Christmas Lights, Trinity Close, Burnham-on-Sea

Trinity Close is a small cul-de-sac in Burnham-on-Sea.  Unremarkable for 11 months of the year, for the whole of the month of December it is lit up.  The tradition was started by Nick and Hazel Gardner in 2001. The aim is to raise money for local charities and over the years more than £60,000 has been raised.  The homes in the close are decorated with over 100,000 lights.  When I visited in December 2014 only one of the houses in the close had no lights at all. 

The photos below were taken in December 2014.

Trinity Close

Trinity Close

A winter wonderland

 The most colourful house

Santa and three of his reindeer

 Beautiful tree

Ashwick Grove House, Oakhill

Ashwick Grove House is a shadow of its former self.  In the late 18th century an existing house was altered and enlarged for the agricultural improver John Billingsley (1747-1811).  His family had lived there since the 1690s.  At the rear of the house there was a row of buildings, which were cut into the rockface and possibly used as cold stores.  The main entrance to the house was along a tree lined avenue from the south.  There was a lodge house on what is now Fosse Road.  The Fosse Way runs roughly parallel to the avenue and no more than a couple of hundred metres to the east of it. The house stood in a landscaped park and had a formal garden adjacent to the east side of the house and a wilderness garden to the east of the formal garden.  The wilderness garden blended into Home Wood.  There was a rustic stone grotto set high on the steep slopes of Home Wood.   The grotto is apparently still there, although very overgrown.

After John Billingley's death in 1811 the house stood empty for some years before being bought by the Strachey family who lived there from c1830 until 1937.  The estate then had to be sold to pay death duties.  Presumably there were no buyers for the house, as it was partially demolished in 1955 with some of the architectural features being salvaged and sold at auction.

Since then nature has reclaimed the site and now trees grow where there were once grand rooms.  Sometime after 2000 the last remaining part of the front elevation collapsed into a heap of rubble.  The house is still rather optimistically marked on the 1:25,000 scale Ordnance Survey map.

An avenue of yew trees is still growing as you approach along a path from the east.  However other trees have now grown up around them.  The former stable block and coach house, which lie to the west of the main house, have been converted into houses. 

My thanks to Sue for taking the photos below for me.

Further Reading: Ashwick: Coal, Ale and Pasture - edited by Penny Stokes.  Published by Mendip District Council, 2002. 

Ferns are thriving in the ruins

 One of the few remaining walls still standing

 The remains of a garden wall?

 A jungle reclaims the house

The Dwarf's House, Bawdrip

The Dwarf's House is located on Church Road in Bawdrip. There is very little written about it and no one seems to know why it is so small - its external measurements are 13 feet long by 9 feet wide and 13 feet high.  It has 2 floors and the front door is only 4 feet 10 inches high.  It is no longer used as a house.  Grid Reference ST 342 395.

 Dwarf's House, Bawdrip

Village Animal Pounds

Animal pounds were secure enclosed areas where trespassing animals (usually cattle, horses, pigs or sheep) were impounded until their owners paid a fine or they were released as a result of a court judgment.    Most medieval villages had an animal pound. The man in charge of impounding the stray animals was paid by the Lord of the Manor and was known as a pinder or pounder.  Fines and disputes are documented in manorial court records.

In the medieval period the field system in use was an open one, so it would have been easy for animals to stray onto a neighbour's land.  Animals grazing unlawfully on common land could also be impounded.  If a person owed a debt to another person, their animals might also be impounded until the debt was paid. 

The word pound comes from the Old English word pund, meaning a pen or enclosure.  In parts of Scotland e.g. Shetland the word pund is still used.   The term pinfold is used in some parts of Britain instead of pound e.g. in the north and east of England.

Pounds were often sited near village greens, churches or crossroads to enable local residents to check if any of the impounded animals belonged to them. They were used up until farmland was enclosed in the 17^th to 19^th centuries.   

In some places the pounds were probably enclosed by hedges or wooden hurdles/rails and these have long since disappeared.  Some places had brick or stone animal pounds and a few of these have survived.  However some of the surviving pounds have at a later date been incorporated into neighbouring properties and so are no longer recognisable as animal pounds.

Not many examples of animal pounds survive in Somerset. The ones I am aware of are at Holford (dog pound), Crowcombe, Oakhill, Brompton Regis, Chaffcombe and Stogursey.  There is also one in North Somerset at Hutton.

