Wells Cathedral Clock

Wells Cathedral clock dates from around 1390 and is located in the north transept. It is believed to be the 2nd oldest working clock in the world and the oldest one to have its original dials. The name of the clockmaker who built it isn't known for certain.  It may have been made by Peter Lightfoot, who was a monk at Glastonbury Abbey or it may have been made by the same person who made one for Salisbury Cathedral at about the same time.  It replaced an earlier clock which pre-dated it by over 100 years.  

The clock has an astronomical 24 hour dial.  Midday is at the top and midnight is at the bottom. The hour hand has a golden sun on it and the whole face represents the universe as it was understood to be in medieval times. The earth is in the middle of the clock face and the background has fixed stars painted on it.  In each of the 4 corners an angel is shown holding a face, which is blowing towards the earth.  These represent the 4 cardinal winds blowing from the 4 compass points.

The minute hand, which is a small star inside the sun, was added in the 18th century. 

In the middle of the clock, the number of days (1-30) since the last new moon is shown by a pointer.  This is accurate to one day in 33 months.  A golden moon appears through a round hole in the central disc to reflect its shape in the night sky.  Opposite the moon circle is a small painting of Phoebe.

Every quarter of an hour two knights emerge on a platform above the clock to have a jousting match.  One of them gets knocked off his horse every time he comes round.

Jack Blandiver/Blandifer is located above and to the right of the clock.  He chimes the quarter hours with his hells and strikes the bell in front of him with his hammer on the hour.

There is another face on the external wall of the north transept.  This dates from c1475.   The face, motion, bells, timber jacks and counterweights were cleaned, repaired and restored 2022-2023.  

The clock was wound by hand until 2010 when it was replaced by an electric winding motor, following the retirement of Paul Fisher.  It had been wound by 5 generations of his family.

The clock movement was originally regulated by a foliat mechanism.  This was converted to pendulum regulation after 1657.  The original weight-driven medieval mechanism was replaced in Victorian times.  This operates the astronomical dial and also the outside dial. The original mechanism is now at the Science Museum in London, where it is still in working order.

Wells Cathedral Clock

Location of Wells Cathedral Clock

Jack Blandiver

Outside dial

Close up of the outside dial in 2017 before it was restored

External dial in February 2025 after restoration

West front of Wells Cathedral

General Charles Gordon of Khartoum

Charles George Gordon was born on 28th January 1833 in Woolwich.  His parents were Lieutenant-General Henry William Gordon and his wife Elizabeth (nee Enderby).  He attended Fullands School in South Road, Taunton c1843-1846.  During this time he lodged at a house in Upper High Street.

In around 1846 he attended a military school in Shooters Hill and in 1848 he entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich.  He was commissioned second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in June 1852.  In February 1854 he was promoted to lieutenant and was appointed assistant garrison engineer at Pembroke Dock. While at Pembroke he became a committed Christian.

Charles Gordon volunteered for service in the Crimean War in 1855. He took part in the attack on Redan and the siege of Sevastapol. He was a proficient map maker and in 1856-8, after the end of the Crimean War, he was involved in surveying and delineating the new boundaries between the Russian and Ottoman empires in modern-day Romania and later in Armenia.

In April 1859 Gordon was promoted to the rank of captain and was based at Chatham until June 1860 when he volunteered to fight the Chinese in the Arrow War (also known as the 2nd Opium War).  He remained in China until the end of 1864 and played a part in crushing the Taiping rebellion and in defending Shanghai.  He was given the nickname Chinese Gordon by the British press and public.  

Gordon returned to England in early 1865 and was Commander of the Royal Engineer at Gravesend in Kent. He was given the job of supervising the building of forts at the mouth of the River Thames.  In his spare time he helped local homeless boys and allowed some of them to live in his house.

In 1873 Ismāʿīl Pasha, the Khedive (Viceroy) of Egypt appointed Gordon to the post of Governor of the province of Equatoria in Sudan. From 1874-1876 he mapped the Upper Nile River, set up a line of stations along the river as far as what is now Uganda and suppressed the slave trade in Equatoria.  In 1877 he accepted the post of Governor General of Sudan.  He crushed rebellions and further reduced the slave trade. 

He returned to England in early 1880.  He then served in India, China, Mauritius and the Cape Colony until October 1882.  He spent most of 1883 studying antiquities in the Holy Land.

In 1884 Gordon was sent to Sudan by the British government to evacuate Egyptian troops from Khartoum.  They were under threat of attack by the Mahdists, who were followers of the Sudanese religious leader Muḥammad Aḥmad al-Mahdī.  Gordon arrived in Khartoum in February 1884.  He managed to evacuate 2,000 civilians and 600 soldiers before the Mahdists besieged Khartoum in March 1884.  On 26th January 1885, Mahdists broke into Khartoum and killed Gordon.  A few days later a relief force arrived.  Gordon was hailed as a martyr by the British press and acquired the name Gordon of Khartoum.  His body was never found.

