RAF Liberator Plane Crash Memorial, Hare Lane, Buckland St Mary

On 22nd November 1945 a Liberator aircraft took off from RAF Merryfield near Ilminster carrying soldiers on their way to India. However it was a foggy day and it failed by a few metres to gain enough height to clear the top of the Blackdown Hills and crashed at Hare Lane near Castle Neroche in Buckland St Mary parish.  All 22 passengers and 5 crew on board were killed.

A memorial stone and plaque by the side of the road marks the spot in Hare Lane where the crash took place (grid reference ST 277 155).  The memorial stone is on the south side of the road under an ash tree, about 400 metres down the hill from Old Castle Farm.  

The memorial plaque reads:

Air Crash
22.11.1945 Liberator KH126
In Memory of the 27 men who perished at this site

Four of the crew, including the pilot, were Polish and on top of the memorial stone, which according to the Somerset Historic Environment Register is a recycled old boundary stone, is a faint carving of what appears to be an eagle.  I could make out what look to be wings but not much else.


Further Reading:

Wings over Somerset: Air Crashes since the end of World War II: Peter Forrester. The History Press, 2012 (The entry for the Hare Lane crash in this book includes the names of all those who died)

Memorial plaque

 

 Memorial plaque and stone

 

 Eagle carving on the top of the memorial stone

 Ash tree behind the memorial

Bathing Station on the River Tone at French Weir, Taunton

The weir on the River Tone at French Weir to the west of the town centre was first built in the early 13th century when the mills in Taunton were reorganised and the Castle Mill Stream was built.  The weir was destroyed by flooding and rebuilt many times over the centuries e.g. c1508-11 and c1910. In 1753 it was destroyed by a group of women who believed the miller at the Town Mills was selling flour outside the town, even though the town was experiencing food shortages.

By 1813 the river around French Weir had become a popular place for bathing.  In 1862 the area which is now French Weir Park was rented to the parish of St James by John Halliday and a bathing station was constructed below the weir. It had wooden changing cabins and a concrete waterfront. In 1864 the first annual swimming and diving competition took place.  This was not without controversy, as the competitors (all male) swam naked.  Complaints about nude bathing and bad language continued into the 1880s.  French Weir Park was established after 1893.

In the 1920s the bathing station below the weir was replaced by one above it. There were two diving boards and grab chains along the river bank on the park side for the swimmers to hold on to.  The chains are no longer there but at least one of the large iron rings that held the chains in place can still be seen close to the footbridge across to Longrun Meadow. Use of the River Tone for bathing declined after the public baths in St James's Street opened in 1928.

 Iron Ring above French Weir

 - this is the only one I could see

Location of the 1920s Bathing Station at French Weir

Dodington Copper Mine

The Devonian rocks of the Quantock Hills contain some metal ores. These are mainly copper but there is also some iron, lead and silver. Exploratory pits and shafts were dug at a variety of places on the Quantocks, including around Broomfield, on Aisholt Common, at Wills Neck, Cothelstone Manor, Alfoxton Park, Halsway Manor, Black Hill and Woodlands Hill.

Copper mining started in Dodington parish before 1712.  At various times miners from Derbyshire and Cornwall were employed there.  

In 1762 the Dodington Estate was inherited by the Marquis of Buckingham, who also had mining interests in Cornwall.  From the 1786-1801 copper was regularly mined around Dodington.  Several adits (e.g. Garden Mine, New Hall Mine and Dodington Mine) were dug but not all were worked. Some of the copper was shipped out through the port at Combwich but the mines proved uneconomic and production had ceased by 1801. 

Miners were employed again by Thomas Poole of Nether Stowey from 1817-1821.  

A ruined engine house survives called Beech Grove.  However its location to the south of Dodington Hall is not near a public right of way and according to the Somerset Historic Environment Record the engine house is in a very ruinous state.  It was built by Thomas Poole between 1817 and 1820 on the site of earlier workings. It housed a Boulton and Watt single action beam engine. The engine was moved to Glebe Shaft Engine House, possibly in 1820.

Sump or Glebe Shaft Engine House was built in 1820, also by Thomas Poole. It isn't on a public right of way but it is clearly visible over the top of the hedgerow in a field about 100 metres east of an unclassified road, which runs from the Counting House crossroads on the A39 north to Stringston. The overgrown remains of another building can be seen on the field side of the hedge close to the road.  This mine had a very short life and closed in 1821.

The Counting House, which is located at Counting House Crossroads on the road that leads south up to Walford's Gibbet, was the headquarters of the Marquis of Buckingham's mine company. 

Further Reading:

Men and Mining on the Quantocks - J.R. Hamilton and J.F. Lawrence. Town and Country Press,1970.

The Historic Landscape of the Quantock Hills. Hazel Riley. English Heritage, 2006.  Available to view free online:
Historic Landscape of the Quantock Hills
 

 Remains of Sump or Glebe Shaft Engine House

Sump or Glebe Shaft Engine House

Sump or Glebe House Engine House

 Counting House Crossroads

 Counting House

Red Posts

There are various theories about why some signposts were historically painted red: 

• To help illiterate prison guards escorting convicts to ports for transportation to Australia to find their way to places to stay for the night.
• To mark the site of a gallows or gibbet.  

However if either of these theories was right, wouldn't red posts be much more common than they are?

There are 3 red signposts that I am aware of in Somerset:

1. On the A358 at the junction with unclassified roads to Crowcombe Heathfield and Triscombe.
2. On the A39 at the junction with an unclassified road to West Luccombe
3. On an unclassified road between Chard and Wambrook.

There is also a Red Post Cross on the A372 to the south of the village of Kingsdon. However there is no longer a red signpost there. 

A few other places, mainly in the West Country, also have red posts:

Dorset has three red posts:

1. On the A31 between Bere Regis and Wimborne Minster at Winterbourne Tomson. There is a Botany Bay Barn half a mile to the south of this red post, which would support the theory of the prison guards escorting prisoners from Dorchester Jail to Portsmouth for transportion to Botany Bay in Australia.
2. On the B3145 between Sherborne and Charlton Horethorne and to the south west of Poyntington
3. On an unclassified road between Benville and Evershot, just to the east of Benville Bridge

Cornwall has one - It is located on the A3072 between Stratton and Holsworthy.

London has one in Dulwich.

Devon has a crossroads named Red Post Cross but there is no longer a red post there.  It is on the A381 between Totnes and Ipplepen.

The only Somerset red post that is painted entirely in red with white lettering is this one on a quiet narrow lane between Chard and Wambrook:

Red Post near Wambrook

 Red Post at the turning off the A39 for West Luccombe

This one could do with repainting.

 Red Post near Crowcombe Heathfield

This one could do with a clean!

 

This is one of the Dorset Red Posts 

 - the one between Evershot and Benville