Quaker Burial Ground, Milverton

A mile to the west of Milverton, at the point where a restricted byway meets Quakinghouse Lane (grid reference ST635225), there is a small Quaker burial ground.  The Quakers purchased the land in 1681 started using it as a burial ground from c1688.   It is still in use but the only visible gravestones are from the early 20th century onwards, as Quakers were not permitted gravestones until c1850.  All the gravestones are lying flat and only record names and dates of birth and death.  It can be entered by a gate with a plaque on it saying "Friends Burial Ground 1681."  It is a peaceful place with several trees, including at least one yew tree.  

There may once have been a Quaker meeting house in or immediately adjacent to the burial ground, but there was also one 100 metres further north. The house currently on that site is currently called Quaking House and some of its walls may be the remains of the meeting house. In c1758 the Quakers stopped meeting here when they bought and rebuilt a property in North Street, Milverton.  The Quakers stopped meeting at the property in Milverton in 1855 and sold it in 1872.

Entrance Gate

Notice in the burial ground

It says "True silence is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment." William Penn 1699

Burial ground

Burial ground

Quaking House

Ashwick Theatre, Exmoor Pony Centre, Dulverton

The Ashwick Theatre, which is also known as the Music Room, or more recently, the Green Room, is located at the Exmoor Pony Centre at Ashwick near Dulverton.  It was built in the late 1920s or early 1930s by Frank Green, who owned Ashwick House.  He built it as a recreation hall for his staff and young relatives who came to stay with him.  It is located a couple of hundred metres from his house, so that he couldn't hear their merrymaking but could keep an eye on them!

Frank Green (1861-1954) was the son of Sir Edward Green, who was a wealthy Yorkshire industrialist and MP for Wakefield.  Frank bought the Treasurer's House in York and used it to display his collection of antique furniture, ceramics, textiles and paintings.  He gave the Treasurer's House and all its contents to the National Trust in 1930.  He was eccentric and never married.

Sir Edward Green died in 1924 and Frank's health began to deteriorate.  He bought Ashwick House and estate, which included farmland at Old Ashway Farm and a herd of Exmoor ponies, in 1928.  He moved to Ashwick for the sake of his health in 1930.  He had 20 resident staff at Ashwick House and often entertained there.  The Exmoor ponies were the descendants of the original Anchor herd, which had been started by the first Sir Thomas Acland in 1797.  Frank looked after his Exmoor ponies well but most of them were stolen during the Second World War and slaughtered for meat. Only about 12 ponies managed to avoid being caught. In 1950 Frank's great nephew Simon Lycett-Green returned the few remaining ponies to Winsford Hill.  Frank Green died in 1954 and left the estate to his family.  The Anchor herd was rebuilt by Simon Lycett-Green's daughter Rosie and there are now about 100 ponies in the herd, some of which live out on Winsford Hill.

The theatre is built on stone piers with shiplap boarding on the external walls, a stone chimney at both ends and it originally had a sprung wooden dance floor. The auditorium is 30 feet long by 15 feet wide. There is a stage, which is 8 feet deep and a proscenium arch, which is 10 feet wide.  The stage could be screened off from the auditorium by double doors.  These could be opened inwards to form the wings of the stage.  

Two unsigned trompe l'oeil paintings of theatre boxes, which were painted in 1924, are mounted on the double doors.  They depict Oscar Wilde's presentation of his play Lady Windermere's Fan in 1895. The Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) and William Ewart Gladstone are sitting in one box and politicians from the period, including Lord Salisbury, Arthur Balfour and Joseph Chamberlain are sitting in the other.  The shadowy figure behind the Prince of Wales is thought to be Oscar Wilde.  Frank Green probably brought these with him from the Treasurer's House.   

On the back wall of the auditorium above fireplace there is a mural of a York street scene seen through the the wooden frames of a window. These were painted in 1924 by A.E. Pilmoor.

Ashwick Theatre was leased by the Moorland Mousie Trust in 2006 and restored by them.  It was officially reopened by the Duchess of Cornwall in July 2011 and is now used as a meeting/exhibition room. It was renamed the Green Room in honour of Frank Green.

Ashwick Theatre

Ashwick Theatre

The auditorium

Mural of a York street

Trompe l'oeil painting of two theatre boxes