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.  The church may have been destroyed by a fire.

Grid Reference: ST 362 130

 Graveyard of St John the Baptist, West Dowlish

 

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

Saxon font from West Dowlish Church, now in St Andrew's Church, Dowlish Wake 

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