The Tunnels, Ashley Combe, Porlock Weir

As you climb up the South West Coast Path from Porlock Weir to Culbone Church, you pass through two short tunnels.  These were once part of the grand Italian garden at Ashley Combe House.  The house was originally built in 1799 as a hunting lodge.

Lord Byron (the poet) married Anne Isabella (known as Annabella) Milbanke in January 1815.  Their daughter, Augusta Ada (known as Ada) was born on 10th December 1815.  In 1816 Annabella left Lord Byron and Ada was brought up solely by her mother, who was particularly interested in mathematics.  She ensured that Ada was schooled in maths and science.  In 1823 Ada and her mother moved to a house on The Beacon in Exmouth.  The house is now known as Byron Court.

In 1833 Ada was introduced to Charles Babbage, who was Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University.  He showed her his calculating machine, the 'Difference Engine'.

In 1835 Ada married William King, who was later created the 1st Earl Lovelace.  He owned Ashley Combe House and using some of the considerable fortune that Ada brought with her, he enlarged and improved Ashley Combe House and developed the gardens, both in the Italian style.  The tunnels were constructed so that tradesmen could approach the tradesmen's entrance of the house without being seen by the residents of the house.  A clocktower was added to the house in 1837.

The gardens were a series of terraces linked by spiral staircases.  A large number of trees were planted and a woodland walk was developed with a series of steps leading down to the sea where a bath house was built into the cliff, so that Ada could bathe in private.  The terraces were known by the family as the 'Philosophers' Walk' because it was here that Ada and Charles Babbage are reputed to have walked while discussing the mathematical principles behind the 'Difference Engine'. 

Although the 'Difference Engine' was not finished. Babbage began work on another calculating machine, which he called an 'Analytical Engine'.  He gave an account of his work on it at a seminar in Turin in 1840.  In 1841 the Italian Louis Meanbrea published a report on the 'Analytical Engine' in French, which Babbage asked Ada to translate into English.  Ada added her own extensive notes to the translation and it is for these notes that Ada is best known.  Her notes included what is regarded to be the world's first computer program.

Ada and William had three children: Byron, Annabella and Ralph Gordon.  Their main home was at Ockham Park in Surrey but they used Ashley Combe House as their summer retreat.  In 1852 Ada died of cancer.  She was buried next to her father in the parish church at Hucknall in Nottinghamshire.  Her youngest son, Ralph, inherited Ashley Combe House.  His wife Mary (nee Wortley), who was a trained architect, planted more trees and redesigned the gardens, the main house and the estate cottages with the assistance of her friend Charles Voysey, who was an architect in the Arts and Crafts style.

In 1939 Ashley Combe House was leased to Dr Barnardo's and they used it as a nursery during the Second World War.  In 1950 it became a Country Club but it developed a dubious reputation and was closed after a few years.  The house fell into a state of disrepair and was demolished in 1974.

Short tunnel on the South West Coast Path

 

Longer tunnel on the SW Coast Path

 

Tunnel with collapsed roof?

Ashley Combe Lodge, now the Toll House for the Worthy Toll Road

It was built in the late 19th century in the Arts and Crafts picturesque style.

Byron Court, The Beacon, Exmouth

Thankful Villages

Thankful Villages are those places where all the people, who left their homes to serve their country in the armed forces during the First World War, returned alive.  The term "Thankful Villages" was coined and popularised by the author Arthur Mee in his series of books published in the 1930s about every English county, called The King's England. 

There are 53 Thankful Villages in England.  14 of these are doubly thankful, as all their residents, who left them to serve their country in the Second World War, also returned home safely.  The term "Blessed Villages" is sometimes used as an alternative to thankful

There are 8 Thankful Villages in the current county of Somerset: Rodney Stoke, Shapwick, Tellisford, Chantry, Aisholt, Stocklinch, Holywell Lake (Thorne St Margaret) and Lamyatt (added to the official list in 2022).  There are two more in Bath and North East Somerset: Woolley and Chelwood.  Stocklinch and Woolley are doubly thankful villages.  This is a higher number than in any other English county.

Rodney Stoke - proud to be a Thankful Village

 

St Leonard's Church, Rodney Stoke

Thanksgiving Window, Rodney Stoke

Rodney Stoke's Roll of Honour

This lists the names of the residents of the village who served in the First World War and who all returned home safely.

 

  St Mary's Church, Shapwick

 Shapwick's Roll of Honour and Thankful Village Plaque

 Stocklinch Church

 Stocklinch's Rolls of Service

 Stocklinch's Thankful Village Plaque

All Saints Church, Tellisford

Holy Trinity Church, Chantry

 

 Chantry's Thankful Village Plaque

St Margaret's Church, Holywell Lake

 

All Saints Church, Aisholt

Aisholt's Roll of Honour

Chelwood's village sign

Plaque by the door of Chelwood's village hall

I don't know if there is any mention of Chelwood being a thankful village in St Leonard's Church in Chelwood, because it was locked up when I visited in July 2025.

