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)

Watchet and Splash Point on the Somerset Coast.

Watchet on the Somerset Coast is one of my favourite places to visit.  It is not only an interesting, tranquil little harbour town, but the journey to it along the A358 through the gently rolling foothills of the Quantocks is a pleasure in itself.

I visited Watchet on 16 June, a very hot day, with the primary intention of walking up to Splash Point on the eastern side of the town to see if I could spot the tower of St. Decuman’s Church on the hill to the west.  The easier of the footpaths to Splash Point initially follows alongside the West Somerset Railway line and then passes behind the East Quay complex.

In my eyes, East Quay just about qualifies as a blot on the landscape.  It is garish and angular with what looks like a couple of bright blue shipping containers plonked between it and the marina.  The building’s odd geometrical design does mitigate its ugliness, but only slightly.  I did not linger!

East Quay at Watchet Harbour on the Somerset Coast.

I continued on along the footpath and up the steep steps to Splash Point where I found views east and west, and out over the Bristol Channel – well worth the effort of climbing those steps!  However, I was not rewarded with a view of St. Decuman’s.  The area around Splash Point was known to the Victorians as The Pleasure Ground – it once had a tea room for their refreshment. 

A view of Watchet looking across the marina and tidal harbour from Splash Point.

Unsurprisingly for such a vantage point, I came upon the remains of a World War Two bunker and coastal artillery emplacements.  No doubt they were ideally situated to defend Watchet Harbour and the approaches to the Cardiff, Newport and Avonmouth docks.

The World War Two bunker on Splash Point above Watchet Harbour in Somerset.  The footpath and steps down to the Eastern Pier, from where this photo was taken, are on the right.

From beside the WW2 bunker I walked down another set of steep steps to the Eastern Pier and proceeded on a gentle stroll around the marina, the Esplanade and the tidal harbour wall.  I was surprised at how few people were around considering it was such a fine day.

Pleasing shot of an old lifeboat in the marina at Watchet on the Somerset Coast.

The fossil beach below Splash Point at Watchet on the Somerset Coast.  The photo was taken from the Eastern Pier.  The forest of cranes at the Hinkley Point nuclear power station construction site can just be seen on the horizon to the right of picture.

After an interesting visit lasting two hours, at a very reasonable cost of £2.20 to park the car, I left Watchet at 1630. Heading home I took the B3191 to Williton, then the A358.  Both roads were very quiet so I had another chance to relax a little and enjoy the scenery.

HS2's illusory benefits. The Social Democratic Party offer an alternative.

The letter below published in The Week (27 February) echoes my thoughts on HS2.   It also adds some pertinent points on working practices following Covid-19.  The letter first appeared in The Daily Telegraph.

 HS2’s illusory benefits.

To The Daily Telegraph.

The Government demanded that HS2 should be designed to reach a top speed of 250 mph – which many experts said was unnecessary given the relatively short distances concerned.  This restricts its route, as curves cannot be included, forcing the line through homes and sensitive areas, including 33 Sites of Special Scientific Interest and 108 ancient woodlands.

The argument that journey times will be shorter ignores the fact that there are no stations between Birmingham and London, so many of the headline time savings will be eaten up by additional journeys required to reach HS2.  Furthermore, even after the completion of the final phase, HS2 only reaches about half way up England, so the true long distances don’t benefit from the dramatic cuts to journey times seen in other countries.

Of course, the case for HS2 has further collapsed now that many people have discovered, thanks to Covid-19, that they no longer need to travel to work anyway.  I’m sure the vast majority of the population would prefer to have superfast broadband for everyone, rather than an over-fast railway for a few.

Gordon Findlay, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The Social Democratic Party has an appealing policy which advocates cancelling HS2 and using the funds on creating a new rail network in The North of England.

All well and good, but I would like to see funds spent on reopening, where practicable, lines and stations closed by Beeching. 

Railways should be operated as a public service under state control – something which the SDP also appears to support.  I reproduce below some of their transport policies from their website.  I hope they don’t mind, but they are ones which I could certainly vote for.

• Our railway system will be nationalised. Rail operator franchises will be taken back into public ownership as they fall due via a re-established British Railways.
• British Railways will be a comprehensive, fully integrated system encompassing track and infrastructure, rolling stock and stations.
• A Minister for Rail will be introduced, responsible and accountable for making the system work for the public and passengers.
• We will scrap HS2 and invest some of the freed-up funds to create a Great Northern Railway Network, better linking up the towns and cities of the North of England to unleash their joint potential.
• Funding for regional and rural bus travel will be increased in order to protect the viability of and patronage on essential routes.
• VAT on motor vehicles costing more than £35,000 will be increased to 25%.