The South Somerset village Church of St. John and All Saints at Kingstone, and its memorials and epitaphs.

Kingstone’s village church of St. John and All Saints sits surrounded by farm buildings and cottages atop Kingstone Hill around a mile south-east of Ilminster in South Somerset.  It has a central tower where the bell-ringers stand among the worshippers, and a 13^th century font standing in front of the blocked western doorway.

The village Church of St. John and All Saints, Kingstone, South Somerset viewed from the south.

On the north wall of the nave is a plaque commemorating 2^nd Lieutenant John Arnold Munden of the 6^th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry.  He was killed in action at Delville Wood, during the Battle of The Somme, on 28^th August 1916.

Most of the 6^th Battalion SLI withdrew from the front-line on 19^th August to rest and recuperate at Fricourt, but one company was in Delville Wood between the 26^th and 30^th of August.  It appears that Lt. Munden was serving with that company and was killed on the 27^th or 28^th, according to Commonwealth War Graves Commission records.  He was not immediately identified and subsequently buried as an “Unknown British Officer” at Longueval, (Delville Wood).

 In January 1929 his body was exhumed, identified and re-interred at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Serre Road, north-east of Albert.  John Arnold Munden was the 28 year old youngest son of Doctor Charles Munden and Lucy Jane Munden of Ilminster.

The fine stained glass window in the east of the church is in memory of the wives of a local man.  The dedication reads:

“To the glory of God & in memory of Anne Elizabeth who died March 1899 and of Florence Honor who died June 1922. the beloved wives of John Daniel Rutter of Allowenshay. 1924.”

The stained glass east window of St. John and All Saints Church, Kingstone, South Somerset.

Just inside the western wall of the churchyard is a gravestone with an epitaph to Edward (Bob) Gummer who died in 1984 aged 85 having been “THE LAST TENANT OF KINGSTONE FARM 1938-1978”.

Near the south wall is the gravestone of a man with the wonderful name of Zechariah Chick who died at Allowenshay, a hamlet less than a mile east of Kingstone, on March 29^th 1886 aged 84.  Also named are his wife Eliza who died on January 9^th 1901 aged 72, and their sons William Albert Chick who died aged 26 in 1880 and Zechariah Chick who died aged 43 in 1905.

 

The gravestone of Zechariah Chick, St. John and All Saints Church, Kingstone, South Somerset.

Also in the churchyard at Kingstone is a memorial stone commemorating Squadron Leader Sinclair ‘Tif’ O’Connor Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Force Cross, Air Force Medal, who served with RAF Bomber Command’s 49 Squadron during Operation Grapple – the testing of hydrogen bombs.

On 11 September 1958, while holding the rank of Flight Lieutenant, he was pilot and captain of the Vickers Valiant jet bomber (XD827) which dropped a hydrogen bomb on Christmas Island in the Pacific during Operation Grapple Z.

The memorial stone records Sinclair O’Connor’s birth on 26-5-1922 and death on 21-3-2013.

St. John and All Saints Church, Kingstone, South Somerset viewed from the east.

I have previously written, link below, of Lieutenant Arthur Hopkins Tett a Canadian who served in the Boer War and World War One.  His is the only Commonwealth War grave at St. John and All Saints.  He is at rest beneath the branches of a yew.

Views from Somerset: Lieutenant A. H. Tett, a Canadian who served in The Boer War and The Great War. At rest at St. John and All Saints Church in the Somerset village of Kingstone. (viewfromsomerset.blogspot.com)

The Somerset village of Dinder and its Church of St. Michael.

The sleepy Somerset village of Dinder lies tucked away in the southern foothills of the Mendips.  It is but a short drive off the road between Wells and Shepton Mallet, and this summer I took the opportunity to explore it.  Dinder does not appear to have changed much since members of The Women’s Institute described it 35 years ago.

The Somerset Village Book (Countryside Books, 1988) compiled by The Somerset Federation of Women’s Institutes provides this charming chronicle of the village.

