge and that it was muddy and fast flowing at the time.  He was criticised by the coroner, Mr C. Leslie Rutter, who said that the water in the river was no more than waist deep for an adult and that Mr Williams could easily have grabbed the boy, walked with him down to the bridge and climbed out of the river there.  The verdict of the inquest was accidental death.  

NB: Bobby's first name at birth was registered as Alan, but his death is registered as Allan.  The newspaper reports of the inquest and the  memorial in the churchyard at Barton St David say he was called Allen. 

Memorial plaque on the wall of the churchyard in Barton St David

Tootle Bridge

The River Brue from Tootle Bridge

James Allen, "The Snowdrop King"

James Allen was the first person known to have deliberately crossed and raised hybrid snowdrops from seed.  For this reason he became known as "The Snowdrop King". He was a passionate galanthophile and a self-taught horticulturalist.

James Allen was born at Windsor Hill Mill, a mile to the north of Shepton Mallet, in 1830.  He lived there for the first 20 or so years of his life and once he was old enough, he helped his mother Elizabeth and his brother John to run the watermill.  His father, John Allen, died in 1842.  The mill ground corn for human and animal consumption. 

In 1853 James married Ellen Burt.  She was the daughter of a local draper.  Their son Frank was born in 1854 and they moved to Park House in Park Street, Shepton Mallet.  It was there that James began breeding snowdrops. He grew all the varieties of snowdrops known at the time and bred over 100 snowdrop cultivars. He also bred a pale pink variety of wood anemone  (Anemone nemorosa Allenii), a new lavender and a new Scilla.

James and Ellen had 8 children between 1854 and 1868: 4 sons and 4 daughters. James was involved in the running of the town of Shepton Mallet.  James and his brother John were cheese and corn merchants. Their mother Elizabeth died in 1859.

John and his wife Emily lived across the road from James & Ellen in Highfield House.  After John died in 1894, James and Ellen moved from Park House to Highfield House. James's health deteriorated from the 1880s onwards and he died on 8th March 1906.  He was buried opposite the entrance to the Shepton Mallet Cemetery chapel.  His gravestone included an obelisk, but this eventually fell into disrepair.  In February 2022 a new obelisk was erected on his grave.  This was funded by local people and organisations, including the local council.

Many of James Allen's snowdrops were destroyed by the fungal infection Botrytis or an attack of narcissus fly.  However, two varieties that he bred are still available to buy today: Merlin and Magnet.  The inner segments of Merlin are completely green and Magnet has an unusually long stalk. Both of these varieties have received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Shepton Mallet Horticultural Society began planting snowdrops in and around the town in 2015 and an annual Snowdrop Festival is held in the town every February.

Windsor Hill Mill

Windsor Hill Mill

Snowdrops at Windsor Hill

Independent Chapel, now Shepton Mallet Baptist Church, Commercial Road

James Allen was baptised and married here.  His memorial service was also held in the chapel.

Highfield House 

(now a Somerset Council office)

Park House

Obelisk in Shepton Mallet Cemetery

James Allen's gravestone and obelisk

Snowdrops on the obelisk

Snowdrops on a grass verge in Shepton Mallet

Hunky Punks

Hunky punks are grotesque carvings found on the outside walls of buildings, usually churches.  They differ from gargoyles because they are purely decorative: gargoyles drain water off roofs through their mouths.  The purpose of hunky punks seems to have been to break up long straight sections of stone walls and to ornament corners.

Hunky punks are particularly numerous in Somerset.  The term hunky punk is thought to have originated from the words hunkers and punchy.  Hunkers means "squatting on haunches" and punchy means having "short legs and a thick set body". 

Most hunky punks were carved between 1450 and 1550, during the second half of the Perpendicular period.  Parapets, pinnacles and window tracery were also often carved decoratively at this time.  The church towers built in Somerset in this period were mainly funded by wealth generated by the wool trade.  The carving of hunky punks would have taken place on the ground (probably in the carvers' workshops) and not in situ.  They were carved using a chisel and mallet.

The subjects carved were often mythological creatures (e.g. dragons and griffins), sometimes heraldic animals (e.g. antelopes, boars and stags), occasionally humans, but rarely of a religious nature.  Dragons, goats, dogs and griffins are the most common subjects.

My thanks to Nigel Stone for allowing me to use some of his photographs.

Dragon, Church of St Peter & St Paul, Kilmersdon

All Saints' Church, Langport

Church of St Peter & St Paul, Kilmersdon

Holy Trinity Church, Chantry

This church was built 1844-1846, so the hunky punks on it are not medieval.

Holy Trinity Church, Chantry

Toothache, All Saints Church, Monksilver

Cat, Kingston St Mary

Griffin/dragon, Norton-sub-Hamdon

Devil, North Curry

Dog, All Saints Church, Curry Mallet

Goat, All Saints Church, Curry Mallet

Bagpipe player, Isle Abbotts

Further reading: 

Hunky Punks: A Study in Somerset Stone Carving by Peter Poyntz-Wright, first published 1982, revised edition 2004, Heart of Albion Press