Plaque on house in Upper High Street where Charles Gordon lodged while he was at school in Taunton

House in Upper High Street, Taunton where Charles Gordon lodged

Fullands House, South Road

Fox, Fowler & Co Bank, Wellington

Fox, Fowler & Co was the last private bank in England to issue its own banknotes.  The bank was founded as Fox & Co in 1787 by Quaker Thomas Fox, who had just established a company in Wellington, which made woollen cloth.  The bank was initially used as a way to transfer funds between suppliers and customers.  It was also used by the employees of the woollen mill for their wages and savings.  Fox & Co issued their own banknotes for the first time in 1787.

In the 1870s the banking and woollen cloth parts of the business were separated.  The banking side then expanded and opened branches in towns across Somerset and Devon.  

The Bank Charter Act of 1844 banned new banks from issuing notes.  Those banks already doing so, were allowed to continue, but only up to the amount that they had circulating in 1844.  When banks merged after 1844, they lost the right to issue banknotes.  The number of banks issuing banknotes gradually declined, as banks merged or banks gave up the right to issue banknotes voluntarily.

In 1879 the bank was renamed Fox, Fowler & Co.  It continued to grow and took over several smaller private banks in the south west of England.  In 1885 the Wellington branch moved to a new purpose-built bank in Fore Street.

Fox, Fowler & Co had 55 or 56 branches by 1921.  At this point the Fox family decided to concentrate on their other business interests. They agreed that Lloyds Bank should take over their banking interests and Fox, Fowler & Co lost their right to issue banknotes at this point.  The building at 27 Fore Street in Wellington remained a branch of Lloyds Bank until March 2024, when it was closed down.

Fox, Fowler & Co/Lloyds Bank branch at 27 Fore Street, Wellington

Plaque on 27 Fore Street, Wellington

The Popham Memorial, Church of St John the Baptist, Wellington

The elaborate Popham Memorial in the Church of St John the Baptist in Wellington dates from around 1607.  It was made by Cornelius and William Cure, who were master masons to James I.  They also made the tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots in Westminster Abbey and the tomb of Bishop Montague in Bath Abbey.

The figures on the memorial are as follows:

• The recumbent effigies of Sir John Popham and his wife Amy Adams are on the table.  Sir John is dressed as Lord Chief Justice and he is wearing the collar of S.S. This is an ensign of the office of the Lord Chief Justice.  
• Sir John's parents, Alexander Popham and Joan Stradling, are shown kneeling at the west end of the memorial.  
• Sir Francis Popham, who was the only son of Sir John, is shown kneeling with his wife, Anne Dudley at the east end.  
• The six daughters of Sir John and three ladies' maids are on the south side
• The sons and daughters of Sir Francis Popham are on the north side

Sir John Popham was born at Huntworth near Bridgwater in about 1531.  He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford.  He then went on to the Middle Temple, where he was autumn reader in 1568, lent reader in 1573 and treasurer in 1580. He served as Recorder for Bridgwater and Bristol and he was MP for Bristol in 1571 and 1572.  He was appointed Solicitor-General in 1579.  

Sir John Popham was Speaker of the House of Commons 1581-1583,  Attorney General 1581-1592 and Lord Chief Justice of England 1592-1607. He was involved in the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots at Fotheringay Castle in 1587, which resulted in her execution. He presided over the trials of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603 and the Gunpowder Plot conspirators in 1606.  

Sir John Popham married Amy Adams of Castleton in Glamorgan in around 1556 and they had one son (Francis) and six daughters.  Amy inherited property from her father, Hugh Adams.  Sir John inherited land in Bridgwater and elsewhere from his father.  Sir John became a wealthy man and bought estates at Publow near Keynsham, Littlecote in Wiltshire and Hemyock Castle in Devon.

Sir John Popham built a new mansion for himself in Wellington, but this was destroyed during the English Civil War.  The mansion was located to the north of Mantle Street and the site is now playing fields used by Wellington AFC and Wellington Cricket Club .  

Sir John Popham endowed almhouses in Mantle Street, Wellington in 1606.  These were rebuilt in 1833 and converted into Sir John Fisher Catholic Church in 1936.   

Peter Blundell died in 1601 and in his will he asked Sir John Popham to establish a free grammar school in Tiverton with his bequest of £20,000.  The school opened in 1604 and is still in existence today. 

Sir John Popham died in Wellington on 10th June 1607 and was buried in St John the Baptist's Church in Wellington.