“The little village of Dinder, with its 150 inhabitants, lies in the valley between Wells and Shepton Mallet.  It is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Denrenn, meaning ‘in a valley deep between high hills’ – an apt description because Doulting Water, or River Sheppey, rushes along one boundary, and the Mendip Hills rise steeply on either side.

It has been an agricultural village, and it is known that clothing was made here in the 18^th century when there was a leather mill.  An old forge provided services in the main street, in a house still bearing that name.  Along this street the river has been partially diverted to form a wide leat of running water in which the village people could dip their buckets, and this makes a picturesque foreground for a row of 16^th century gabled cottages and a former public house which still displays the sign of ‘The Dragon on the Wheel’, being the crest of the local squire.  Two farmhouses and the Victorian school building also overlook the water.”

I parked by the village hall at the western end of the village, and walked down to the Church of St. Michael.  The impressive lych-gate is dedicated to Ellen Somerville while inside the lych-gate is a commemorative plaque dedicated to Arthur Fownes Somerville who died on the 21^st November 1942 at the impressive age of 92.  I would find more memorials to members of the Somerville family both in the churchyard and inside the church.

The lych-gate at St. Michaels Church in the Somerset village of Dinder.

The commemorative plaque to Arthur Fownes Somerville.  Note the family crest of 'The Dragon on the Wheel'.

The approach to Dinder’s Church of St. Michael is beautifully described by Arthur Mee in his The King’s England – Somerset (Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1968).  He writes:

“We walk up the path to the church with its fine north wall across our view, crowned with a parapet from which friendly gargoyles look down at the top of slender buttresses.  Very dainty is the arcading in the battlements, and charming is the tower with its stair turret to the bells”.

The north wall of the Church of St. Michael in the Somerset village of Dinder.

To the left of the path is the family plot of the Somerville family which includes the grave of James Fownes Somerville, Admiral of the Fleet and Squire of Dinder, of whom I have written previously:

Views from Somerset: Admiral Sir James Somerville, commander of Force H, the squadron which crippled the Bismarck, at rest in a Somerset churchyard in the village of Dinder. (viewfromsomerset.blogspot.com)

 

On the north wall of the nave is a brass plaque commemorating William Charles Croom a 2^nd Lieutenant in the 6^th London Regiment who was killed in action at Messines Ridge on 17th June 1917 when aged 20.  He is also remembered on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium.

Another plaque on the north wall is “in ever grateful memory of the brave men of Dinder who fell in The Great War”.  It lists 6 names.  As well as Lt. William Croom it commemorates the following men:

Private Uriah James Clarke of the Queens Own Oxfordshire Hussars died on 23^rd March 1918.  He is also remembered on the Poziers Memorial north east of Albert.

Private Gilbert Drew of the 1^st Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry who died on the 1^st July 1917 aged 19.  He is at rest in a Commonwealth War Grave in the churchyard.

Private Francis Allen Keevil of “C” Company, 7^th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry died on the 7^th August 1917.  He is remembered on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.  Aged 38, he was the son of Jabez Allen Keevil and Francis Augusta Keevil of Rose Cottage, Dinder.

Private William Robert McCullagh of the 1^st Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry died on 29^th March 1918.  He is remembered on the Arras Memorial.

The last name listed on the plaque is that of George Palmer.  There are 24 “George Palmers” recorded on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website as having died in World War One.  Sadly, I cannot find among them anyone connected to Dinder or the County of Somerset.

Another brass plaque on the north wall of the nave is in memory of Lieutenant Colonel Harold Fownes Somerville DSO who served with The Rifle Brigade during the First World War and died aged 65 on the 19^th March 1946, and his son Lieutenant Mark Fownes Somerville DSC who was killed in action on 8^th May 1941 while serving aboard HMS ARK ROYAL.

Mark Somerville was a Fleet Air Arm observer in the Fulmar-equipped 808 Squadron flying from the aircraft carrier HMS ARK ROYAL.  He flew with the squadron’s commanding officer Lieutenant Commander Rupert Claude Tillard DSC.

