Jane Seymour in Nether Stowey

This brightly painted relief sculpture of Jane Seymour, 3rd wife of Henry VIII, can be found in the garden of a house in Castle Street, Nether Stowey.  The house is near the junction of Castle Street with Mount Road.   Jane is at a 90 degree angle to the road and can be seen most clearly from the pavement in the winter when the wisteria around her has lost its leaves.  Her black and white spotted dog stands by her side.

The statue was created in 1970 by Doug Forsey, apparently to fill an empty space where a door had been blocked up. She was made from chicken wire and cement.

Jane Seymour was born in around 1509.  She was a lady-in-waiting to Henry VIII's first two wives, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn.  In 1534 she attracted the king's attention. They married a few days after Anne Boleyn's execution in 1536.  However Jane died at Hampton Court on 24th October 1537, 12 days after giving birth to the future Edward VI.  Jane had no connection to Nether Stowey.

 Jane Seymour and her dog

 Jane Seymour

Margaret Bondfield, the UK's First Female Cabinet Minister

Margaret Grace Bondfield, trade unionist, campaigner for women's rights, politician and the UK's first female cabinet minister was born on 17th March 1873 in Chard.  Her father William was a laceworker and she had 10 siblings.  She attended the nonconformist British School in Chard and became a pupil teacher there at the age of 13.

At the age of 14 she became a shop assistant in Brighton and then from 1894 in London. Appalled by the long hours, poor pay and the requirement to 'live in' she joined the newly formed National Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen and Clerks (NUSAWC).  Using the pseudonym Grace Dare she wrote articles for the union's journal Shop Assistant. In 1896 Margaret went undercover for the Women's Industrial Council (WIC) and worked in several West End shops to covertly gather information for WIC to enable them to campaign for shop work reform.  She presented her evidence in the Economic Journal in 1899, at a House of Lords select committee in 1901 and before a 1908 parliamentary departmental committee.

In 1898 Margaret was appointed Assistant Secretary of the NUSAWC, a post she held until 1908. She also joined the Independent Labour Party, became a leader of the Adult Suffrage Society and sat on the executive of the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL). In 1906 she and Mary Macarthur jointly founded the first women's general union, the National Federation of Women Workers (NFWW).  In the same year she helped to found the Women's Labour League (WLL). After 1908 she did more investigative work for WIC on the employment of married women, maternity and child welfare.  Her work contributed greatly to the introduction of state maternity benefit and improved medical care for mothers and babies from 1914.  She helped Mary Macarthur to organise and protect women who were employed in war work during the First World War.  In 1915 Margaret became the organising secretary of the NFWW.

In 1918 the WLL and WTUL were absorbed into the women's sections of the Labour Party and Trades Union Congress.  In the same year the NFWW merged with the National Union of General and Municipal Workers (NUGMW) and Margaret was appointed their chief women's officer after the death of Mary Macarthur.

Margaret Bondfield was the leading woman trade unionist in the 1920s and she was the first woman to be elected to the TUC's executive in 1918.  She became the first female chairman of the General Council of the TUC in 1923.  She was elected as an MP in 1923 to represent Northampton and she was one of the first 3 female Labour MPs.  When the first Labour government was formed in 1924 she became the UK's first female minister, as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Labour.  She was not re-elected in 1924 but was successful in a by-election at Wallsend in 1926.  After the Labour Party won the 1929 general election she was appointed Minister of Labour, thus becoming the UK's first woman cabinet minister and privy councillor.  

However she lost her seat at the 1931 General Election and failed to be re-elected for Wallsend in 1935. She returned to her post at the NUGMW and remained there until her retirement in 1938. During the Second World War she co-ordinated voluntary services.  She was granted the freedom of Chard in 1930 and was appointed a Companion of Honour in 1948.

Margaret was known as Maggie to her friends. She never married and she died at her home in Sanderstead in Surrey on 16th June 1953. She is commemorated in Chard by a plaque on the Town Hall and she is also mentioned on a plaque at the location on the corner of High Street and Helliers Road where the British School used to stand.

 Plaque on the Town Hall commemorating Margaret Bondfield, which was unveiled by the Right Honourable Barbara Castle on 20th September 1985

Plaque at the location of the British School in Chard

Patrick in Wadeford

This statue is by the side of the road as you drive through the village of Wadeford between Chard and Combe St Nicholas.  His name is Patrick - it says so on the base - and on the lamppost it says "Good fortune to you.  Share a little of it."  I don't know the name of his canine pug friend.  Patrick looks to be a little weary, as he is hanging on to the lamppost for support.  Well he has been standing there for at least 6 years and possibly many more than that.  Maybe he is waiting for a bus - they are a rare sight now in rural Somerset, which might explain why he has been waiting so long!

Patrick belongs to Chardleigh House, which is a residential home for young people with social difficulties.  It is run by a company called 3 Dimensions Care Ltd.

 Patrick

Batcombe Hollow - Dry Valley, Dew Ponds, Standing Stones and a Sheep Creep

Batcombe Hollow is a dry valley on the south west facing slope of the Mendip Hills near the village of Draycott. The underlying geology is Dolomitic Conglomerate, which was formed during the Triassic Period 251 to 200 million years ago. It was deposited in steep-sided desert canyons, known as wadis, and on steep mountain slopes.  It is a coarse-grained rock, which consists of boulders and smaller fragments of Carboniferous Limestone, which are bound together with finer-grained sediment. The Dolomitic Conglomerate is known locally as Draycott Marble and was quarried in the Draycott and East Horrington areas for building stone.  Even after a wet winter and the day after torrential rains there was still no water running down the valley.

Because the limestone of the Mendip Hills doesn't hold water well, man made dew ponds were dug to provide livestock with a drinking water supply all year round.  The idea was that they filled up with rainwater.  There is a round dew pond at the top of Batcombe Hollow, which is thought to be a post medieval cattle pond.  It is concave and lined with closely packed lias stone blocks.  Just above it is a small standing stone, which is thought to be modern in origin. It is 1.8 metres tall and 50 cm deep.

Standing stone and round dew pond

Further down the hill is a larger standing stone of Dolomitic Conglomerate, which is also thought to date from the 1980s or perhaps even more recently.  It is 1 metres tall by 1 metre wide and 35 cm. I haven't been able to find out who erected the 2 standing stones or why they did so.

 

 Larger Standing Stone - looking south west down Batcombe Hollow

There is a larger rectangular pond at the bottom of Batcombe Bottom but I can't find out anything about it.  It doesn't have an entry in the Somerset Historic Environment Record.

 Lower rectangular pond

Even further down the hill near Batcombe Farm there is a "sheep creep". These are square or rectangular openings built into the lower parts of dry stone walls to allow sheep but not cattle to pass through them.  I have seen them in the Peak District and in Yorkshire but this is the first one I have noticed in the Mendip Hills.

Sheep Creep

Batcombe Hollow is on the route of the West Mendip Way.  It is much less well known than its famous neighbour Cheddar Gorge and indeed it is much less dramatic.  However it is a delightful tranquil spot and I doubt it is every crowded with people even on a hot day in the summer.