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

Hedgehogs and Squirrels

Artistic representations of hedgehogs and squirrels aren't very common in Somerset.  Here are the ones I have come across painted on glass or walls, carved in wood, set in concrete and stitched onto church kneelers

Hedgehog, west door, Norton-sub-Hamdon Church

Mural, Priorswood, Taunton

Hedgehog, Church of St John the Baptist, Axbridge

Hedgehog on a carved seat in the churchyard of St Bartholomew's Church in Oake

Stained glass window, Churchstanton Church

Red squirrel on a kneeler in the Church of St Peter & St Paul, North Curry

Red squirrel set into the pavement outside the former Squirrel pub, High Street, Wellington

Squirrel chainsaw carving, Croydon Hill

Grey squirrel, Lamyatt bus shelter

Faded squirrel, Spray Point, Watchet

Waterrow Viaduct

The 4-span Waterrow Viaduct was built by the engineer Richard Hassard for the Devon and Somerset Railway (D&SR) 1871-3.  It carried the railway over the River Tone to the south of Waterrow.

The 43 mile long Devon and Somerset Railway connected Barnstaple to the Bristol and Exeter Railway (B&ER) at Norton Fitzwarren near Taunton.  The line opened in June 1871 from Norton Fitzwarren to Wiveliscombe.  The Wiveliscombe to Barnstaple section opened in November 1873.   The line had 14 stations, 4 tunnels and another viaduct at Castle Hill near Filleigh.   It was built as broad gauge and operated by the B&ER.

The D&SR was converted to standard gauge in May 1881.  The Great Western Railway (GWR) acquired the D&SR in 1901.  The GWR was nationalised and became part of British Railways in 1948.  Good services on the Barnstaple to Norton Fitzwarren line were withdrawn in 1964 and the line closed to passenger trains in October 1966, as part of the Beeching cuts.

The Waterrow Viaduct is also known as the Venn Cross Viaduct or the Tone Viaduct.   It had three tapered stone piers and stone abutments at either end.  These supported a continuous wrought iron lattice girder, which had a bridge deck above and a maintenance deck below.  The viaduct was 148 metres long and 31 metres above the valley floor.  The lattice girder was removed in the 1970s, but the 3 piers and the 2 abutments remain.  The central and eastern pier and the eastern abutment can be viewed from a public footpath through the Hurstone Local Nature Reserve.

The Castle Hill Viaduct over the River Bray was similar in design to the Waterrow Viaduct, but it had 6 spans.   Its pillars are still in use today, as they carry the North Devon Link Road (A361), which opened in 1988.

Eastern and central piers

Eastern pier

Eastern abutment in summer

Eastern abutment in winter

Eastern and central piers in winter

Eastern and central piers on a sunnier day

Central pier

Willy's Rope Walk, Sea Farm, Ilminster

Willy's Ropewalk was established in 1832 by Thomas (or maybe John) Willy, although it may originally have been entirely open-air or located on a different site. 

By 1887 a building had been built at the south end of an open-air ropewalk.  The building, which was constructed from bricks and local stone, would have contained the turning and straining equipment. The rope walk was at least 100 metres long and extended over the Dowlish Brook, by means of a footbridge.  

Rope and twine were still being made on the site well into the mid 20th century by S. Metcalf, who took over from his uncle Frederick Willy during the Second World War.

Since I took the photo below in November 2015, the roof has been changed from a rounded top to one with straight pitches. A Victorian post box is built into the gable wall.  

Grid reference: ST 349 130.

Willy's Rope Walk, Sea Farm

The Taunton Stop Line

The Taunton Stop Line was built in 1940, when the UK government believed an invasion of Britain by Nazi Germany was imminent. The evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk at the end of June 1940, increased the sense of urgency. The Taunton Stop Line was part of a network of defensive lines built across various parts of Britain.  The purpose of a stop line was to slow down, a German advance, if they had invaded Britain.

