Crook Peak and Wavering Down on the Mendip Hills in Somerset.

Crook Peak stands at the western end of the Mendip Hills in Somerset.  At 627 ft. in height it is a prominent rocky feature overlooking the M5 and A38 with tremendous far reaching views to all points of the compass.  In 2011 I made several trips to Crook Peak by approaching it across Wavering Down.  I found the National Trust car park at Kings Wood, just a few yards west of the A38 at Winscombe Hill, the most convenient starting point.

It is best to allow an entire afternoon for the walk as at any spot on the entire route one is tempted to just sit down and enjoy a view of England’s green and pleasant land unfolding before you. 

From the car park walk up the steadily rising ground through the wood and you will emerge onto Cross Plain.  Carry on past Hill Farm – its residents must have one of the finest outlooks in Somerset - and follow the track up the hill to the trig point on Wavering Down.  I found this section of the walk the most difficult: although dry the track was rutted and pitted presumably as a result of past heavy rain and frequent use.  On reaching the trig point, at a height of 692 ft., I usually stopped for a much needed breather, but there are views to enjoy while doing so.

Crook Peak on the Mendip Hills in Somerset, viewed from Wavering Down.

The view toward Glastonbury Tor from Wavering Down on the Mendip Hills in Somerset.

Keeping the drystone wall to your right head on across Wavering Down toward Crook Peak, but don’t forget to look down  on the picturesque village of Compton Bishop and its church of St. Andrew.

On reaching Crook Peak - it is almost like standing on the prow of a ship - you will see not only the hills and fields of Somerset stretching away in all directions, but also the Bristol Channel, Severn Estuary and the coast of Wales.  

A view of the M5 from Crook Peak on the Mendip Hills in Somerset.

The view to the south-west from Crook Peak on the Mendip Hills in Somerset.

I always came across cattle, sheep and ponies on my walks so be aware if taking your dog with you!

Cattle graze on Wavering Down on the Mendip Hills in Somerset.

Viewing the "Letters" columns. Another opinion on burying the A303 in a tunnel at Stonehenge in Wiltshire.

The various arguments over burying the A303 in a tunnel at Stonehenge usually focus on cost, the effect on the landscape or the design and route of the tunnel.  However, putting the A303 out of sight of Stonehenge will deny travellers a glimpse of one of England's most, if not the most, ancient structures.  Is it right to deprive millions of such an historic view?

My favourite memory of  Stonehenge is of seeing it rising ghostlike above a low mist on an early summer's morning while driving east on the A303.  So, I have great sympathy with the opinions expressed in the letter below which appeared in the The Week on 17th February.


 Don't Hide the Henge.

To The Guardian.
    

One of the childhood experiences that vividly opened my mind to the narratives of British history, culture and geography was the view of Stonehenge from my parents’ traffic-jammed car on the A303.  It has imprinted itself and, in the poetic life of the subconscious, offers myriad insights, emotions and questions.  A tunnel will deny all future generations the opportunity to simply see Stonehenge, to “feel” it in the landscape of childhood and to allow it to seep into their thoughts.  The tunnel will give English Heritage a cash-cow monopoly, and turn history into a consumer product.

Bert Biscoe, Truro, Kernow.

Speeding through a tunnel at Stonehenge, but crawling through South Somerset. The future on the A303?

The consequences of building a tunnel at Stonehenge and a garden town between Yeovilton and Babcary.

The £1.6 billion plan to bury a new dual carriage way section of the A303 in a tunnel at Stonehenge (Western Daily Press, February 8) may or may not come to fruition, but if it does I doubt it will improve journey times to and from the south west.  I suspect any time saved by a road tunnel at Stonehenge will be lost due the proposed new “garden town” of 15,000 homes straddling the A303 between Yeovilton and Babcary.  It will bring with it thousands of additional car owners many of whom will, of necessity, need to use the A303. 

If both plans are realised road traffic will hurtle westward past Stonehenge only to come to a crawl 40 miles down the road as citizens of South Somerset’s new “garden town” join the A303 while going about their daily affairs. 

Meanwhile, according to the 2017 Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance Survey from the Road Surface Treatments Association there is a national backlog of pothole repairs costing £12.6 billion.  Furthermore, the RAC Foundation reports almost 3,500 council maintained road bridges are sub-standard and £934 million would need to be spent restoring them.  Rather than use £1.6 billion trying to “reconnect the World Heritage landscape” at Stonehenge, surely it would be a better use of taxpayers’ money to spend it on helping maintain existing roads.