The Fairey Fulmar was a two-seat fighter and reconnaissance aircraft powered by a single Rolls-Royce Merlin engine and armed with eight .303 machine guns mounted in the wings.  It was widely used by the Fleet Air Arm in the Mediterranean during the early years of World War Two.  The Fulmar was more than a match for any German and Italian bombers or reconnaissance aircraft it might encounter.  However, it struggled to cope with the enemy single seat fighters it came up against.  Tillard and Somerville destroyed six Italian aircraft while flying the Fulmar, a feat for which they were both awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

On 6^th May 1941 ARK ROYAL left Gibraltar together with the battlecruiser HMS RENOWN, the light cruiser HMS SHEFFIELD and nine destroyers – the famous Force H – to escort a convoy of five ships with vital reinforcements for British forces in Egypt.  Force H’s mission was to take the convoy as far as Malta where ships of Admiral Cunningham’s Mediterranean Fleet would escort it eastward to the port of Alexandria.

The convoy was first attacked by Italian aircraft on the 8^th May.  808 Squadron attempted to intercept a number of torpedo-bombers, but the Fulmars were themselves attacked by Italian fighters.  One Fulmar was shot down, that of Lieutenant Commander Tillard and Lieutenant Somerville. Rupert Tillard’s body came ashore on the Tunisian Coast, and he was subsequently buried in the Commonwealth War Grave cemetery at Enfidaville.  Mark Somerville’s body was never found and he is remembered on the Fleet Air Arm Memorial at Lee-on-Solent as well as in St. Michael’s Church.

The deaths of the two airmen were not in vain as Force H delivered the convoy, without loss, into the protection of the Mediterranean Fleet.  One merchant ship was later sunk by a mine, but 238 tanks and 40 Hurricane fighters arrived safely in Alexandria on 12^th May.  Interestingly, Force H was commanded by Lt. Somerville’s uncle, Admiral Sir James Somerville.

By a remarkable twist of fate another Lieutenant Mark Somerville was killed while serving in the Royal Navy 183 years earlier. A plaque on the north wall of the tower of St. Michael’s begins:

“Sacred to the Memory of Mark Somerville Esq Lieutenant of His Majesty’s Ship The Rochester who unfortunately lost his Life in doing his Duty and exerting himself to save the Lives of his Gallant Countrymen when attacked by the Enemy in St. Cas Bay.  September 11^th 1758 in the 23 Year of his Age”

The plaque must refer to The Battle of St. Cast Bay which took place during The Seven Years War with France.  The war saw Britain launch a series of amphibious assaults against French ports and possessions around the world.  In 1758 a number of these assaults took place on the northern coast of France in order to destroy ports, divert French troops from Germany and stop the activities of French privateers.  The last of these attacks was against Cherbourg when the Royal Navy landed a force of around 10,000 troops and supporting arms.  The attack was initially a great success as the Port of Cherbourg, its docks and ships therein were destroyed and a large amount of war material also destroyed or seized. 

The British force moved on to attack Saint Malo, but found it too well defended and so moved west to St. Cast Bay where it would be embarked from the beaches.

Meanwhile, the French had gathered 9,000 soldiers and militiamen and marched in pursuit.  The bulk of the British force had been taken off the beaches when the French arrived.  Despite covering fire from the British ships in the bay the French overwhelmed the British rear-guard of 1,500 men.

HMS ROCHESTER was a 4^th rate ship of just over 1,000 tons and armed with 50 guns.  Reading between the lines of the plaque it could be assumed that Lieutenant Somerville was killed while attempting to embark men from the beach using ROCHESTER’S ship’s boats.

