James Allen, "The Snowdrop King"

James Allen was the first person known to have deliberately crossed and raised hybrid snowdrops from seed.  For this reason he became known as "The Snowdrop King". He was a passionate galanthophile and a self-taught horticulturalist.

James Allen was born at Windsor Hill Mill, a mile to the north of Shepton Mallet, in 1830.  He lived there for the first 20 or so years of his life and once he was old enough, he helped his mother Elizabeth and his brother John to run the watermill.  His father, John Allen, died in 1842.  The mill ground corn for human and animal consumption. 

In 1853 James married Ellen Burt.  She was the daughter of a local draper.  Their son Frank was born in 1854 and they moved to Park House in Park Street, Shepton Mallet.  It was there that James began breeding snowdrops. He grew all the varieties of snowdrops known at the time and bred over 100 snowdrop cultivars. He also bred a pale pink variety of wood anemone  (Anemone nemorosa Allenii), a new lavender and a new Scilla.

James and Ellen had 8 children between 1854 and 1868: 4 sons and 4 daughters. James was involved in the running of the town of Shepton Mallet.  James and his brother John were cheese and corn merchants. Their mother Elizabeth died in 1859.

John and his wife Emily lived across the road from James & Ellen in Highfield House.  After John died in 1894, James and Ellen moved from Park House to Highfield House. James's health deteriorated from the 1880s onwards and he died on 8th March 1906.  He was buried opposite the entrance to the Shepton Mallet Cemetery chapel.  His gravestone included an obelisk, but this eventually fell into disrepair.  In February 2022 a new obelisk was erected on his grave.  This was funded by local people and organisations, including the local council.

Many of James Allen's snowdrops were destroyed by the fungal infection Botrytis or an attack of narcissus fly.  However, two varieties that he bred are still available to buy today: Merlin and Magnet.  The inner segments of Merlin are completely green and Magnet has an unusually long stalk. Both of these varieties have received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Shepton Mallet Horticultural Society began planting snowdrops in and around the town in 2015 and an annual Snowdrop Festival is held in the town every February.

Windsor Hill Mill

Windsor Hill Mill

Snowdrops at Windsor Hill

Independent Chapel, now Shepton Mallet Baptist Church, Commercial Road

James Allen was baptised and married here.  His memorial service was also held in the chapel.

Highfield House 

(now a Somerset Council office)

Park House

Obelisk in Shepton Mallet Cemetery

James Allen's gravestone and obelisk

Snowdrops on the obelisk

Snowdrops on a grass verge in Shepton Mallet

Roger Bacon: Franciscan monk, philosopher, scientist and scholar

Roger Bacon was a medieval philosopher and scientist.  He was a great proponent of the importance of experimental science.  He was the first European to write a detailed description of the process of making gunpowder.  He also speculated about flying machines and motorised ships and carriages. 

Roger Bacon was born c1214-1220, probably in Ilchester. His family was wealthy and he was educated in geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music.  He then studied, and probably also taught, arts at Oxford University.  He travelled to Paris sometime between 1236 and 1245.  He was a pioneer in teaching Aristotle's natural philosophy at the University of Paris.  He may have returned to Oxford c1247, where he met and was influenced by the philosopher and theologian Robert Grosseteste (who was the Bishop of Lincoln), the Welsh Franciscan Thomas Wallensis and the Franciscan scholar and theologian Adam Marsh (also known as Adam de Marisco).  Bacon may have returned to Paris in 1251.

In around 1257 Roger Bacon became a Franciscan monk, probably in England.  Soon after this he returned to Paris, where he stayed for about 10 years. Roger Bacon was an innovative thinker, who wasn't afraid to challenge current beliefs about science, philosophy and religion. He met Cardinal Guy Foulquois in Paris, who showed an interest in Bacon's ideas.  Foulquois became Pope Clement IV in 1264 and then demanded to see Bacon's written work. 

