St Leonard's Chapel, Tivington

St Leonard's Chapel in Tivington in the parish of Selworthy, was built in the 14th century as a chapel-of-ease. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII in the 1530s, it was secularised.  A fireplace was added and an extension was built on the east end.  At various times it was used as a storehouse, a barn and a school.  It was restored in 1896 by the Acland family, who owned the Holnicote estate.  It was reconsecrated in 1940.  The bell is said to have come from the Acland's yacht the Lady of St Kilda.

The extension to the chapel is now a National Trust cottage called Dunkery View, which is rented out as a self-catering holiday cottage. Both the chapel and the cottage have thatched roofs.

The side of St Leonard's Chapel at Tivington

Entrance to St Leonard's Chapel showing the bell

Interior of the chapel

Fireplace in St Leonard's Chapel

Interior of St Leonard's Chapel

Entrance gate at the side of Dunkery View

Dunkery View cottage

Hinkley Point's Bat Bridge

Part of a mature hedgerow in the middle of the Hinkley Point C site, known as Green Lane,  was removed in the early phase of the construction project.  This meant that the local barbastelle bats were no longer able to use it as a navigation corridor to guide them to their feeding areas.  Barbastelle bats are extremely rare and protected by law, so a "bat bridge"  was constructed by the company Kier on the line of Green Lane, so that the bats could echolocate their way along it.  A bat house was built to the south of the site to provide bats with a place to roost and hibernate.

Bat bridge viewed from outside the construction site, December 2016

Bat bridge at Hinkley Point