Pumping Station, Firepool, Taunton

This pumping station is located between the railway and the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal at Firepool Lock in Taunton. Its purpose was to pump water from the canal into steam trains.  It was built on top of two lime kilns.  The lime kilns were built of grey lias stone and can clearly be seen underneath the pumping house. The red brick pumping house was built by Thomas Poole of Wellington sometime after 1866 when the canal and limekilns were bought by the Bristol and Exeter Railway Company. In 1877 a steel water tank with a capacity of 63,400 gallons was built on top of it.  

The pumping station became disused with the transition to diesel power in the 1960s.   There used to be additional railway lines much closer to it but I understand that these were removed in the 1980s.  The Northern Inner Distributor Road now separates the pumping station from the railway.  The road, which took four years to complete, finally opened to traffic in the summer of 2017.

As part of the redevelopment of the Firepool Lock area, there are plans to convert the pumping station into a café and restaurant.  I'll believe it when I see it!  It is a listed building, which has presumably saved it from demolition.

Update May 2020 - the pumping station is still derelict but it now has blocks of flats on either side of it.  A new cycle and footpath has been built on the northern side of the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, so it is now possible to get closer to the pumping station.

Firepool Pumping Station from the canal

Firepool Pumping House from the railway side
 

The wording which can still be seen on the side of the pumping house says "British Railways.  Taunton Freight Concentration Depot."  I'm not entirely sure what a freight concentration depot is but I presume today it would probably be described as "logistics".  Taunton was designated a freight concentration depot in 1963 and remained one until 1972 when it was closed due to competition from road transport.

Pumping Station, May 2020

Pumping Station, May 2020

Routes to the River Tone - North Taunton Murals

The North Taunton Art Trail consists of 4 very large murals of 4 native wild animals, all of which are currently declining in numbers: bees, water voles, bats and hedgehogs.  All 4 murals were painted in August 2015 by Brazilian artist Louis Masai.  They are part of Somerset Wildlife Trust's Routes to the River Tone Project and were done in conjunction with Somerset Art Works.

Two water voles are located on the side of the Priorswood Co-operative store in Eastwick Road; the bees are on the side wall of the fish and chip shop on the corner of Cheddon Road and Wedlands; the bat is on the side of a house in Grange Drive (the Lyngford Road end) and the hedgehog is on the side of a bungalow down a service road where Wedlands meets Grange Drive.

I don't think the North Taunton Art Trail has been particularly well publicised, as I live in the same part of Taunton and had not heard any mention of it, until a chance comment by a colleague a few days ago. Admittedly I am not an avid reader of the Somerset County Gazette.

More information about the Routes to the River Tone Project, which has the aim of "connecting local people with the amazing wildlife of Taunton's waterways" can be found here:
http://www.somersetwildlife.org/routestotherivertone

 

 

Fish and Chip Shop, Cheddon Road

 No food for bees, no food for humans

 Hedgehog

"Hedgehog decline. 36 million to less than 2 in 60 years."

Hedgehog Close-Up

 I think this is the least realistic of the murals but I do like the flowers in his/her ears!

 

 Water vole no 1, Priorswood Co-op, Eastwick Road

It may look like he has been covered with graffiti but I think it was painted like this. The writing says "9 out of 10 water voles have disappeared in my lifetime."

 Water vole 2

 Bat

I'm not sure what kind of bat this is.  

The writing says "50 million years alive, now endangered."

Woodland Play Zone, Yeovil Country Park

This lovely Woodland Play Zone is located in Yeovil Country Park. It was vandalised in 2013 and 2014 but since I took these photos in October 2015 it has been repaired. There are plenty of benches and some slightly disturbing carved wooden creatures.

 

 Welcome sign

 This chap didn't look overly pleased to see us!

 A fairy grotto?