In 1266 Roger Bacon completed his Opus maius, which was divided into seven parts: the causes of human ignorance, the relation of the sciences to theology, grammar and the power of languages,  mathematics (including astronomy and astrology), optics, experimental science and moral philosophy.  The most famous passage in this work includes the sentence "without experiment, nothing can be sufficiently known". He sent his Opus maius to Pope Clement IV in Rome.  Bacon then worked on his Opus minus, which summarised and supplemented the Opus maius. This work was also dispatched to the Pope.  He then began writing his Opus tertium, which was his longest work. This was probably never sent to the Pope, who died in 1268.  There is no written record of Pope Clement IV's reaction to Bacon's ideas.

Roger Bacon probably returned to Oxford in around 1270.  He was annoyed by the increasing corruption of knowledge and was outspoken in his contempt for many of his contemporary intellectuals, including prominent Dominicans and Franciscans.  In about 1278 Girolamo da Ascoli, who was Master-General of the Franciscans, condemned Bacon's teachings and had him imprisoned. He was probably released in 1290 and he died c1292 in Oxford.

There is a brass memorial plaque to Roger Bacon in the Church of St Mary Major in Ilchester.  It says:

To the Immortal Memory of

Roger Bacon

A Franciscan Monk and also a free enquirer after

true knowledge.  His wonderful powers as

mathematician, mechanic, optician, astronomer, chemist,

linguist, moralist, physicist and physician gained 

him the title of "Doctor Miribilis"

He first made known the composition of

gunpowder, and his researches laid the

foundations of modern science.  He prophesied the 

making of machines to propel vessels through the water

without sails or oars; of chariots to

travel on land without horses or other draught 

animals; of flying machines to traverse the air.

He was imprisoned, starved and persecuted by

the suspicious ignorance of his contemporaries

but a fuller knowledge now acclaims and 

honours him as one of the greatest of mankind.

Born at Ilchester in 1214

Died at Oxford 1294

This tablet is erected to commemorate the Seventh Centenary

by a few admirers of his genius

AD 1914

Roger Bacon's memorial plaque in Church of St Mary Major, Ilchester 

Sundials

A sundial is an instrument used outdoors for determining the hour of the day, when the sun is shining.  The shadow of an upright object (known as a gnomon) falls on a flat or curved surface, which is marked with the hours.  The earliest known sundials were used by the Egyptians in around 1500 BC.  In medieval and early modern Europe the sundial was the most popular way of telling the time.

Sundials can be either altitude dials or direction dials.   With altitude dials the time of day is determined by the altitude of the sun.  Altitude dials can be sub-divided into plane, cylinder, scaphe and ring.  With direction dials, the time is determined by the sun's azimuth (compass direction) or hour angle.  Direction dials can be sub-divided into horizontal (including analemmatic), vertical, polar, equinoctial/equatorial (including armillary spheres), azimuthal and multiple/polyhedral.

Piles Mill near Allerford

This double-sided equatorial sundial was given by the Minehead and West Somerset Centre of the National Trust in 1984 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Richard Dyke Acland's gift of the Holnicote Estate to the National Trust in 1944. It was unveiled by his son Sir John Acland.  It is made from Limpley Stoke limestone and was designed by David Brown to look like a millstone and carved by the National Trust's stonemason John Salter. 

Piles Mill Sundial

Scratch dial, St Mary's Church, East Stoke 

Scratch dials are also known as mass dials.  They are medieval (1100-1600) sundials found on the south side of many churches.  They are thought to have shown the times of mass and other church services.  There would once have been a metal or wooden rod or gnomon in the hole in the centre of the dial, which would have cast a shadow.

Scratch dial, St Mary's Church, East Stoke

Scratch dial, St Mary's Church, East Stoke

Scratch dial, St Andrew's Church, Brympton

Scratch dial, St Mary's Church, East Brent

Scratch dial, St Michael's Church, Creech St Michael

Scratch dial, St Michael's Church, Creech St Michael

Scratch dial, St Andrew's Church, Burnham-on-Sea

Scratch dial, St Mary's Church, Seavington

Scratch dial, St Mary's Church, East Quantoxhead

Scratch dial, St Dunstan's Church, Baltonsborough

Barrington Court

This is a dodecahedron dial with pentagonal faces. 