The 6 daughters of Sir John Popham and 3 ladies' maids

Sir Francis Popham, his wife and their children

Sir John Popham's parents

The Popham Memorial

John Hanning Speke, Explorer

The explorer John Hanning Speke was the first European to visit Lake Victoria in East Africa and he correctly identified it as the source of the White Nile.

John Hanning Speke was born on 4th May 1827 at Orleigh Court, Buckland Brewer near Bideford.  His family later moved to Jordans near Ilminster.  Speke attended Barnstaple Grammar School and Blackheath Proprietary School.  In 1844 he was accepted for a commission in the Indian Army.  He took part in the 1st and 2nd Anglo-Sikh Wars 1845-6 and 1848-9.  He spent his spare time exploring and hunting animals in Tibet and the Himalayas.

In 1854 Speke travelled to Africa for the first time where he joined Richard Burton's expedition to Somalia.  The expedition was attacked by a local tribe at Berbera in April 1855 and Speke was seriously injured.  He returned to England but almost as soon as he had recovered, he volunteered to fight in the Crimean War.  He was attached to a Turkish regiment, but the war soon ended.

In 1856 Speke joined the Royal Geographical Society's expedition to look for the source of the River Nile.  He was reunited with Richard Burton and they set off from Zanzibar in June 1857.  They reached Lake Tanganyika in February 1858 (the first Europeans to do so).  Both Burton and Speke were ill with malaria, but Speke was sufficiently recovered to reach the southern end of a lake, which he named Lake Victoria after Queen Victoria, in August 1858.  He decided that Lake Victoria was the source of the River Nile, but Burton disagreed with him, as he was convinced that Lake Tanganyika was the source.  The men fell out over this.

In 1860 the Royal Geographical Society funded another expedition to East Africa, so that Speke could confirm his claims about the source of the Nile.  He was accompanied by James Augustus Grant.  They set off from Zanzibar in September 1860.  Speke's two interpreters didn't get on with each other and there were also problems in negotiating safe passage with local chiefs, recruiting porters and getting supplies, which slowed the expedition down for months.  

In July 1862 Speke discovered the Nile's exit from Lake Victoria and named it Ripon Falls. James Grant wasn't with him at this point, as he was suffering from an ulcerated leg, so he was unable to confirm Speke's discovery.  

Speke's expedition had arranged to rendezvous with ivory trader John Petherick in Gondoroko (now in South Sudan) to collect supplies from him in November 1861.  However, it took them until February 1863 to reach Gondokoro.  Speke was expecting Petherick to be in Gondokoro to meet them, but he was away doing business elsewhere.  He had left supplies for Speke's expedition, but Speke was angry that he was not there to meet them. He was instead welcomed to the city by fellow Nile explorers Samuel Baker and Florence von Sass (who later married Samuel Baker).  He and Grant told them of another lake said to lie to the west of Lake Victoria.  A few months later Baker and von Sass found the lake, which he named Lake Albert in honour of Queen Victoria's husband.  In May 1863 Speke's expedition reached Cairo.

In December 1863 Speke's Journal of the discovery of the source of the Nile was published by William Blackwood & Sons in Edinburgh. Richard Burton challenged Speke's claim to have found the source of the Nile.  In 1864 Speke's book What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile was published by Blackwood.  This included his own accounts of the earlier Somalia and Lake Tanganyika expeditions.

Roderick Murchison, who was the Director General of the Royal Geographical Society began to dislike Speke because of the way he had treated John Petherick and because he had published his accounts with Blackwood, rather than the Royal Geographical Society.  He arranged for Speke and Burton to debate the question of the source of the River Nile at the meeting of the geographical section of the British Association in Bath on 16th September 1864.

On 15th September 1864 Speke went off to shoot partridges at Neston Park near Corsham in Wiltshire.  While climbing over a wall he shot himself - it is not clear whether this was an accident or suicide.  He was buried in an elaborate tomb decorated with a hippo, a crocodile and an egret at St Andrew's Church, Dowlish Wake.

In 1874-1877 Henry Stanley circumnavigated Lake Victoria by boat and confirmed that the Nile flowed out of Lake Victoria at Ripon Falls and then on to Lake Albert via the Murchison Falls.

Bust of John Hanning Speke in St Andrew's Church, Dowlish Wake

John Hanning Speke's memorial, St Andrew's Church, Dowlish Wake

From the Nile renowned

Hippopotamus

Crocodile

Egret

Bust of John Hanning Speke in the Museum of Somerset, Taunton

St Mary's Church, East Brent

The church of St Mary the Virgin in East Brent dates from c1300, but it probably replaced an earlier church.  The tower and spire were added c1400.  John Selwood, who was Abbot of Glastonbury 1456-1493, was also vicar of East Brent 1467-1493.  He brought lots of carved medieval bench ends with him from Glastonbury Abbey.