Viewing the "Letters" columns. Devolution in the UK; "We poor saps the English are just the mugs who pay for it."

I came across a letter, from a Peter Burns, which was published in the Bath Chronicle on 25th January this year.  Although I am not familiar with the views on devolution held by Wera Hobhouse, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, I fully sympathise with the tone of Mr. Burns' comments.

We supposedly live in a United Kingdom where one would assume all are treated equally, but we are not!

I reproduce Mr. Burns' letter below.

We English are treated as second class.

We read many reports in the Chronicle from our MP Wera Hobhouse, especially on her blatant anti-Brexit views, but when does Ms Hobhouse ever mention us poor downtrodden English? 

The rest of the UK has forms of devolution; we poor saps the English are just the mugs who pay for it.

Why is it fair that English university students have to burden themselves with huge debt and the Scottish student gets away with it (excuse the pun) scotfree? If we are a United Kingdom of equals, how can this be? Ms Hobhouse is an English MP and never once have I heard her mention the rights of us English. Does Ms Hobhouse consider we English have any rights? Or is she one of those MPs who considers herself to be a member of parliament for the whole of the United Kingdom?

Thereby lies the anomaly; we English have no representative body to represent our interests yet English wealth predominantly gives the Scots the opportunity for their own parliament to give such perks as free university education and free prescriptions. This is simply not fair. What is Ms Hobhouse’s view on we English being second-class citizens and what is the Liberal Democrat policy on bringing England equal status with the rest of the United Kingdom?

Peter Burns, Lower Weston.

 

The English and Bristol Channels' ship canal. An ambitious 19th century scheme to link Stolford in Somerset and Beer in Devonshire.

Until I read Somerset Mapped (Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society in association with Halsgrove Publishing, 2016) by Emma Down and Adrian Webb I had never heard of the ambitious scheme to link the Bristol Channel and English Channel by constructing a ship canal between Stolford in Somerset and Beer in Devonshire

The idea first came about in 1768, but it was not until James Green, under the supervision of Thomas Telford, surveyed the route in 1824 that the project became a serious proposal.  In 1825 an Act of Parliament gave the scheme the go-ahead, but although 600 subscribers came forward by 1828 the estimated cost of £1,712,844 had not been raised and the canal never saw the light of day.

The ship canal would have had new docks and harbours at Stolford and Beer.  From Stolford on the coast of the Bristol Channel the canal was planned to pass close to Bridgwater and east of Taunton then on through Somerset skirting the Blackdown Hills between Ilminster and Chard before entering Devonshire to end at Beer.  Building new docks and a harbour at Beer might have been feasible, but I am curious to know how a canal would have negotiated the high cliffs and steep hills surrounding that picturesque little coastal village – no doubt Georgian and Victorian engineers could have found a way!     

A view of the beach at Beer in Devonshire looking west toward Beer Head.

The beach at Beer in Devonshire on the English Channel coast.

  

Robin Tilbrook, Chairman of the English Democrats, asks if the British Political Establishment operates a Cartel. Or should that be a gerrymandering Cartel?

In a recent article on his blog Robin Tilbrook, Chairman of the English Democrats, asks if the British Political Establishment operates as a cartel.  It may or may not do so, but the British system of electing members to the House of Commons has certainly produced some outcomes which would have raised eyebrows had they happened in third world African countries or South American banana republics.  Examining the results of the UK General Election in 2015 would have a visitor from Mars wondering what British parliamentary democracy was all about!

In that election the DUP received 184,260 votes and won 8 seats in Westminster, the Liberal Democrats also won 8 seats although they needed 2,415,916 votes to do so.  The SNP received 1,454,436 votes and won 56 seats while UKIP received well over twice that number of votes at 3,881,099 yet won only 1 seat. 

Our visitor from Mars might think some pretty heavy gerrymandering was needed to produce such outrageously unfair results.  Obviously some people’s votes are worth a lot more than others!

Incidentally, in the 2009 EU Parliamentary Election, which used a form of Proportional Representation, Plaid Cymru won 1 seat after receiving 126,702 votes, but the English Democrats had no seats at all after receiving more than twice as many votes - 279,801 to be precise - than the Welsh nationalists.

Be that as it may, below is a link to Robin Tilbrook’s article examining whether the British Political Establishment operates a Cartel.

http://robintilbrook.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/is-uks-political-british-establishment.html