The (possibly apocryphal) story behind the Holford Dog Pound is that at some unspecfiied time in the past the pack of hounds used in hunts were kept on the Alfoxton estate.  Meat which would be used to feed them, was stored hung high in trees out of their reach until it was needed.  However the meat attracted local stray dogs.  One night the hounds were disturbed by the local strays and the huntsman who normally looked after the dogs went out to see what the matter was.  However he did not put on the clothes he normally wore to do this.  This meant that the hounds did not recognise him and they attacked and killed him.  The dog pound was built, so that local stray dogs could be rounded up and incarcerated, so that they wouldn't disturb the hounds.  The plaque below the dog crest reads: "This ancient dog pound was given to the village of Holford in 1982 by the family of the late John Lancelot Brereton, descendants of the St Albyns, owners of Alfoxton since the 15th century, whose crest appears above."

Crowcombe has had an animal pound since at least 1642 when it was first mentioned in official records.  It was used up until the 1920s or 1930s.  It was restored in 2004 by Crowcombe Women's Institute.  The large fern growing inside it is at least 60 years old.

 Dog pound at Holford

Recently repainted Brereton family crest on the Holford Dog Pound - December 2019

 

Entrance to the animal pound at Crowcombe

 Captive fern in Crowcombe Pound!

 Oakhill - the pound has been converted into a lovely garden

 Oakhill Animal Pound

 Plaque on Oakhill Pound

 I think this is the remains of the animal pound at Brompton Regis.  It is located behind the village lock up 

 Brompton Regis - lock ups for humans and animals

Entrance to Stogursey's animal pound
 - a dog waits patiently to be claimed by his owner. 

 Stogursey's Animal Pound
The pound is located on the corner of Castle Street and St Andrew's Road. There is a small garden inside it but it was locked on the day I visited in December 2015.
 

Chaffcombe

The pound here has been turned into a community garden with a strange colourful sculpture in the middle of it, a bench and some apple trees

Pound Cottage, Chaffcombe
 The overgrown wall in the foreground was part of the village's animal pound.

Pound in Great Elm Road, Mells

Hutton Parish Pound

Hutton's Parish Pound

Stone and plaque (placed there in 200) at the site of Lympsham's village pound and Manor Farm.

Lion Rock, Cheddar Gorge

Lion Rock is located at the bottom of the west side of the limestone Cheddar Gorge behind the appropriately named Lion Rock Tearooms.

Lion Rock is a mimetolith: a natural topographical feature or rock outcrop/specimen which resembles something else - usually a person or an animal.  This word hasn't yet made it into the Oxford English Dictionary but I have come across it in several places e.g. the German soldier's head on the A9 at Slochd in the Scottish Highlands.  The Ally Sloper rock on the island of Lundy is another example.  I think mimetolith is a recently made up word comprised of the Greek words for imitator (mimetes) and rock (lithos). I'm not sure who invented the term but it is a good one that fills a gap in the English language and deserves to be made official!

Cheddar's Lion Rock resembles a crouching lion.  It has obviously been called Lion Rock for some time, as it is marked on the 1:25,000 scale Ordnance Survey map.   Grid Reference ST 466 540

 Lion Rock - it's not that clear from a distance

  Can you see his face?

Who put that telegraph pole there!

Churchyard without a Church, West Dowlish

500 metres to the south of the hamlet of Moolham, 200 metres to the west of Moolham Lane, a mile west of Dowlish Wake and bounded on 2 sides by an orchard, is a small isolated graveyard. It isn't even marked on the 1:50,000 scale Ordnance Survey map, although it is marked on the 1:25,000 scale Explorer map.  There is no sign of a church.  The graveyard contains a dozen or so old graves and about half a dozen more recent ones, including those of Baron Peter Pilkington of Oxenford and his wife Helen, who died in 2011 and 1997 respectively.

This is the churchyard of the long gone St John the Baptist Church, West Dowlish.  According to the Victoria County History of Somerset  the church had been demolished by 1575 and the rectory was annexed to Dowlish Wake in 1857.  Collinson's 1791 History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset noted that the church had been ruined for a century, that the churchyard was overgrown and the font had been moved to Dowlish Wake Church.

Grid Reference: ST 362 130

 Graveyard of St John the Baptist, West Dowlish

 

I did wonder if the occupant of this tomb had escaped!