The carvings on the bench ends include an amphisbaena (double-headed dragon) in the shape of John Selwood's initials (Ioannes Selwood); some primitive heads; the winged ox of St Luke; a pelican feeding her young with her own blood; the Annunciation; a lamb and the eagle of St John.

The font is a copy of the ancient font at Rowberrow, which is reputed to have originally come from East Brent.  The lectern dates from the 15th century and is a wooden sculpture of an eagle. The Jacobean pulpit was made in 1634 and is made of carved oak.  The stained glass window above the altar in the chancel was given in memory of Sarah Reed, the daughter of the Lord of the Manor of East Brent, who died in 1857.

The wooden west gallery was originally part of the rood screen which spanned the chancel arch.  It was converted into a gallery in 1824.  It wasn't wide enough, so the village carpenter inserted a middle section.  It is supported on 4 carved elm pillars.

The plaster ceiling of the nave dates from 1637 and features an unusual design - blackberry thorns with ribs that connect diamond shaped panels, which are in turn connected by three pendants.  

Reverend George Anthony Denison was Vicar of East Brent for 51 years 1845-1896.  After an epidemic of diphtheria in the parish, he provided the village with its first supply of clean drinking water by damming the stream on Brent Knoll.  Together with churchwarden John Higgs he also founded the East Brent Harvest Home in 1857.  It is still celebrated every year in late August.  A memorial to him is located on the wall of the  north aisle.

Three sculptures are located on the west wall of the tower representing the Virgin & Child, the Trinity and Christ crowning the Blessed Virgin.  There is a scratch or mass dial on one of the buttresses.

St Mary's Church

Decorated plaster ceiling

West gallery

One of the carved elm pillars holding up the west gallery

Pulpit

Sedilia - stone seats for priests

Wooden eagle lectern

Memorial to George Denison

Pelican feeding her young

John Selwood's initial with an amphisbaena forming the S for Selwood

Lamb

The Annunciation

Winged ox of St Luke

Primitive heads

Eagle of St John

Scratch or mass dial

Effigy in the north aisle

This may be 14th century priest or possibly Martin de Summa, who fought on behalf of the local monks 1160-70 against the unscrupulous Bishop Severac.

Chancel window in memory of Sarah Reed

Elizabeth Goudge, writer

Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge was born in Wells on 24th April 1900.  She was the only child of Reverend Henry Goudge and his wife Ida de Beauchamp Collenette, who came from Guernsey.  Henry Goudge was Vice Principal of Wells Theological College and they lived in Tower House (also known as The Rib) in St Andrew Street. Elizabeth was taught at home by a governess.

In 1911 Henry Goudge accepted the job of Principal at Ely Theological College and the family moved to Ely.  Elizabeth boarded at Grassendale School in Southbourne, Bournemouth and later studied at the art school at University College Reading.  

In 1923 Henry Goudge was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University and the family moved to Oxford.  Henry bought a bungalow in Barton-on-Sea in Hampshire, as his wife was unwell and unhappy in Oxford and Mrs Goudge spent the summers there.  Elizabeth worked as a handicraft teacher in Oxford, but she began writing plays, poems and later novels in her spare time. 

Elizabeth's first novel to be published was Island Magic, which was inspired by her childhood holidays with her grandparents in Guernsey.  It was published by Duckworth in 1934.  In 1936 A City of Bells, which was set in Wells, was published.  Towers in the Mist, which was published in 1938, was set in Oxford.

Henry Goudge died suddenly at Barton-on-Sea in 1939 and Elizabeth and her mother moved to a bungalow in Marldon, Devon, where they lived for the next 12 years.  In 1944 Green Dolphin Country was published.  This novel was made into a film called Green Dolphin Street in 1947.   In 1946, Elizabeth Goudge's most famous children's novel, The Little White Horse was published.  It won the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in 1947.

After her mother's death in 1951, Elizabeth moved to Rose Cottage, Dog Lane, Peppard Common near Henley-on-Thames.  She continued to write novels for adults and children.  Her final novel, Child from the Sea was published in 1970.  Her autobiography, Joy of the Snow, was published in 1974.  Elizabeth Goudge never married and she lived in Rose Cottage with her female companion Jessie Munroe until her death on 1st April 1984. 

A blue plaque on Rose Cottage was unveiled in 2008.  There is also a blue plaque on Tower House/The Rib in Wells. 

Blue plaque on The Rib, St Andrew Street, Wells

The Rib

Rose Cottage, Peppard Common

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

Drinking fountain, Parrett Close, Langport

This was "Erected in commemoration of the the Coronation of His Majesty King Edward VII" August 9th 1902