On the south wall of the nave is a plaque commemorating Pilot Officer Thomas Middlebrook Horsefall, RAFVR, whose aircraft crashed in the village on July 3^rd 1942.   Thomas Horsefall was flying an American Curtiss P40 Tomahawk single engine fighter from No. 41 Operational Training Unit, part of the School of Army Cooperation, based at Oatlands Hill, a satellite station of RAF Old Sarum in Wiltshire.  The P40 was not used by RAF Fighter Command or the USAAF in Northern Europe as its performance did not match that of the latest German fighters, but it was used extensively by British and American front-line squadrons in other theatres of war.

St. Michaels Church also contains some fine stained glass windows, and a highly and beautifully decorated stone pulpit dated 1621. 

Stained glass window in St. Michael's Church, Dinder, Somerset in memory of Emily Somerville "who entered into rest on New Year's Day 1900 aged 81.

The pulpit in the Church of St. Michael, Dinder, Somerset.

I walked back to the main street and took some more photos of this picturesque and peaceful Mendip village – so peaceful, in fact, that I never saw or met a soul during my visit!

The main street in the Somerset village of Dinder.

 

The South Somerset village of Ilton, and its historic links to education, transport and war.

The South Somerset village of Ilton has an interesting history with connections to a distinguished Somerset family, a railway, a canal, and a military airfield.  It has a number of wonderfully picturesque Grade II listed buildings which compensate for the rather drab sprawl of characterless new housing north of the village green.

I approached the southern fringe of Ilton along Cad Road.  A pretty cottage beside the road, one of several, displayed a pair of boxing hares on the ridge of its thatched roof. 

A pair of boxing hares on a thatched cottage roof at Ilton in South Somerset.

A little further on I came across some almshouses and stopped to have a closer look.  The almshouses and its stone gateway and boundary wall are both Grade II listed.  The inscription on the stone above the gate reads: “THIS HOUSE WAS FOUNDED BY JOHN WHETSTONE GENTLEMAN FOR THE RELEEFE OF THE PORE OF ILTON ANODNI 1634”.  Whetstone's Almshouses originally had a chapel at one end of the building, but the chapel windows, although still visible in outline, were filled in early in the twentieth century when the building was modernised. 

Whetstone's Almshouses at Ilton in South Somerset. 

Another set of almshouses on the south west fringe of the village were set up by the ancient Wadham family.  In 1999 these were modernised out of all recognition. 

Maxwell Fraser in his Companion into Somerset (Methuen & Co. Ltd. London, 1947) has this to say of the Wadhams and John Whetstone.

Ilton, north of Ilminster, and on the other side of the river (Isle), which takes a big bend eastwards, has a church containing brasses to the Wadhams,  . . . The Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham who founded Wadham College showed very enlightened views, and anticipated some modern reforms . . .   This same Nicholas also founded a pretty row of almshouses at Ilton, and another group of seventeenth century almshouses there have an inscription to “John Whetstone, Gentleman”.  He is said to have derived his name from the fact that he was found in a manger with a bundle of whetstones.  He grew up to achieve success and riches, and founded the almshouses as a thank-offering”.

Having turned off Cad Road toward the village centre I came across a Grade II listed former chapel, now a picturesque cottage-like home.  A little further on I passed Ilton Court, another Grade II listed building.  In 1700 one John Scott was resident there and was said to have the title of “Overseer of Ilton’s poor”.

Ilton Court in the village of Ilton, South Somerset.

Arriving at The Wyndham Arms one is at the centre of old Ilton.  The village green opposite the pub has the Grade II listed Drake’s Farmhouse to its south while to the east is the Church of St. Peter and, hidden behind the trees, its former vicarage now known as Merryfield House – also Grade II listed.

 

The Wadham family.

The manor of Ilton and the manorial seat of Merryfield Manor were acquired by Sir John Wadham in the late fourteenth century and the moated manor house became the family’s principal residence.  The Wadhams were a philanthropic family, and Oxford-educated Nicholas Wadham (1532-1609), who inherited in 1577, devoted considerable amounts of his wealth to educational purposes.  He intended to establish a college at Oxford, but died before his plan came to fruition and it was subsequently overseen by his widow Dorothy.  Wadham College was founded in 1610 and completed in 1613.

