The Admiral Hood Monument near Butleigh in the parish of Compton Dundon, Somerset.

Whenever I drive up the B3151 to Street my attention is drawn to the Admiral Hood Monument rising above the treetops on the wooded hillsides north and east of the village of Compton Dundon.  Having never visited the Monument, a couple of weeks ago I decided to take a closer look.

At the crossroads at the crest of Collard Hill I turned right off the B3151 and followed the road through the woods and along the ridge which forms the south eastern extremity of the Polden Hills.  I parked in a convenient lay-by on Collard Hill and set off in a south easterly direction along a public footpath.  I soon came upon open ground which gave picturesque views over Compton Dundon to Dundon Hill and Lollover Hill and beyond Somerton Moor to Ham Hill.  I now had a clear view of the Hood Monument rising above the trees and followed the footpath towards it.  After crossing a tarmac lane I entered thick woodland where the path twisted and turned up a very steep hillside – 5 steps at a time for an asthmatic like me – and suddenly came upon a small clearing and the Monument.

The Admiral Hood Monument on Windmill Hill near Butleigh in the parish of Compton Dundon in Somerset.

Standing amongst the trees on Windmill Hill, the Monument is a Tuscan column on a square plinth* 110 feet high.  It was paid for by public subscription and built in 1831 to a design by architect Henry Goodridge.  Atop the column are stone carvings of the decorative sterns and billowing sails of Napoleonic-era warships. 

Stone carvings atop the Admiral Hood Monument.

From the foot of the Monument the view of the surrounding countryside is obscured by trees to the east and west and bushes to the south.  However, to the north an avenue between the trees allows a dramatic view of Glastonbury Tor, just over three miles away, and to the Mendip Hills on the horizon.  

The view of Glastonbury Tor and the Mendip Hills from the foot of the Admiral Hood Monument.

Sir Samuel Hood played a major part in the Battle of the Nile on August 1st 1798, perhaps the most significant action of his career.  In command of HMS ZEALOUS he accompanied HMS GOLIATH, commanded by Thomas Foley, which led the attack on the French fleet in Aboukir Bay.

Hood and Foley were members of Nelson’s “Band of Brothers”, a phrase coined by Nelson to describe his Captains when writing his despatches after the Battle of the Nile.

At the time of the Battle of Trafalgar Hood was recovering from the loss of his right arm.  His elbow had been shattered by a musket ball while, in command of HMS CENTAUR, he led a successful action against 5 French frigates off Rochefort on 25^th September 1805.  Keen to return to active service he declined commands ashore and went back to sea, once again aboard HMS CENTAUR, in 1807.

Hood died of malaria in Madras on 24^th December 1814 while Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Fleet.

An illustrious naval family.

Sir Samuel Hood, to whom the Hood Monument is dedicated, should not be confused with his cousin Samuel Hood, Viscount Hood.  Viscount Hood had a long and distinguished career in the Royal Navy which included commands during the American War of Independence.  He was also present at the Battle of the Saintes, an action in 1782 which decisively removed the threat of a French and Spanish invasion of Jamaica and repaired the Royal Navy’s reputation after a series of American and French victories.  Viscount Hood’s younger brother Alexander Hood, Viscount Bridport, also had a long career in the Royal Navy including being second in command to Lord Howe during the battle of The Glorious First of June.  The battle, in 1794, was fought 400 miles west of Ushant when a Royal Navy fleet of 25 ships captured or put out of action 7 ships of a French fleet of 26.  Both sides claimed success as a large merchant convoy under the protection of the French fleet escaped unscathed. 

Sir Samuel Hood had two brothers who also served in the Royal Navy.  Arthur Hood was lost at sea in the sloop HMS POMONA in August 1776 during a hurricane in the West Indies.  Captain Alexander Hood was mortally wounded on April 2^nd 1798 while in command of HMS MARS during a bloody but victorious battle with the French ‘74’ HERCULE near the Pointe du Raz off the coast of Brittany.

In 1916 Rear Admiral Sir Horace Hood, the great-great-grandson of Viscount Hood, was in command of the Third Battlecruiser Squadron at the Battle of Jutland and was among those lost when his flagship HMS INVINCIBLE was hit in a magazine and blew up.  On August 22nd 1918 his widow Ellen, Lady Hood, christened and launched the majestic battlecruiser HMS HOOD which was later to be sunk by the magnificent German battleship BISMARCK on the 24th May 1941 during the Battle of the Denmark Strait.




*Inscription on plinth.

North East side.

In memory of Sir Samuel Hood, Baronet, Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath and nominated Grand Cross thereof,  Knight of St Ferdinand and of Merit.  Knight Grand Order of the Sword.  Vice Admiral of the White and Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty’s Fleet in the East Indies.

North West side.

An officer of the highest distinction among the illustrious men who rendered their own age the brightest period in the naval history of their country. 

South West side.

This monument is dedicated to their late Commander by the attachment and reverence of British Officers of whom many were his admiring followers in the awful scenes of war in which while they call forth the grandest quality of human nature in him likewise gave occasion for the exercise of its most amiable virtues.  He died at Madras December 24th 1814.