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)

August cloudscapes over South Somerset.

 

And below on the last evening of the month.

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)

Summer Skyscapes over South Somerset

Below are some pleasing late evening skyscapes over South Somerset.

30th June

8th July

Landscapes and cloudscapes on a late May afternoon in South Somerset.

The morning of 24th May was a bit showery in South Somerset, but the afternoon turned sunny with scattered cloud and a gentle breeze.  

We needed to do a little food shopping so my wife and I drove to a farm shop on the A30 west of Chard and, since it was a good afternoon for photography, I took my camera along.

On the way home road works caused us to divert onto the A30 east of Chard where, near Cricket St. Thomas, I stopped in a layby and took some landscape photos of the view to the south.

Later in the afternoon, back at home, I took some cloudscape photos looking towards the Blackdown Hills.

In the evening I took some more cloudscapes, and just before sunset a wonderful feathery mare's tail appeared.

A feathery mare's tail over South Somerset just before sunset on 24th May.  The black dot near the centre of the photo is a swift.

A stroll around the centre of Crewkerne in Somerset, and its Church of St. Bartholomew.

On a recent Spring afternoon I drove east along the A30 to the Somerset market town of Crewkerne.  I wanted to have a look at its Church of St. Bartholomew which is mentioned in Simon Jenkins’ England’s Thousand Best Churches (Penguin Books, 2000).  St. Bartholomew’s is one of Jenkins’ top one hundred churches.

I parked in the pay and display car park off West Street which is very convenient for the church and town centre, and inexpensive to boot.  Taking the direct route to the church I walked along the narrow, but interestingly named Oxen Road.  On reaching Church Street I walked up the wide steps to the church.

The Church of St. Bartholomew is very impressive, little wonder Jenkins awards it 4 stars out of 5!  Bryan Little in his Portrait of Somerset (Robert Hale - London, 1969) describes the church as “one of the county’s best” and having “a western façade of minsterlike quality, far surpassing those normally found outside abbeys and cathedrals”.

The Church of St. Bartholomew in Crewkerne, Somerset. The town's war memorial is to the right.

The "minsterlike" west front of the Church of St. Bartholomew in Crewkerne, South Somerset.

Crewkerne’s war memorial is in the churchyard, but although it appears well cared for some of the inscriptions are very difficult to read.  I managed to decipher the unusual, but fitting commemorative words from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress: “SO HE PASSED OVER AND ALL THE TRUMPETS SOUNDED FOR HIM ON THE OTHER SIDE”.

A Blue Plaque on the western wall of the churchyard informs us that the building on the other side is a Victorian Tudor-style house “built in 1846 on the site of the ruins of one of Crewkerne’s three medieval clergy houses.  The south side incorporates an original fifteenth century window from the old house”.   

The Victorian Tudor-style house west of the Church of St. Bartholomew in Crewkerne, Somerset.

Leaving St. Bartholomew’s I strolled down Church Street to the Victoria Hall, part of which is the Town Hall.  It is freestanding on all sides and is in a Jacobean style, built around the turn of the twentieth century.  Prominent beside the entrance to the Town Hall is a stone tablet commemorating the visit of The Queen, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh, to Crewkerne on 2 May 2012 in her Diamond Jubilee Year.

The Town Hall, Crewkerne, South Somerset. 

Opposite the Town Hall is the George Hotel, mentioned by Pevsner.  The nearby Crooked Swan public house - its original name The Swan Inn still visible – displays its support for Ukraine in the ongoing war in Eastern Europe by flying that nation’s flag above its entrance.

The George Hotel - mentioned in Pevsner - Crewkerne, South Somerset.

The Crooked Swan, Crewkerne, Somerset.

In previous wars, in the days before steam, Crewkerne provided sailcloth for the Royal Navy.  Crewkerne’s prosperity was founded on weaving flax which was grown extensively in the surrounding area.  It specialised in sail cloth which was required in huge quantities for the Royal Navy, and also produced webbing for the British Army.  Lord Nelson and HMS VICTORY were carried to immortality at Trafalgar by canvas sails from Crewkerne. 

The town has another link to The Battle of Trafalgar in Thomas Masterman Hardy, Nelson’s Flag Captain and captain of VICTORY, who attended a long gone grammar school north of St. Bartholomew’s Church.