After Dorothy’s death in 1618 the Wadhams’ lands were inherited by Nicholas’ nephew Sir John Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham near Williton and became part of a substantial estate.

Merryfield Manor did not appeal to Sir John and appears to have been demolished shortly after Dorothy Wadham’s death.  Material from the site is said to have been re-used for the construction of several local buildings, including Ilton Court.  Nothing is left of Merryfield Manor today except the remains of the moat and some overgrown remnants of wall.

The Canal.

The Taunton to Chard canal, which passed just to the west of Ilton, opened in 1842, but failed to make profits and was closed in 1866 on the coming of the railway.  It was originally planned to be a section of the ambitious Bristol Channel to English Channel Ship Canal which would stretch from Stolford to Beer, but the project failed to obtain sufficient financial backing.

The Railway.

The Taunton to Chard Railway, opened in 1866, was 15 miles long with halts at Thornfalcon, Hatch Beauchamp, Ilton, Ilminster and Donyatt.  The line was closed in 1962, before The Beeching Axe, as it was thought to be unviable due to low passenger numbers.   

It would have been a wonderful local transport asset today, but sadly, or one might say outrageously, the track was taken up and many of the bridges demolished.

 

The Airfield.

Merryfield airfield was built to be a Second World War Royal Air Force bomber base.  It was to have been named RAF Isle Abbotts after the small village to the north, but was renamed RAF Merryfield after the manorial estate it was built on.

After it opened in early February 1944 it soon became home to the 4 squadrons of 441^st Troop Carrier Group of 50^th Troop Carrier Wing of the USAAF. The group was equipped with Douglas C47 Skytrains, a military version of the civilian Douglas DC3, and Waco Hadrian gliders in preparation for the Normandy landings.  In the late evening of June 5 1944 the group carried over 1,400 US airborne troops, a contingent of the 101^st Airborne Division, to France and made further sorties the next day air-dropping reinforcements of troops and supplies.

After D-Day the US 61^st Field Hospital was established in a large tented area, with an associated ambulance park, at Merryfield on July 19 1944 to deal with wounded evacuated by air from Normandy. The wounded were transported by road to the US 67^th General Hospital at Musgrove Camp, Taunton.

By September the USAAF had left Merryfield for airfields in France, and the RAF took back possession.*

In the 1950s, during the rapid expansion of air power in the early cold war years, the RAF and RN used Merryfield for training pilots.  By 1961 the airfield was no longer in use and was left almost abandoned. Then in 1971 the RN moved in to use it as a satellite station for nearby RNAS Yeovilton – a purpose it still fulfils today.

The Church of St. Peter in the village of Ilton, South Somerset.

Just inside the gateway to Ilton’s Church of St. Peter are the Commonwealth War Graves of two young RAF pilots who were killed, during 1952, whilst serving with No. 208 Advanced Flying School based at RAF Merryfield.  Both lost their lives flying the RAF’s early jet fighter, the single seat de-Havilland Vampire, at a time when the armed forces were rapidly expanding to meet the threat of The Cold War. 

On June 23 1952 Pilot Officer Allan Durham’s Vampire broke away from a formation at 28,000 ft.  It dived into the ground near Chudleigh in Devonshire.  It is thought his oxygen supply failed and he passed out at the controls.  Allan Durham was nineteen years old and was from Sheffield. **

On September 25 1952 Pilot Officer John William Gillard’s Vampire came out of cloud at about 1,000 ft and crashed close to Burton Woods, Curry Rivel.  It is believed the aircraft entered cloud and the pilot opened the hood to clear ice from the windscreen.  In doing so the slipstream removed his helmet, which was found over a mile away from the crash site, and probably knocked him unconscious.  John Gillard was also only nineteen years old and was born in East Greenwich, London. **

Land for Ilton’s village cemetery was acquired in that same year of 1952; sadly, more young RAF men were to be killed while serving at RAF Merryfield and would later be laid to rest there.

