The Leaning Tower of Puxton

The nave and chancel of the Church of the Holy Saviour in Puxton possibly date from the 12th century.  Since then the church has been altered and enlarged several times.  There is archaeological evidence of a late Saxon and early medieval settlement in Church Field, which is next to the churchyard.  This may explain the location of the church. 

Puxton takes its name from Robert Pukerel who held land in the area c1176.  The place name Pukereleston (Pukerel’s tun or settlement) was first recorded in 1212.  The village was probably part of the manor of Banwell or Congresbury at this time. 

A tower was built on to the church in the 15th century.  Due to the low lying soft ground on which the church is built, over the centuries it has developed a significant westward lean. The lean is clearly shown on a drawing of the church done in 1821. 

The earliest feature in the church is the circular font, which may be 12th century or slightly later.  The bench seats in the nave date from the 16th century and the box pews are Georgian.  The octagonal pulpit and reading desk are Jacobean. There is an inscribed tablet set into the base of the rood screen commemorating Mary Whippey, who died in 1666. 

Puxton Church was declared redundant in 2002 and is now cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust.  It is a grade 1 listed building. 

The leaning tower of Puxton

 

Nave of Puxton Church

Mary Whippey's Memorial Tablet

Chancel

Nave

Pulpit

Font

Porch of Puxton Church

St Decuman

St Decuman was born in the 7th century in Rhoscrowther in Pembrokeshire.  He felt called to evangelise the people of Somerset and arrived by boat in Watchet.  He wasn't welcomed by everyone and was beheaded.  However, undaunted he picked up his head, washed the blood from it in the waters of a well and put it back on his shoulders.  Local people built a small church to him on the spot.  Today he is commemorated in Watchet by a pebble mosaic, a holy well and a stained-glass window in the parish church, which is dedicated to him.

Stained glass window of St Decuman in his church in Watchet

Stained glass window of St Decuman in his church in Watchet

St Decuman's Church, Watchet

St Decuman's Church, Watchet

St Decuman's holy well (grid ref ST 0643 4273) is now surrounded by a tranquil and well-maintained garden.  It can be accessed by walking west down the lane on the north side of the church.  The well is on the right-hand side a 100 metres or so beyond the church.

Entrance to St Decuman's Holy Well 

St Decuman's Holy Well

Holy well

Holy well

Holy well

Inscribed stone in the holy well garden

God breathed and man became a Living Soul, Genesis Chapter 2, verse 7

St Decuman and his favourite cow on a raft on their way to Watchet

This painting is on the Watchet Harbour wall mural

St Decuman arrives in Watchet by boat from Wales accompanied by his favourite cow

St Decuman is beheaded

The sword with which St Decuman was beheaded

This pebble mosaic, which is located outside Watchet Library, commemorates the arrival of St Decuman in Watchet by boat from Wales in the late 7th century.  It was created in 1996 by Maggy Howarth of Cobblestone Designs.  

Stoates Mill, Watchet

Stoates Mill was built in Anchor Street in Watchet in 1832 as a replacement for Little Silver Mill, which was further upstream.  It was leased by brothers William and Thomas Stoate.  It expanded in the mid-19th century and eventually had ten pairs of water-powered grinding stones.  Grain was imported via the port of Watchet and after milling the flour and bran were exported mainly to South Wales.  

By 1877 Thomas Stoate had left the business to become a grain merchant.  William was joined in the business by his sons William, John and James.  A water turbine and steam engine were added in 1885.  In 1903 a new turbine was installed.  In 1911 a fire damaged most of the mill and the company moved their business to Temple Back Bristol.  Stoate & Sons is still in business (now at Shaftesbury 'in Dorset), with the great-great-great grandson of the first William Stoate now running the business.

In 1916 the derelict mill was acquired by the Exmoor Paper and Bag Company, who bought the paper bag plant that had been operating at the nearby Wansbrough Mill.  Water power was used at the mill until 1927 when a Gilkes Vortex turbine was installed.  This was manufactured by Gilbert Gilkes of Kendal in Cumbria.  It was rated at 45 HP and turned at 200 rpm to drive the electrical generator, which powered the works.

The Exmoor Paper and Bag Company used the mill until 1977.  The mill buildings were then used by various companies, including Watchet Products Fancy Goods Limited, which was founded in 1978. It made melamine products there but closed down in 1991.  The mill buildings were sold on a couple of times but gradually fell into a state of disrepair.  Planning permission for conversion of the mill buildings to residential use was granted in 2013 and building work began in 2016.  It was completed in 2018.

Preserved Gilkes Vortex Turbine

Stoates Mill in 2022

Stoates Mill, 2022

Stoates Mill, 2022

Leighland Chapel

Leighland Chapel was built in 1861-2 on the site of a medieval chapel.  It was designed by C.E. Giles and is dedicated to St Giles. The medieval chapel was in existence by 1320 and in 1548 it was noted that there was a Lyland Chapel in the parish. The vicarage of Leighland Chapel was united with the rectory of Treborough in 1950 and the livings of Old Cleeve, Leighland Chapel and Treborough were merged in 1955. They are now in a benefice with St Luke's, Roadwater and St Mary's, Washford.

Leighland Chapel contains some interesting features, including a wooden bench end with a bird and acorns design carved into it, a lectern with a vine leaves and grapes carved on it and medieval tiles around the base of the font, which may have come from Cleeve Abbey. 