I walked along busy Market Street and back up West Street, where, before returning to my car, I spotted a picturesque terrace of almshouses.  The stone plaque on its wall read “ALMSHOUSES ERECTED IN THE YEAR OF THE DIAMOND JUBILEE OF HER MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA OUT OF A PORTION OF THE FUNDS GENEROUSLY BEQUEATHED TO ASSIST THE AGED POOR BY THE LATE GEORGE SLADE JOLLIFFE.  SURGEON.  CREWKERNE.”  Perhaps another indication of the town’s prosperous past? 

Almshouses in Crewkerne South Somerset.

Merlins and a Wildcat over Ilminster in South Somerset.

I saw these two Merlin helicopters flying in formation with a Wildcat at midday today over Ilminster in South Somerset. They appeared to be coming from the direction of RNAS Merryfield and were heading to the south-east.

With the background of a clear blue sky they made a nice picture.

Merlins and a Wildcat over Ilminster in South Somerset.

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.

Views from Westover Bridge over the River Parrett near Mucheleny in Somerset.

While out for an afternoon drive around The Levels south of Langport  in Somerset my wife and I stopped at a layby overlooking the River Parrett at Westover Bridge just outside Muchelney.

It was the last day of March, a beautiful sunny day of blue sky dotted with cloud, but a strong North wind made it bitterly cold.  Unsurprisingly not many people were out and about except some well wrapped dog-walkers enjoying the River Parrett Trail and the Macmillan Way Link, both of which follow the river bank.

I could see three churches from where we were parked.  To the north and north-east were the towers of All Saints at Langport and St. Mary’s at Huish Episcopi while a few hundred yards east was the tower of St. Peter and St. Paul at Muchelney.

I braved the bitter cold to take the photos below.  On another, warmer, day it would be nice to follow the footpaths alongside the river bank, but it was altogether a better day for driving rather than walking.

A view from Westover Bridge over the River Parrett near Muchelney in Somerset. The tower of All Saints Church, Langport can be seen just left of centre.

A view from Westover Bridge over the River Parrett near Muchelney in Somerset.  The tower St. Mary's Church at Huish Episcopi can be seen on the skyline to the left.

The tower of the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Muchelney, Somerset viewed from the nearby Westover Bridge over the River Parrett.

Cloudscapes on a bitterly cold day in South Somerset.

I took some pleasing photos of cloudscapes through the treetops this afternoon, the last of March, on a day that was bitterly cold in South Somerset.

The first photo below was taken before a short sharp snow shower, the second one after it. 

South Petherton an historic hamstone village in South Somerset.

The large village of South Petherton is just off the A303 around 5 miles east of Ilminster in South Somerset.  In 2011 the village had a population of 3,367, having increased from 2,781 at the time of the 1981 census; it will be interesting to see the figures from the 2021 census.

The information board near the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul tells us:

“Situated in fertile arable country, South Petherton stands above the River Parrett, near The Fosse Way.  It was granted a Market Charter by King John in 1213. 

Agriculture has always been the basis of the community although South Petherton was the site of an important mint in the eleventh century and of the Sturton bronze foundry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as being home to glove making and cider production.

The historic heart is cantered around the fifteenth century church and the market square.  There are fine old houses throughout South Petherton including Giles Daubeney’s  “King Ina’s Palace” with parts dating back to the fourteenth century, and “Hayes End Manor” dating from 1610.”

Of the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul Pevsner writes: “The church lies at the highest point of the little town, a large spreading building crowned by a tall a and prominent crossing tower.” 

The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in the South Somerset village of South Petherton.

The memorial in the churchyard to those who fell in World War One is approached up steps flanked by pillars on which there are memorial plaques to those lost in World War Two.

The War Memorials to those who fell in two World Wars in the churchyard of St. Peter and St. Paul in the South Somerset village of South Petherton.

Field Marshal Lord Harding*, a notable veteran and commander of the British Eighth Army, was born in South Petherton at Rock House in Palmer Street.

Rock House in Palmer Street, South Petherton. The birthplace of Field Marshal Lord Harding.

*Views from Somerset: Field-Marshal Lord Harding of Petherton. Commemorated at Taunton Castle's Museum of Somerset. (viewfromsomerset.blogspot.com)

The Church of St. Mary the Virgin in the South Somerset village of Whitelackington.

A mile or so east of Ilminster in South Somerset is the village of Whitelackington, its Church of St. Mary the Virgin being separated from the village by the Old London Road and nestles, alongside the Manor House, on rising ground to the south.