Sources:

*Somerset at War 1939-1945, Mac Hawkins (The Dovecote Press Ltd., 1988)

**Wings over Somerset, Peter Forrester (The History Press, 2012)

The Church of St. James the Less in the South Somerset village of Hambridge.

The Church of St. James the Less at Hambridge is a prominent landmark beside the B3168 between Ilminster and Curry Rivel in South Somerset.

Work on the church began in 1842 and was completed in 1844.  Worshippers from Hambridge and Westport were thus saved a two mile and three and a half mile journey respectively as previously their nearest church was St. Andrew’s in Curry Rivel.

When passing it, as I often do, I find the Church of St. James the Less pleasing to the eye standing as it does among the trees in its very tidily maintained churchyard.  However, Pevsner is rather unkind and describes the church as: “Very dull.  The west tower too low for the nave roof.  The best thing about the church is the two splendid cedar-trees by its side”. 

The Church of St. James the Less which serves the South Somerset village of Hambridge.

The Church of St. James the Less at Hambridge in South Somerset. The B3168 is on the other side of the wall in the background.

There are two Commonwealth War Graves in the churchyard.  I give their details below:

Private Herbert H. Cleal, son of Daniel and Emily Cleal of Hambridge, died on 1 January 1919 aged 19.  He served with 2/8 Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment. 

Signalman Richard Thomas Collins, son of Herbert and May Collins, and the wife of Alice Maud Collins, all of Hambridge, died on 15 November 1940 aged 24.  He served with the Royal Corps of Signals.

RAF night fighter ace Richard Playne Stevens. A tale of reckless bravery, and vengeance.

Eighty years ago this week RAF night fighter ace Richard Playne Stevens was killed while on a night fighter intruder sortie.  He is buried in the British Cemetery at Bergen Op Zoom in the Netherlands.  His wartime career was a remarkable one brought about, it seems, by tragedy.

I reproduce below the entry in Aces High (Neville Spearman, 1966) by Christopher Shores and Clive Williams.

“Stevens, from Ditchling, was a civil pilot before the war, flying 400 hours at night on the newspaper run between London and Paris.  He joined the RAF after the outbreak of war, aged 32, the maximum age for pilot training, and was posted as a pilot officer to 151 Squadron at the end of 1940 to fly Hurricanes at night on intruder missions.

His wife and children were killed on one of the early night blitzes on Manchester, and from then on he flew with complete disregard for his own life.

His method was to search the sky for the greatest concentration of anti-aircraft shell bursts, and fly there to find the enemy.  He pressed his attacks home so close that on one occasion an exploding bomber covered his wings with bits of debris and blood, which he refused to have removed.  Naturally, rumours about such a pilot were rife, and it was said by some that he screamed like a man demented whenever he contacted enemy bombers, but whether or not this was a true statement cannot be confirmed.

On the 15 January 1941 he claimed the squadron’s first night victories, destroying a Do 17 and a He 111.  He was only the third pilot to destroy two in one night, and he was awarded a DFC.  He then had ear trouble and was unable to fly for a while.

On 8 April he shot down two He 111s and two nights later got a Ju 88 and a He 111.  He then received a Bar to his DFC.

He destroyed another He 111 on 19 April, and on 7 May got two more.  He claimed another He 111 and a second probably destroyed on 10 May, and on 13 June destroyed one more.  He damaged one on the 22 June and on 3 July shot down a Ju 88.  He got one further victory, and then on 22 October got another Ju 88, his fourteenth and last confirmed claim.

At this time he was the RAF’s top scoring night fighter, leading all the radar-assisted pilots by a fair margin, his pre-war night-flying experience and his lack of any consideration for his own survival accounting for this.

In November he was posted as a flight commander to 253 Squadron, but it had been considered for some while that the way he was flying there could only be one end.  He received a DSO on 12 December, but three nights later failed to return from an intruder sortie.”