The reredos, capitals and pulpit were decorated with passion flowers and foliage by Rachel Reckitt (1908-1995). She also painted the portrait of St Giles and made the candelabra, which is decorated with flying geese or swans. Rachel was an artist and sculptor who lived at Golsoncott near Roadwater. She produced many works of art for several of the local churches, including Rodhuish, Old Cleeve, Carhampton and Withycombe.

There is a notice at the back of the church explaining Leighland Chapel's connection with Dom Philip Powel, who was one of the Tyburn Martyrs.  He was born in Wales in 1594, became a monk at Douai in France but returned to England in 1622 after he was ordained. He lived with the Ponytz family at Leigh Barton for 20 years. Although he was a Roman Catholic, he preached at the old chapel in Leighland, as he was a friend of the priest-in-charge there. He tried to leave England during the English Civil War but was captured, tried, found guilty of "being a monk, and staying in the country contrary to the law.  He was executed at Tyburn on 16th June 1646.

Leighland Chapel

Leighland Chapel

The nave of Leighland Chapel

Altar and reredos

Reredos

Capital decorated with flowers and foliage

Candelabra

Pulpit

Close up of the decoration on the pulpit

St Giles

His symbol is a deer

Deer and ivy

Charity board

Bird decoration on a carved bench end

Lectern decorated with carved vines

This was presented in memory of Dorothea Shaw (1895-1951), by some of her many friends.

Font surrounded by medieval tiles

Notice about Dom Philip Powel

Quaker Burial Ground, Milverton

A mile to the west of Milverton, at the point where a restricted byway meets Quakinghouse Lane (grid reference ST635225), there is a small Quaker burial ground.  The Quakers purchased the land in 1681 started using it as a burial ground from c1688.   It is still in use but the only visible gravestones are from the early 20th century onwards, as Quakers were not permitted gravestones until c1850.  All the gravestones are lying flat and only record names and dates of birth and death.  It can be entered by a gate with a plaque on it saying "Friends Burial Ground 1681."  It is a peaceful place with several trees, including at least one yew tree.  

There may once have been a Quaker meeting house in or immediately adjacent to the burial ground, but there was also one 100 metres further north. The house currently on that site is currently called Quaking House and some of its walls may be the remains of the meeting house. In c1758 the Quakers stopped meeting here when they bought and rebuilt a property in North Street, Milverton.  The Quakers stopped meeting at the property in Milverton in 1855 and sold it in 1872.

Entrance Gate

Notice in the burial ground

It says "True silence is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment." William Penn 1699

Burial ground

Burial ground

Quaking House

Ashwick Theatre, Exmoor Pony Centre, Dulverton

The Ashwick Theatre, which is also known as the Music Room, or more recently, the Green Room, is located at the Exmoor Pony Centre at Ashwick near Dulverton.  It was built in the late 1920s or early 1930s by Frank Green, who owned Ashwick House.  He built it as a recreation hall for his staff and young relatives who came to stay with him.  It is located a couple of hundred metres from his house, so that he couldn't hear their merrymaking but could keep an eye on them!

Frank Green (1861-1954) was the son of Sir Edward Green, who was a wealthy Yorkshire industrialist and MP for Wakefield.  Frank bought the Treasurer's House in York and used it to display his collection of antique furniture, ceramics, textiles and paintings.  He gave the Treasurer's House and all its contents to the National Trust in 1930.  He was eccentric and never married.

Sir Edward Green died in 1924 and Frank's health began to deteriorate.  He bought Ashwick House and estate, which included farmland at Old Ashway Farm and a herd of Exmoor ponies, in 1928.  He moved to Ashwick for the sake of his health in 1930.  He had 20 resident staff at Ashwick House and often entertained there.  The Exmoor ponies were the descendants of the original Anchor herd, which had been started by the first Sir Thomas Acland in 1797.  Frank looked after his Exmoor ponies well but most of them were stolen during the Second World War and slaughtered for meat. Only about 12 ponies managed to avoid being caught. In 1950 Frank's great nephew Simon Lycett-Green returned the few remaining ponies to Winsford Hill.  Frank Green died in 1954 and left the estate to his family.  The Anchor herd was rebuilt by Simon Lycett-Green's daughter Rosie and there are now about 100 ponies in the herd, some of which live out on Winsford Hill.

The theatre is built on stone piers with shiplap boarding on the external walls, a stone chimney at both ends and it originally had a sprung wooden dance floor. The auditorium is 30 feet long by 15 feet wide. There is a stage, which is 8 feet deep and a proscenium arch, which is 10 feet wide.  The stage could be screened off from the auditorium by double doors.  These could be opened inwards to form the wings of the stage.  

Two unsigned trompe l'oeil paintings of theatre boxes, which were painted in 1924, are mounted on the double doors.  They depict Oscar Wilde's presentation of his play Lady Windermere's Fan in 1895. The Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) and William Ewart Gladstone are sitting in one box and politicians from the period, including Lord Salisbury, Arthur Balfour and Joseph Chamberlain are sitting in the other.  The shadowy figure behind the Prince of Wales is thought to be Oscar Wilde.  Frank Green probably brought these with him from the Treasurer's House.   

On the back wall of the auditorium above fireplace there is a mural of a York street scene seen through the the wooden frames of a window. These were painted in 1924 by A.E. Pilmoor.

Ashwick Theatre was leased by the Moorland Mousie Trust in 2006 and restored by them.  It was officially reopened by the Duchess of Cornwall in July 2011 and is now used as a meeting/exhibition room. It was renamed the Green Room in honour of Frank Green.

Ashwick Theatre

Ashwick Theatre

The auditorium

Mural of a York street

Trompe l'oeil painting of two theatre boxes