General Edmund Ironside was appointed as Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces at the end of May 1940.  On 25th June he announced plans for Home Defence to the War Cabinet.  He proposed:

1. The construction of coastal defences to fight off small raids and delay any landings.
2. Road blocks at strategic locations to be manned by the Home Guard
3. The construction of static fortified stop lines, which divided coastal areas into sectors and sealed off London and the Midlands from the coast
4. A central reserve of troops, who would be ready to deal with any major breakthroughs
5. Local mobile groups, which could deal with parachute landings and local attacks.

The Taunton Stop Line ran for approximately 50 miles from the Bristol Channel/mouth of the River Brue at Highbridge to the English Channel at Axmouth Harbour in Devon.  Its route was via Pawlett Hams, Dunball, Bridgwater, North Newton, Creech St Michael, Wrantage, Ilton, Ilminster, Donyatt, Knowle St Giles, Chard, Forton, Perry Street, Chard Junction and Axminster.  

Where possible the Taunton Stop Line utilised natural barriers.  It followed the River Parrett to Bridgwater, then the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal to Creech St Michael and then the line of the disused Chard Canal to Ilton.  It then followed the Great Western Railway to Chard Junction and then the River Axe and/or the Southern Railway to Axmouth Harbour.

Highbridge was also the start of the General Headquarters (GHQ) Green line, which ran east to Bradford-on-Avon and then north to Framilode on the River Severn south of Gloucester.

The construction of the Taunton Stop Line began in July 1940 and was largely completed by September of the same year.   About 400 defensive structures, including pillboxes, road and rail blocks, anti-tank gun emplacements and anti-tank obstacles were constructed at strategic points along the stop line to strengthen it.  The anti-tank obstacles were usually made of concrete and came in various shapes and sizes, including dragons' teeth (flat-topped pyramids), posts, cubes and coffins. 

Gun emplacements were built at strategic locations, landmines were laid, trenches were dug and barbed wire entanglements were put in place.  Many of the bridges along the route had charge chambers cut into their walls, so that they could be blown up in the event of an invasion.  The pillboxes were disguised and/or camouflaged using paint and netting or locally available materials such as soil, beach pebbles and hedgerows.

In 1941 twelve defensive "islands" were created to strengthen the stop line at Bridgwater, Durston (to cover the railway junction at Cogload), Creech St Michael, Wrantage/Crimson Hill, Ilton (RAF Isle Abbotts/Merryfield). Ilminster, Chard, Forton, Perry Street, Whitford, Axminster and Colyford.  These anti-tank islands were intended to be used as bases from which to launch counter attacks, if the stop line was breached.

The Taunton Stop Line was initially manned by the army, assisted by the Home Guard, but as the threat of an invasion receded, the Home Guard took over responsibility for it.

The majority of the structures built for the Taunton Stop Line are still intact and in situ today.

Pillbox close to the River Brue at Highbridge

Pillbox on the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal near Outwood House

Pillbox on the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal

Pillbox on the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal near Outwood House

This pillbox has had its front wall removed

Pillbox and dragons' teeth on the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal

Pillbox at the junction of the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal and the Chard Canal in Creech St Michael 

It was probably originally disguised as a farm building or canal-side cottage.  In 2015 it was repurposed as a bat roost. This is a Type 26 pillbox.

Pillbox on Park Drive, Ilminster

Pillbox, somewhere near  Dillington House, Ilminster

Donyatt Halt

One of a pair of concrete blocks, into which sections of railway track would have been slotted to form a vehicle barrier.  There are some anti-tank blocks in the background. 

6-pounder anti-tank gun emplacement on the now disused railway line near Knowle St Giles

6-pounder anti-tank gun emplacement near Knowle St Giles

Anti-tank wall, Victoria Avenue, Chard

Artillery Battery on Axmouth Beach

This would probably have been equipped with a 6-pounder Hotchkiss gun

Further Reading: The West Country's Last Line of Defence: Taunton Stop Line by Andrew Powell-Thomas, Amberley Publishing, 2017