Flight Lieutenant Richard Playne Stevens was the son of Sidney Agar Stevens and Isabel Dora Stevens.  His late wife was Olive Mabel Stevens of Barwick, Somerset. 

In St. Mary's churchyard in Portchester, Hampshire, is the Commonwealth War Grave of Private Frank Arthur Penn of The Pioneer Corps.

Our good friend L from Hampshire took this photo, in the churchyard of St. Mary’s in Portchester, of the Commonwealth War Grave of Private Frank Arthur Penn of The Pioneer Corps.

Private Penn died in the Liverpool Road Military Hospital in Chester on the 20 January 1942.  The hospital was a wartime one in use from 1940 to 1945.

Frank Arthur Penn was the son of Mr and Mrs W. F. Penn of Wicor, Fareham.  William Penn died on 10 July 1948.  It is unusual to find the name of a father in the personal inscription on the headstone of a Commonwealth War Grave.

The Commonwealth War Grave of Private Frank Arthur Penn at St. Mary's in Portchester.

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. 

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.

The loss of the armoured cruiser HMS GOOD HOPE at the Battle of Coronel. One of her crew is remembered in the village of Broadway, South Somerset.

As soon as war began in August 1914 Vice-Admiral Graf Von Spee’s Asiatic Cruiser Squadron, based in Tsingtau, about one hundred miles north of Shanghai, commenced a campaign of commerce raiding against British merchant shipping across the Pacific.  Von Spee’s squadron was built around two powerful modern armoured cruisers, SCHARNHORST and GNEISENAU, each armed with eight 8.2 inch and six 5.9 inch guns.

The Admiralty gave the task of intercepting the German commerce raiders to Rear Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock’s squadron which consisted of the old battleship HMS CANOPUS and the armoured cruisers HMS GOOD HOPE and HMS MONMOUTH, together with the light cruiser HMS GLASGOW and the armed liner HMS OTRANTO.

Cradock left The Falkland Islands in GOOD HOPE on the 22 October and sailed into the Pacific aiming to rendezvous with the rest of his squadron off the west coast of South America.  However, he left CANOPUS behind as she was suffering from engine problems.

On November 1^st 1914 Cradock’s squadron came upon Von Spee’s ships off the Chilean port of Coronel.  Cradock ordered the lightly armed OTRANTO to clear the area leaving GOOD HOPE, MONMOUTH and GLASGOW to engage Von-Spee’s two armoured cruisers and their accompanying light cruisers DRESDEN and LEIPZIG.  The two forces were not evenly matched.  The British ships mounted a total of four 9.2 inch, thirty two 6 inch and ten 4 inch guns compared to the German’s sixteen 8.2 inch, twelve 5.9 inch and twenty 4.1 inch guns.

Three hours after forming line of battle the action was over.  GOOD HOPE and MONMOUTH were overwhelmed and sunk with all hands; Cradock and 1600 men were lost.  GLASGOW escaped to fight Von Spee another day at the Battle of The Falklands.

One of those lost with GOOD HOPE was Able Seaman George Mattravers Stoker 1^st Class, the son of John and Eliza Mattravers of Broadway in South Somerset, he was aged 31.

Able Seaman Mattravers is remembered on a commemorative plaque in Broadway’s Church of St. Aldhelm and St. Eadburga, and on the village’s war memorial.  His name is also on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

The plaque inside the Church of St. Aldhelm and St. Eadburga at Broadway in South Somerset commemorating those who served 

Note.  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission spells Mattravers as Matravers.  I use the spelling Mattravers as it is used in Broadway’s village church and on its war memorial.  

A visit to the village of Wambrook in South Somerset, and its Church of St. Mary.

The village of Wambrook is tucked away in the Blackdown Hills 2 miles southwest of the town of Chard in South Somerset.  To find the village you have to explore the narrow tree-lined country lanes off the A30 – the main road which climbs steadily out of Chard into the foothills of the Blackdowns.

