A stroll around the Somerset village of Stoke St. Mary and its Church of St. Mary.

The village of Stoke St. Mary in Somerset lies comfortably sheltered in the shadow of the northern slopes of the Blackdown Hills.

Agriculture was once the main provider of work in the village, but now it is primarily a dormitory village for the county town of Taunton which is only 2 miles away to the north-west.

Sadly the last pub in the village, the Half Moon Inn, is closed and up for sale. It is a fine red-brick building and was formerly a manse. When I strolled by on the road through the village it was looking rather forlorn with its outside seating area showing signs of neglect.

Stoke St. Mary's only pub, the Half Moon Inn, was closed when I passed by in September 2021.

By contrast the unpretentious village Church of St. Mary has a very well cared for graveyard.  Pevsner kindly describes St. Mary’s as having a: “Good two-staged C13 w tower.  One w lancet and an uncommonly vigorously moulded tower arch.  The chancel arch also has shafts and capitals of the C13.”

The Church of St. Mary in the Somerset village of Stoke St. Mary.

In the churchyard is the devotedly tended Commonwealth War Grave of Sapper Alexander James Bussell, Royal Engineers, who died on 21 March 1947, aged 27.  He was the son of Samuel and Helen Bussell of Stoke St. Mary, and the husband of Gladys Hazel Bussell of Taunton.  The touching inscription on the gravestone, not visible in the photo, reads “THOUGHTS DRIFT BACK TO BYGONE DAYS LIFE MOVES ON BUT MEMORY STAYS”.

The Commonwealth War Grave of Sapper Alexander James Bussell, Royal Engineers.