Both the church and manor house are built of Hamstone.  St. Mary’s is in the Perpendicular style with windows suggesting its origins date from the early fourteenth century.  The manor house is gabled and probably built in the sixteenth or seventeenth century.

I took the photo below from the eastern slopes of Beacon Hill on the northern fringe of Ilminster.  At this time of year the winter sunshine was able to shine through the branches of leafless trees and highlight the wonderful golden tones of the Hamstone buildings.

The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, and the adjacent Manor House, in the South Somerset village of Whitelackington.

January skyscapes over South Somerset.

January has been a rather misty, murky month. Here are some skyscapes. The first photo is of the first sunset of 2022, and the second is the last of this month.

The third photo is a picturesque afternoon sky - spot the contrail!

Theodore Roosevelt in praise of the English blackbird.

We are in the bleak mid-winter, but on my daily wanderings along the byways and hedgerows of this corner of South Somerset I have noticed a goodly number of blackbirds.  They are obviously not singing yet, but the warmer months should see them break into their wonderful song.

I was reminded of Theodore Roosevelt’s delightful tribute to the English blackbird in his autobiography.  I quote from it below.

In 1910 the former American president, having spent several weeks in England, was due to sail home from Southampton on June 10.  Being a lover of birds and birdsong he managed to arrange a day of birdwatching in Hampshire the day before his departure.

Roosevelt travelled by train to Basingstoke accompanied by his friend Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary.  With Sir Edward acting as guide the two avid ornithologists drove to the valley of the River Itchen to view the birdlife of the area and listen to its birdsong.

Having walked for several hours in the area Roosevelt described the valley as follows: “It is very beautiful in every way, with a rich, civilised, fertile beauty – the rapid brook twisting among its reed beds, the rich green of trees and grass, the stately woods, the gardens and fields, the exceedingly picturesque cottages, the great handsome houses standing in their parks.  Birds were plentiful; I know but few places in America where one would see such an abundance of individuals . . . “.

The two men then drove to the New Forest where they had tea at an inn before tramping on through the forest to Brockenhurst.

Roosevelt wrote of his tramp: “The New Forest is a wild, uninhabited stretch of heath and woodland, many of the trees are gnarled and aged, and its very wildness, the lack of cultivation, the ruggedness, made it strongly attractive in my eyes, and suggested my own country”.

Roosevelt and Sir Edward reached Brockenhurst at nightfall and spent the night at an inn which was in Roosevelt’s words: “. . . as comfortable as possible, and the bath and supper very enjoyable after our tramp; and altogether I passed no pleasanter twenty-four hours during my entire European trip”.

The bird which impressed Roosevelt most during his walking tour was the blackbird.  “I did not know what beautiful singers they were”, he writes. He goes on to say: “I knew he was a singer, but I had no idea how fine a singer he was”.  Roosevelt concludes: “. . . it is far easier to recognise him as the master singer that he is.  It is a fine thing for England to have such an asset of the countryside, a bird so common, so much in evidence, so fearless, and such a beautiful singer”.

Herne Hill near Ilminster in South Somerset on a misty mid-day.

This photo is of Herne Hill on the southern fringe of Ilminster in South Somerset. It had been a very foggy morning and Herne Hill kept disappearing and reappearing all morning.  I took the photo just after mid-day on 14 January.

Herne Hill on the southern fringe of Ilminster in South Somerset.

December skyscapes in South Somerset.

The last couple of weeks have been mostly damp and dismal and the year ends with another misty and murky afternoon in South Somerset, here are a some pleasing skyscapes from earlier in the month.

Some rare afternoon blue sky on December 2.

Contrails in the evening sunset on December 2.

Afternoon sky on December 6 with Storm Barra due the next day.

Late afternoon sky over the Blackdown Hills on December 6.  Storm Barra due the next day. 

Starlings at Snowden Hill, west of Chard, in South Somerset.

No leaves on the trees at Snowden Hill on the A30 west of Chard in South Somerset, but lots of starlings.

I took this photo while on an expedition to the farm shop nearby.

The bare branches make an interesting pattern against a very dull, early afternoon, greyish blue sky.

Starlings in the trees at Snowdon Hill, near Chard, South Somerset.

September sunsets over the Blackdown Hills in South Somerset.

Some pleasing September evening skies over the Blackdown Hills just after sunset in South Somerset.

This photo was taken on the evening of the Autumnal Equinox.