 This long necked creature  doesn't look to be too friendly either

 Seating Area

 I think this is meant to be a fish of some sort

Dovecotes

Dovecotes were constructed by wealthy people to provide a source of meat (young pigeons) for themselves and their households.  Pigeons can breed up to 5 or 6 times a year, laying one or two eggs each time. The young pigeons are called squabs. They were killed as they were about to fledge at the age of about 4 weeks when their meat was still very tender because their flying muscles had never been used.    The down and feathers were used for bedding and the dung was used to fertilise gardens. 

Most surviving dovecotes in the UK date from the 14th-18th centuries.  They were built of stone, brick or timber and were either free-standing or built into the end of a house or barn. The inside of the dovecote was lined with nesting places for the pigeons - nest-holes if they were built into the solid walls or nest-boxes if they were constructed separately.  Until the 18th century the doorways were small, so that the pigeon keeper could block it with his body as he entered.  In Scotland dovecotes are called doocots.

Many dovecotes were in use until the French Revolutionary Wars began in 1793.  This had the effect of increasing the price of grain, which made it more profitable to sell it than to feed it to the pigeons. By the mid-19th century they had nearly all ceased to be used as dovecotes.  Many of the buildings were adapted for other uses. 
 
Historic dovecotes are not particularly common in Somerset.  These are the ones I have come across so far:

Blackford Dovecote

This dovecote at Blackford Farm near Wootton Courtenay dates from the late medieval period.  The first known mention of it is in a document dated 1393.  The manor house for which it provided meat burnt down in 1875.  The dovecote is built of Devonian sandstone and lime mortar.  The walls are 4 feet thick.  The roof is built of diminishing courses of rubble stone, with a round hole at the apex, through which the pigeons flew in and out. There are 11 rows of nest holes set in an irregular chequerboard pattern.  There were originally 320 nest holes, but only 302 remain.  The others were removed when the doorway was enlarged in the 19th century. The surface of the interior has been lime-washed. The dovecote was given to the National Trust, as part of the Holnicote estate, by Sir Richard Acland in 1946.

Interior of Blackford Dovecote

 Bruton Dovecote

Bruton Dovecote was probably converted from an earlier building (possibly a house) in the 16th century.  It is now roofless and was acquired by the National Trust in 1915.  It is the biggest surviving dovecote in Somerset.  It has 200 nest holes

Bruton Dovecote

 Dunster

Dunster Dovecote was originally built in the 13th century as part of Dunster Priory.  After the dissolution of the monastery in 1539 the land was purchased by the Luttrell family.  The current building dates from the late 16th century.  It has a revolving ladder inside, which was the means by which the squabs were removed from their nests.

 Inside Duster Dovecote

Dunster

 Stogursey

This dovecote was once part of the Benedictine Priory at Stogursey, which was founded c1100 and dissolved c1442.  The priory church also survives as the current parish church.  The dovecote was originally medieval but was rebuilt in 1925 apart from the steps.

 Shapwick

This dovecote is located in the grounds of Shapwick Manor, which is on the west side of Station Road in Shapwick.  It was originally built in the medieval period but was rebuilt in the 18th or 19th centuries and was re-roofed in the 20th century.

 

 

Norton-sub-Hamdon 

The dovecote is located in the churchyard.

 Stoke-sub-Hamdon Priory

This is as close to the roofless dovecote as you can get without trespassing

West Camel

West Camel's dovecote is located on private land and this was the best photo I could get of it from the road.  It might be a bit more visible in the winter when the leaves are not on the trees.

 Lytes Cary 

This is not a dovecote but a water tower designed to look like a dovecote.

Replica dovecote at The Newt in Somerset near Castle Cary

Replica dovecote at The Newt in Somerset

Priory Dovecote at Abbey Farm, Montacute

This dovecote, which is built from Ham stone, probably dates from the 17th century, but may have originated in the 15th century. 

Entrance door to the columbarium, St Michael's Church, Compton Martin

In about 1600 the roof of the chancel of St Michael's Church in Compton Martin was raised to create a columbarium or dovecote.  This was rare in a church.  It would have housed about 140 pigeons for the Rector of the time to eat. The only record of its use was in 1605.

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