Barrington Court

Barrington Court

Armillary Sphere, Tintinhull Gardens

This is a type of equinoctial/equatorial sundial.

Armillary Sphere, Parade Gardens, Bath
This was restored in 2019 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the British Sundial Society, who held their conference in Bath in 2019.

Armillary sundial, Jubilee Nature Garden, Norton-sub-Hamdon

Analemmatic sundial, Peile Drive, Taunton

The inscription on the sundial reads "The light of learning cast its shadow here from 1939-1994.  Stand facing your shadow with toes on the date scale."  Bishop Fox School was located here until it moved to its present site on Calway Road in September 1994. Analemmatic sundials are a type of horizontal sundial in which the gnomon (in this case a human being) is vertical and hour markings are marked in an elliptical pattern. The position of the gnomon varies, depending on the month of the year.

Analemmatic sundial, Peile Drive, Taunton

Analemmatic sundial on Minehead seafront

This sundial was provided by West Somerset District Council with the support of Minehead Town Council to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty, The Queen in June 2002. The names of the towns in West Somerset (Minehead, Williton, Watchet and Dulverton) are arranged around the centre and further out the names of all the parishes in West Somerset are listed in alphabetical order in a ring.

Close-up view of the centre of the Minehead analemmatic sundial

Vertical sundial, Stapley Mill

Sundial House, Wheddon Cross

Vertical declining sundial on Sundial House at Wheddon Cross

This sundial dates from c1850.  It shows the hours from 5aqm to 4pm and the half hours are shown by fleur de lys symbols.  The Latin motto shown on it is tempus edax rerum, which means time devours all things.

Lady Smith Memorial Institute/Parish Rooms, Somerton

This vertical sundial was commissioned by Somerton U3A to mark the new millennium and was unveiled on 8th July 2000.  It was made by Peter Walker and features a dragon at the centre. It shows the hours from 7am to 5pm in hours and half hours.

Vertical sundial, St George's Church, Ruishton

The Latin motto engraved at the top of the sundial says "concito gradu", which means "with hurried step".

Scaphe sundials, Church of St Peter & St Paul, Bleadon

Vertical sundial on Ilminster Old Grammar School

This sundial is dated 1586.  The Latin motto above it says "Sic transeunt dies tui", which means "So passeth your days".

Vertical sundial above the porch of St Augustine's Church, West Monkton

This sundial is dated 1725

Vertical declining sundial, St Leonard's Church, Otterford

The inscription carved above the sundial says "Our Days on the Earth are as a Shadow".  It is dated 1826.

Vertical sundial, St Mary's Church, Norton-sub-Hamdon

It has the motto "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi" (Thus passes the glory of the world) inscribed above the gnomon and also has the date 1711 carved on it.

Horizontal sundial in the Dunster Village Garden

Horizontal sundial in the Garden of Remembrance at St George's Church, Bicknoller

It has the date 9th July 2010 carved on the gnomon.

Horizontal sundial, Victorian shrubbery, Hestercombe Gardens

Horizontal sundial, Marine Cove Gardens, Burnham-on-Sea

This sundial was unveiled in March 2021.  It was made by Wells Cathedral stonemasons and replaced an early one, which was damaged beyond repair by vandals.

Vertical dial over the porch door of St Nicholas's Church in Brushford

This sundial is a memorial to William Wood.  It shows the hours from 6am to 6pm, with 30, 15 and 5 minute intervals shown.  The motto Memor esto brevis aevi, which means "Bear in mind how short life is" is inscribed on it.

Market Cross, Ilchester

This is made of Ham stone and also features a weather vane and a sundial at the top of a Doric column.  The original sundial dated from 1792.  This was damaged in a gale in 1990 and was replaced in 1991.  The original motto was indecipherable and the current one is tempus orbis.

Holy Trinity Church, Burrington

This vertical sundial has the motto "Life is but a shadow" carved below it. It was apparently a gift from John Addington of Langford Court.

Vertical sundial, St Mary's Church, Cossington

Vertical sundial, St Lawrence's Church, Lydeard St Lawrence

IHTS Wardnes 1653 is written around the gnomon.