Hurdle Stack, Priddy

A thatched hurdle stack stands on Priddy Green.  It is a symbolic collection of wooden hurdles that were used to form the sheep pens at Priddy Sheep Fair up until just after the Second World War.  After this time metal hurdles were used.  The hurdle stack was rebuilt a couple of times after the hurdles rotted. It was rebuilt in 1997 but was burnt down in an arson attack in April 2013.  It was rebuilt in July 2013.  It contains 130 ash hurdles.  It was previously thatched with straw but is currently thatched with reed, which lasts longer.

Priddy Sheep Fair was moved from Wells to Priddy in 1348 during the Black Death.  Presumably either the good people of Wells didn't want it back or no one has told them that the Black Death hasn't been a problem for several centuries!  No fair was held during 2001 (foot and mouth), 2007, 2012 (endless rain), 2014 (health and safety requirements and the cost of road closures) or 2015 (the organising committee resigned).

 Hurdle Stack on Priddy Green

The plaque on the hurdle stack reads:

"These hurdles are a symbolic reconstruction of the original collection.  They were stored here to form the Pens for the Sheep Fair, which moved from Wells to Priddy in 1348 at the outbreak of the Black Death.  

The fair is now held annually on the nearest Wednesday to the original date of the 21st August.

The hurdle stack was destroyed by fire on 28th April 2013 and rebuilt by volunteers from the Parish in July 2013."

Lorna Doone

Lorna Doone is a very long novel by Richard Doddridge Blackmore (1825-1900), which was first published in 1869.  It is a romance set in the late 17th century around the Badgworthy Water area of Exmoor. 

In 1673 12 year old John Ridd's farmer father is killed by Carver Doone.   The Doones are a family of outlaws who live in the isolated Doone Valley and terrorise the area. He vows to avenge his father's death.  He falls in love with Lorna Doone but so does Carver Doone.  After he is himself attacked by the Doones, John's uncle Reuben Huckaback gets Judge Jeffreys to help fight the Doones.  John rescues Lorna from the Doones during a blizzard.

A short time later the Monmouth Rebellion takes place and John is wrongly accused of fighting with the Duke of Monmouth against King James II.  He is rescued before he is hanged and is made a knight after he prevents an attack on Lorna's uncle. The Doones are attacked and all are killed except for Carver. 

It turns out that Lorna is not a Doone at all but was kidnapped by the Doones as a young girl and is in fact the daughter of a wealthy lord. At John and Lorna's wedding in Oare Church, Carver shoots Lorna.  He is chased into a bog by John and dies.  Lorna recovers and they live happily ever after. 

 Lorna Doone's Statue in Dulverton

This statue was made by Professor George Stephenson. It was commissioned by Dr Whitman Pearson of the USA and donated to the town of Dulverton in 1990

Lorna Doone celebrates the Queen's Platinum Jubilee with a Union Jack in her hand, June 2022

Lank Combe, Exmoor
 This is thought to be the location of the fictional Doone Valley

Memorial to R.D. Blackmore on the banks of Badgworthy Water, Exmoor.
It was erected in 1969 to mark the centenary of the publication of Lorna Doone.

 Nave of Oare Church
 - Lorna was shot by Carver Doone while standing at the altar.

 Window in Oare Church through which Lorna Doone was shot

 Oare Church
 

Water slide in the Lank Combe Stream where John and Lorna meet for the first time

Richard Doddridge Blackmore's Memorial Plaque on the wall of Oare Church

Victorian Workhouses

Old Poor Law

The concept of parochial poor relief dates back to the late 14th century but it was not until 1597 that legislation was passed, which required parishes to appoint Overseers of the Poor.  It was their responsibility to find work for the able-bodied poor and to provide parish houses for those who were unable to support themselves. In 1601 an Act for the Relief of the Poor was passed, which refined the 1597 act and made parishes legally responsible for looking after their own poor.  This was funded by a tax on local property owners and its distribution was administered by the Overseers of the Poor.  Parish poor relief was dispensed mostly as “out relief” in the form of food, clothing, fuel, rent payments or money to people in need living in their own homes.

In a few places workhouses were founded by local Acts of Parliament from the late 17^th century onwards.  An Act passed in 1723, known as Knatchbull’s Act after its proposer Sir Edward Knatchbull, enabled single parishes or groups of neighbouring parishes to set up workhouses or to pay contractors to run their workhouses for them for a fixed fee. The poor had to undertake work in the workhouses.