My wife and I, after visiting The Barleymow Farm Shop on the A30, took several wrong turns before finding the village.  It seemed to consist of scattered homes straggling along an undulating country lane, and we could find nowhere convenient to stop until we came to its Church of St. Mary.

The Church of St. Mary in the South Somerset village of Wambrook.

Arthur Mee in his The King’s England, Somerset (Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1968) informs us that: “In 1896 this village was transferred from Dorset to Somerset.  The little medieval church has rounded doorways and a font of the thirteenth century, bench ends carved 400 years ago, an Elizabethan chalice engraved with its price of 35 shillings, and a gallery at the back for the ringers of three ancient bells.”  However, the Wambrook parish church website states there are 5 bells in the tower!  The Church is built of Ham stone rubble and ashlar dressing, and it is thought the original roof was thatched.*  

On entering the churchyard the first thing which caught our eye was the seventeenth century set of stocks beside the wall of the church.  We followed the footpath through the churchyard and into a field.  We didn’t venture further as the going become steeper, but we could look down toward a brook and across the wooded valley. On the opposite side of the wooded valley we could see a large building which we later discovered to be the Cotley Inn.

Seventeenth century stocks beside the Church of St. Mary in Wambrook, South Somerset.

Retracing our steps through the churchyard we noticed the Commonwealth War Grave of Private W. J. Larcombe who was serving in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps when he died on 10 July 1944 aged 24.  He was the son of Charles Victor and Emily Caroline Larcombe, and husband of Louisa Elizabeth Larcombe of Islington, London.

Nearby was another headstone, that of Walter George Pidgeon. The headstone also commemorated the passing of “our dear boys”.  One of them, Sidney John Pidgeon, died at the early age of 16.  The other, Walter Frank Pidgeon, died of wounds on 24 February 1945 in Myanmar (formerly Burma) while serving as a private in the Second Battalion, King’s Own Scottish Borderers.  It seems he may have been wounded when the KOSB took part in the successful assault on Japanese positions on the Irrawaddy line in early 1945.  He is at rest in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Tuakkyan  War Cemetery in Myanmar. His wife, Viola Beatrice Rosalind Pidgeon was from Chard, Somerset.

Gravestone commemorating members of the Pidgeon family in the Church of St. Mary in Wambrook, South Somerset.

The tower of St. Mary's Church in the village of Wambrook, South Somerset.

We returned to the car and drove on into the valley and up the other side past the Cotley Inn.  After more twists and turns we reached the top of the hill where there was a fine view toward Chard.  We carried on down the other side enjoying the scenery and eventually re-joined the A30.  I hope to go back with my camera to the hill above the Cotley Inn and take some landscape pictures of the Somerset countryside south of Chard.

*https://wambrookparishchurch.com/history.html

The South Somerset village of Ashill and its Church of St. Mary.

I passed through the South Somerset village of Ashill recently, and stopped to have a quick stroll around.  The village is just a few hundred yards west of the A358 and sits peacefully in the shadow of the Blackdown Hills.

Thirty four years ago Paul Newman described Ashill in his Somerset Villages, (Robert Hale Ltd., 1986):  “The village centre blends brick house with Victorian Gothic and sturdy stone cottages: a tight sociable combination of dwellings served by a primary school and a post office.

Ashill’s church durably combines Norman, Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular work.  Inside snowy whitewash blends with honey Hamstone, creating an effect of delicate austerity.”

I couldn’t see the Post Office, but there is a pub and the school is still there with just beside it the Church of St. Mary with a pair of giant yews in its churchyard.

The Church of St. Mary in the South Somerset village of Ashill.

There is a Commonwealth War Grave sign on the church gate so I walked through to pay my respects.  The grave was that of Driver Charles Frank Donald Ottery of the Royal Army Service Corps who was killed on 29^th September 1941 aged 25.  He was the son of William Baker Ottery and Hannah Jane Ottery of Ashill, and is at rest beside others with the same surname; presumably relatives.