Church of St Mary & St John, Lamyatt

War memorial?, Lamyatt

I couldn't find any acknowledgement in the parish church or village hall that Lamyatt is a Thankful Village.

Gawbridge Mill's Hole in the Wall

One of the buildings at Gawbridge Mill, which is located on the River Parrett and on the road between Coat and East Lambrook, has a round hole about 4 feet of the ground, which was built into the brick wall when it was originally constructed.  According to the book Curious Somerset by Derek Warren, it is an access hole for cats, so that they could get inside the mill and kill any rats or mice: the rodents were unable to climb up the wall to get in through the hole.  However the current owners of the mill have confirmed that it is in fact a "pay hole" into the pay office.  Mill workers were handed their wages through the hole up until the 1950s.  

The current Gawbridge Mill, which was powered by water from the River Parrett, dates from the 18th century.  It was in use as a mill until the 1960s.

The pay hole is clearly visible from the public road.  I zoomed in with my camera to take the photograph from the road.   Grid reference: ST 443 196

 Pay hole

 Pay hole in context

Gawbridge Mill

Village Signs

Almost all Norfolk villages and many in Suffolk, Essex, Sussex, Kent and Cambridgeshire have signs which depict aspects of the history of the village. The tradition was reputedly started by King Edward VII, who suggested them to encourage village residents to appreciate and take an interest in their villages.  The first signs were erected in the villages on the Sandringham Estate in West Norfolk.  The tradition was continued by Kings George V and VI.  Since then the Queen's Coronation, Silver, Gold and Diamond Jubilees and the millennium have been reasons for many more villages to commission their own signs. Older signs were often carved from wood or made of iron.  Some more modern signs are made from polyurethane, glass reinforced plastic or aluminium.  Most are painted in bright colours.

There are now about 4,000 village signs across the country. However in Somerset interesting village signs are extremely thin on the ground.  These are the only ones I have found so far:

Rode

Rode's village sign is closest in style to those in East Anglia

 Chew Stoke

Chew Stoke is in Bath & North East Somerset

 Long Ashton

Long Ashton is in North Somerset

 Shipham

 Shipham

North Newton's lock gate village sign

The Bridgwater and Taunton Canal runs to the east of the village

West Camel

Norton-sub-Hamdon

 Sign made from local Ham Stone and depicting the village's dovecote

Ash near Martock

This sign is made from local Ham Stone and depicts the parish church.

Milborne Port

Othery's millennium village sign

Some recently replaced council town and village signs now include images of notable local landmarks e.g. the market cross on Cheddar's sign

Brent Knoll - it was also previously known as the Mount of Frogs, hence the frogs on the sign

Stoke St Mary's village sign has a small stained glass window incorporated into it

It was erected to commemorate the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002.

Porlock

Cannington

West Monkton 

This has a picture of a heron or an egret and a swingbridge on the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal on it

These are some examples of some typical Norfolk village signs:

Bodham



Little Snoring 

Great Snoring

Cedar Avenue, Butleigh

The origins and purpose of the long avenue of cedar trees to the north west of the village of Butleigh seem to be unclear. It has been suggested that it was planted to link Butleigh Court with the Hood Monument.  However its SSE/WSW alignment does not link the two places.  The avenue extends for almost a mile.  The only access to the western half is by a public footpath, which crosses the middle of the section at right angles.  On the eastern side of Sub Road, which cuts through the middle of the avenue, is a public road called Cedar Avenue at the western end and Cedar Walk at the eastern end.  The Cedar Walk section of the road does not have any cedar trees lining it.

The book Butleigh: a thousand years of a Somerset parish by The Reverend E.F. Synge (published by Butleigh PCC in 1974) devotes only two sentences to the Cedar Avenue:

"George (Neville-Grenville) was probably the planter of the cedar avenue.  At any rate the Tithe map of 1830 does not show it, though the 1854 one does."

Today the Cedar Avenue is looking worse for wear.  Some of the original trees have died and been removed.  Many of the others are well past their prime and some are clearly dying.  However a large number of replacement trees have been planted and protected with large tree guards.  I presume these have been planted by the current owners of Butleigh Court.

Butleigh Court was built in 1845 by JC Buckler for Henry Neville-Grenville on the site of an earlier house.  It became derelict in the mid-20th century but was restored in 1975 and converted into three dwellings.  It was built in the Tudor Gothic style of the local blue lias stone dressed with Bath stone.

Western side of the Cedar Avenue

Tapestry Panel in St Leonard's Church, Butleigh

Butleigh Court from the village cricket pitch

 Eastern side of the Cedar Avenue
 showing original and more recent replacement trees