The 1782 Relief of the Poor Act, which was also known as Gilbert’s Act after its proposer Thomas Gilbert, allowed neighbouring parishes to work together in unions to construct joint workhouses.  Each parish paid the accommodation costs of its own poor people but saved money by sharing premises. These workhouses were only supposed to house the elderly, sick and orphaned. The able-bodied poor were to be found employment near their own homes.  In many cases the workhouses were ordinary local houses rented for the purpose.  The unions were overseen by boards of Guardians.  One Guardian was elected from each parish.  Their work was overseen by a Visitor, who was appointed by local magistrates.
 

New Poor Law

The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 was designed to reduce public spending on poverty.  Under the terms of the act England and Wales were divided into unions of parishes.  Poor relief, which was funded by local taxation, was administered in each union by an elected Board of Guardians.  Each union was required to build a workhouse to house the people in its area who were in need of help.  In some places the unions took over existing workhouses, while in others new ones were constructed, although some places were slow to build them.

Inmates were clothed and received basic food rations and children were given some education.  However conditions in the workhouses supposed to be harsher than those for the poor outside their walls, in order to discourage people from entering them and thereby saving the parishes money.  Parish relief was no longer supposed to be given to the poor living in their own homes.  Many workhouses were overcrowded and insanitary, with the result that infectious diseases spread easily among the inmates.  Able bodied inmates were made to work hard, often doing unpleasant and monotonous jobs such as picking oakum or breaking stones.

Over time workhouses evolved into orphanages and hospitals for elderly and infirm people and those with mental health problems or learning disabilities. After 1908 children were no longer housed in workhouses. In 1929 poor law unions were abolished and their powers were passed to County and County Borough Councils. Workhouses were renamed public assistance institutions. The workhouse system was replaced by the National Health Service in 1948.

More information about the history of the poor law and detailed histories of individual workhouses can be found on this website: http://www.workhouses.org.uk/

Somerset was divided into 17 Unions:  

Axbridge, Bath, Bedminster (later renamed Long Ashton), Bridgwater, Chard, Clutton, Dulverton, Frome, Keynsham, Langport, Shepton Mallet, Taunton, Wellington, Wells, Williton, Wincanton and Yeovil. Of these 13 have some or all of their constituent parishes in the current county of Somerset.

Little or nothing remains of the workhouses in Bridgwater, Chard, Langport, Wellington and Wincanton.

 The former Shepton Mallet Union Workhouse

Shepton Mallet Union Workhouse was designed by Jesse Gane, who was also the architect of Clutton Union Workhouse. It was built in 1848 in West Shepton. In 1930 control of it was handed to Somerset County Council. In 1937 it became a home for people with learning disabilities. It later became the Norah Fry Hospital, which closed in 1990. In 2005-6 it was redeveloped for residential use.

 The former Shepton Mallet Union Workhouse

The former Axbridge Union Workhouse

Axbridge Poor Law Union was formed on 14th May 1836. Its operation was overseen by an elected Board of 49 Guardians, who represented its constituent parishes:

Axbridge, Badgworth, Banwell, Berrow, Biddisham, Blagdon, Bleadon, Brean, East Brent, South Brent (Brent Knoll), Burnham with Aston Morris, Burrington, Butcombe, Chapel Allerton, Charterhouse, Cheddar, Christon, Churchill, Compton Bishop, Congresbury, Highbridge (formed out of Burnham with Aston Morris in 1894),Hutton, Kewstoke, Locking, Loxton, Lympsham, Mark, Nyland with Batcombe, Puxton, Rowberrow, Shipham, Uphill, Weare, Wedmore, Weston-super-Mare , Wick St Lawrence, Winscombe, Worle, Wrington with Broadfield.

The Axbridge Union workhouse was erected in 1837 at the south side of West Street in Axbridge at a cost of £4,496.17s.6d.  The workhouse could accommodate 250 inmates. The architect was Samuel T Welch, who was also the architect of workhouses at Clifton and Wells.  In 1903, a new infirmary with 72 beds, designed by Mr A. Powell of Bristol was erected at the north-east of the workhouse at a cost of just under £7,000.  The site later became St John's Hospital. After its closure in 1993, the main building was converted into residential flats and is now called St John’s Court.

 The front of the former Axbridge Union Workhouse

 The rear of the former Axbridge Union Workhouse

 The former Williton Union Workhouse entrance

The Williton Union Workhouse, which is located on Long Street in Williton, was designed by George Gilbert Scott and William Bonython Moffat and completed in 1840. In 1930 it was renamed Williton Institution and in 1948 it became Williton Hospital. The hospital closed in the 1990s when a new hospital was built in the town and after 2000 the former workhouse was converted into residential units.

