Bandstands

Bandstands are usually located in parks or on seafronts.  They are designed to provide shelter for performing bands from the rain and sun.  Most of them are circular, semi-circular or polygonal in shape.  They are usually raised up above ground level and the roof acts as a sounding board, so that the music being played can be heard more widely.  

The first cast iron bandstands to be erected in Britain were at the Royal Horticultural Society's gardens in South Kensington, London in 1861. They became popular during the later Victorian period, when many public parks opened in towns and cities to provide green open spaces where people could relax.  They were often funded by local authorities or wealthy benefactors.  It was thought that music had a positive influence on moral health.  At their greatest extent, there were more than 1,500 bandstands in Britain.  They flourished until the Second World War, but nearly 600 were demolished between 1945 and 1980.  However, since the 1990s many of the surviving bandstands have been restored.

Somerset's surviving bandstands are located in Taunton, Wellington, Bath, Minehead, Burnham-on-Sea, Shepton Mallet, Wells, Clevedon, Weston-super-Mare, Frome, Keynsham and Bridgwater.

Vivary Park, Taunton

This octagonal bandstand was supplied by H. Phillips and Sons in 1895, when Vivary Park became a public park.

Morrison's Bandstand, Taunton

I don't know if this bandstand is ever used for its original purpose, given its rather odd location on the banks of the River Tone and very close to Morrison's Supermarket.

Blenheim Gardens, Minehead

Former bandstand, Jubilee Gardens Café, Minehead

This building started life in 1935 as the Jubilee Bandstand.  It was built on the site of an earlier bandstand.  In 1948 it was converted into a tearoom.

Clevedon

This bandstand is located on Green Beach.  It was erected to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887.

Wellington Park

Wellington Park was designed and laid our by the landscape gardener FW Meyer.  The park opened in 1903.  The bandstand, which was constructed by Messrs Follett Bros of Wellington, was part of the original design. It originally had a turret on the roof.

Collett Park, Shepton Mallet

Collett Park was given to the town by John Kyte Collett in 1906.

Manor Gardens, Burnham-on-Sea

This bandstand was built by Burnham and Highbridge Town Council in 1995 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of VE Day.

Grove Park, Weston-super-Mare

This cast iron bandstand was built in the late 19th century by Hill Bros, Sun Foundary of Alloa.  It has a lead ogee roof with a weathervane on the top of it.

Blake Gardens, Bridgwater

Blake Gardens opened to the public on 9th August 1902, as part of the town's celebrations for the coronation of King Edward VII.  I think the bandstand was built in 1902.  It was renovated in 2003 by Bridgwater Prince's Trust Team 12.

Royal Victoria Park, Bath

This semi elliptical bandstand was built in around 1887 by Major Charles Davis.  The rear is made from limestone, the columns are made of cast iron and it has a lead fish scale roof.  The interior is timber lined.  The bandstand was designed with acoustics in mind and is aligned with the centre of the Royal Crescent. The park was opened on 23rd October 1830 by the Duchess of Kent and her daughter, Princess Victoria.

Parade Gardens, Bath

The original bandstand in Parade Gardens was designed and built by Henry Goodridge in 1870.  It was replaced in 1925 by the current octagonal bandstand.  The balustrade was replaced in June 2018.  A public forging event was held, which involved a team of blacksmiths from around the United Kingdom.  The musical score shown on the new balustrade is from Hammer & Anvil, which was composed by Jake Garrett.  There are also 8 musical themed panels, which were designed by the blacksmiths.  They feature a gate, big brass, Bridge over Troubled Water, a Celtic harp, tuning forks, a Roman cithara, melody and The Dancing Fiddler.

Celtic Harp panel, Parade Gardens, Bath

This panel was made by Gerard Loughran.

Wells Recreation Ground

A wooden bandstand was erected in Sidney Gardens in Yeovil in 1898.  It was paid for by James Bazeley Petter.  It was burnt down by vandals in 1972 and not replaced.

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

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