A stroll around St. Michael and All Angels Church in the South Somerset village of Chaffcombe.

The village of Chaffcombe and its Church of St. Michael and All Angels is north east of the South Somerset town of Chard.  I approached it from the A358, driving past Chard Reservoir and on along ever narrowing country lanes until the road took me down into a sheltered valley where it seems most of the village houses have found a haven.

In the last century Arthur Mee in his The King’s England, Somerset (Hodder and Stoughton Ltd. 1968) writes of Chaffcombe: “It hides its charms among hills wooded with oak and larch, with a paved way up one of them through a tiny orchard to the church. We found it in apple-blossom time, and saw the creeper-covered tower between pink trees, a lovely memory.”

Today, the creeper has gone from the tower and the orchard on the approach to the church is no more, but standing beside the church gate, as if on guard, is an intriguing totem-pole-like wood carving – an awful lot of care must have gone into its making.  The churchyard has been left overgrown and meadow-like in places, something the blackbirds seem to appreciate as there were several busily scurrying around and hopping on and off the gravestones.

Approaching the Church of St. Michael and All Angels in the village of Chaffcombe, Somerset.

The Church of St. Michael and All Angels in Chaffcombe, Somerset.  Note the blackbird on the path!

Pevsner has very little to say about St. Michael and All Angels.  In his day it was just St. Michael’s.  He describes the exterior of the church as having a “West tower with set-back buttresses and two pinnacles above them on the corner of the battlements.  Higher stair-turret.  The church was rebuilt in 1860 by F. M. Allen.”

The tower of S. Michael and All Angels in the South Somerset village of Chaffcombe.

I came across some interesting, and poignant, gravestones in the churchyard.  On the headstone of Major Edward Noel "Teddy" Clist R.A. were the noble words “Always a Soldier”.  Major Clist was born in Dulverton, Somerset and died in Malvern, Worcestershire.

The grave of Major Edward Noel "Teddy" Clist R.A. and his wife Beatrice "Betty".

A tall square simple stone column marks the grave of Emanuel Vincent Harris, often more simply known as E. Vincent Harris.  He was a distinguished architect and Royal Academician who was born in Devonport in 1876 and died in Bath in 1971.  He was thought of as a classicist and his buildings suggest the influence of Sir Edwin Lutyens.  Many prominent public buildings were designed by him, before and after World War Two, including: Bristol Council House, County Hall Taunton, Sheffield City Hall, Nottingham County Hall, Leeds Civic Hall, Kensington Central Library in London, and the Ministry of Defence Main Building in Whitehall.

The headstone of Emanuel Vincent Harris. Architect and Royal Academician.

Just to the west of the church tower is the headstone of Sgt Richard Morley Neale RAFVR.  Although the commemoration states that Sgt Neale was killed in action he did, in fact, die as a result of an accident.  He was serving in No. 15 Operational Training Unit at RAF Harwell in Berkshire while under training as an observer/air bomber.

On March 26 1941 Sgt Neale and the 5 other crew members of a twin engine Wellington Mk1c (serial number R1243) took off from RAF Harwell on a 4 hour training mission which included the dropping of munitions in Cardigan Bay.  At 1130 observers on the Welsh coast saw the Wellington approach from the east and fly out over Cardigan Bay where it entered sea fog.  The aircraft was then seen to crash about one and a half miles from the coast.  Rescue boats were despatched, but just 2 members of the crew were found; only one, Sgt Neale, was alive, but sadly he died later that day.

Richard Morley Neale was the only son of Mr Morley Havelock Neale and his wife Ida Walker Neale.  He attended Chard Grammar School, and then Sherborne School (Abbeylands) in Dorsetshire from 1933 until December 1937.*

Sgt Neale’s headstone also has the following touching verse included in his epitaph:

NOW EVERY BIRD HE LOVED BY WOOD OR WAVE

SING SWEET THE REQUIEM ABOVE HIS GRAVE

KINDEST OF HEARTS GENTLEST OF GENTLEMEN

*Source aircrewremembered.com

The headstone of Sgt Richard Morley Neale, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.