 The main block of the former Williton Union Workhouse

Lovely courtyard garden at the rear of the former Williton Workhouse

The former Williton Union Workhouse

The former Dulverton Union Workhouse

Back of Dulverton Union Workhouse

Dulverton Union Workhouse was designed by Edward Ashworth and built on the bank of the River Barle in 1854-55.  It was not used as a workhouse after 1930 but was later used as the Exmoor Training Centre for Girls.  It later became the rural district council offices and is currently the Exmoor National Park Headquarters.

 The entrance block of the former Taunton Union Workhouse

Taunton Union Workhouse was designed by Sampson Kempthorne and built on what is now Trinity Road in 1836-8.  It was built to a hexagonal pattern.  In around 1912 it became Taunton Poor Law Institution. From 1930 until 1948 it was Taunton Public Assistance Institution. In 1948 when the NHS was established it became Trinity Hospital.  Most of the buildings have been demolished but the entrance block has been converted to residential use.

Rear of the entrance block of Taunton's former Union Workhouse

 The former Wells Union Workhouse

Wells Union Workhouse was built on the north side of Glastonbury Road in 1836-37. It was designed by Samuel T Welch, who was also the architect of Clifton and Axbridge Union Workhouses.  In 1930 the building was taken over by Somerset County Council.  In 1948 it was taken over by the new NHS and renamed Wells Infirmary.  In 1961 the name was changed to Priory Hospital.  It is still in use by the NHS but is now called Priory House.

The former Wells Union Workhouse

The former Yeovil Union Workhouse

Yeovil Union Workhouse was built on the north side of Preston Road in Yeovil in 1837. Its hexagonal plan was designed by Sampson Kempthorne. It later became Summerlands Hospital but only the entrance block now remains.

Plaque at the site of the Chard Union Workhouse in Wilkins Close off Avishayes Road.  The workhouse was built in 1837, became Sunnylands Elderly People's Home in 1948 and was demolished in 1974.

 Frome Union Workhouse

 

Infirmary Block, Frome Union Workhouse

Frome Union Workhouse was built in 1837-8 on the south side of Weymouth Road in Frome to accommodate 350 people.  It was designed by the architect Sampson Kempthorne and was based on a hexagonal pattern.  Later an infirmary block, lodge, school block and casuals' ward were added.  The workhouse eventually became Selwood Hospital, which closed in 1988.  The main buildings, casuals' block and infirmary block were converted into housing but the children's block was demolished.

Entrance to Bedminster Union Workhouse

Entrance Block of the Bedminster Union Workhouse with the Central Hub visible behind it

Former Bedminster Union Workhouse

Chapel of Bedminster Union Workhouse

Bedminster Poor Law Union was formed on 11th April 1836. Its operation was overseen by an elected Board of 34 Guardians, who represented its constituent parishes:

Abbot's Leigh, Backwell, Barrow Gurney, Bedminster, Bishopsworth (from the 1890s), Brockley, Chelvey, Clapton, Clevedon, Dundry, Easton in Gordano or St George's, Flax Bourton, Kenn, Kingston Seymour, Long Ashton, Nailsea, North Weston (from 1894), Portbury, Portishead, Tickenham, Walton in Gordano, Weston in Gordano, Winford, Wraxall, Yatton.

Bedminster Union workhouse was built in 1837-8 on what is now Old Weston Road at Flax Bourton at a cost of £6,600.  It could accommodate 300 inmates and was designed by architects George Gilbert Scott and William Bonython Moffatt.  They also designed many other workhouses in the south-west including those at Williton, Bideford, Newton Abbot, and Tavistock.

There were three parallel buildings: an entrance block with a central archway, which was single storeyed; the main building with a central hub and an infirmary at the back with a washhouse and workshops at each side of it. There was also a school, more workshops and an isolation hospital. In 1860 a chapel was built to the south west of the entrance block. It was paid for by William Gibbs of Tyntesfield, designed by John Norton and dedicated to St George.

The Bedminster Union was renamed Long Ashton Union in 1899. Between 1929 and 1956, the workhouse became Cambridge House, a Somerset County Council run institution for people with learning disabilities. It was known as Farleigh Hospital after 1956 and closed in about 1993.

The workhouse site has now been redeveloped for use as offices, although most of the original buildings have been preserved.  The office park is now called Farleigh Court.