A visit to the village church in Buckland St. Mary high on the Blackdown Hills in Somerset.

The ancient Somerset village of Buckland St. Mary, Buckland means land granted to the thanes by the Saxon Kings, stands 700 feet high on the Blackdown Hills. 

A short drive along narrow country lanes, not far from the A303, brings you into the village and its incongruous, but impressive, Church of St. Mary.  Incongruous because of the small size of the community which it serves, yet impressive enough to be known as the “Cathedral of the Hills”.

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

The church was built between 1853 and 1863. It was designed by London architect Benjamin Ferry and paid for by John Edwin Lance.  It is the third church to be built on the site.  Lance, from a well-to-do family, was rector of St. Mary’s from 1832 to 1885.

On arrival John Lance had himself built a new rectory in the style of a Victorian Gothic mansion – today it is known as Buckland House.  When finished the ground floor of the rectory had a hall, library, double drawing room, dining room, parish room, kitchen, larder, pantry, butler’s pantry and bedroom.  The first floor had nine bedrooms, a dressing room, and a linen room with 4 attics above.  The house stood in 37 acres of glebe land and had a staff to match its size and stature.

It was the death of his wife which motivated Lance to have the church rebuilt.  The finished building was described by Pevsner as: “A noble incongruity, due to the rector, the Rev. J. E. Lance.  Large with a substantial s w tower and in a style not at all du pays.  Moreover far too large for a small and scattered congregation.”

The s w tower of St. Mary's church in the Somerset village of Buckland St. Mary.

The war memorial in the churchyard of St. Mary's, Buckland St. Mary, Somerset.

Sadly a carter was killed during the construction of the church.  He was carting materiel when his horses ran away; the wagon overturned and the man was crushed to death beneath the stones.  The story is on a stone in the churchyard with this quaint warning: “May all carters who read this take warning and never get in their wagon”.  I could not find the stone on my stroll around the church, but I am sure to visit Buckland St. Mary again and will have another look.

However, I did come across the grave of Lt. Col. John Conrad Pringle, Royal Engineers, who died in 1952 aged 71, and that of his wife Ethel Gladys who was over 100 years old when she died in 1991.  Perhaps the fresh air on the Blackdowns accounted for the lady’s longevity?

The grave of Lt. Col. and Mrs John Conrad Pringle in the churchyard of  St. Mary's in the Somerset village of Buckland St. Mary.

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. 

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.

A stroll around the Church of St. Peter in the Somerset village of West Lydford.

The village of West Lydford in Somerset is just a short step west of the A37 main road between Yeovil and Shepton Mallet. I parked in the village’s parish hall car park for a short break while on my way to explore the nearby village of Baltonsborough.  In the centre of the car park is a charming and obviously lovingly maintained war memorial.  Sadly, even though the adjacent church appears to be extremely well cared for, the memorial has been the target of vandals, but the damage is now made good and is barely noticeable.

The war memorial in the Somerset village of West Lydford. The Church of St. Peter is in the background.

The war memorial in the Somerset Village of West Lydford,

West Lydford’s Church of St. Peter is picturesquely situated by the bank of the River Brue.  I had a quick stroll around the churchyard and its tranquil surroundings and took some photos of the church from the seventeenth century bridge which crosses the Brue close by.  The bridge has 5 arches and a parapet pierced by 5 smaller arches, in case of flood.  St. Peter’s is of the Somerset Perpendicular type and its 8 pinnacles are notable.

The seventeenth century bridge over the River Brue in the Somerset village of West Lydford.

The Church of St. Peter in the Somerset village of West Lydford.

It was a bright day with persistent patchy cloud, but unfortunately the sun disappeared while I was taking some of the photographs.  I will have to return on a day with a clearer sky! 

Afghanistan and the lessons from history. Letters in The Week.

The letters below appeared in The Week published on Sept 4 2021.  Each show an interesting take on the lessons from history which have, or should that be haven’t, been learned from events in the graveyard of Empires.

Afghanistan: Lessons from history.

To The Guardian

One can perhaps forgive Americans for botching the Afghanistan campaign, but the British, who fought the Afghans three times (1839, 1878 and 1919), should have known better.

When, before the first Anglo-Afghan war of 1839, Lord Auckland, the head of the British invading force, asked the Maharajah Ranjit Singh, the Sikh ruler of Punjab, to undertake the responsibility of invading Kabul, the Maharajah refused; he knew only too well that they were easy to conquer, but difficult to rule; that they were a mosaic of competing tribes, which ensured that no strong central authority maintained its power over them for too long.  It is a pity that Western leaders could not foresee in 2001 what Ranjit Singh could in 1839.

Randhir Singh Baines, London.

Obviously the Sikhs knew the Afghans far, far better than the British, or anyone else for that matter.

 

To the Financial Times

The British Army’s retreat from Kabul in 1842 was chaotic and ignominious, resulting in the deaths of 16,000 troops and support staff.

However, Britain still had a plan: imperial expansion.  This plan meant the retreat was a minor sideshow.  Britain’s retreat from Kabul today is existentially significant because Britain has no plan.  Having been abandoned by the US and having rejected the possibility of achieving national fulfilment as leader of the EU, Britain, unlike in 1842, stands in self-inflicted desolation.

Professor John Martin, University College London.

This letter arranges and distorts facts in order to make a very thinly veiled attack on Brexit.

To The Times

You report that the air evacuation from Kabul is the biggest since the Berlin blockade in 1948-49.  It is more appropriate to mention the airlift from Kabul in winter 1928-29, the first mass air evacuation by the RAF, in which 586 British and foreign nationals were flown to Peshawar to escape the take-over of Kabul by Bacha-i-Saqao, also known as Habibullah Klalakani.  The operation was co-ordinated by the British legation in Kabul.  Operating in overladen, underpowered aircraft, then flying through the North-West Frontier was no mean feat.  Politicians ought to do more historical research.

Geoff Cowling, British vice-consul, Kabul, 1970-73.

I thought the Berlin blockade of 1948-49 was a matter of supplies being flown in rather than people being flown out.  Be that as it may, a remarkable effort by the RAF on both occasions.

General Sir Michael Rose warns of British politicians who believe their own propaganda. A letter in The Week.

I once attended an illuminating and interesting lecture by General Sir Michael Rose at Dillington House, near Ilminster, in South Somerset, and so I took especial note of the letter below.  It was published in The Week on 27th August having first appeared in The Times.

Illusions of Victory

To The Times

To quote Kosovo as an example of a substantial military success, as William Hague does in his article, is to commit the same error as Tony Blair did.  Believing his own propaganda that Nato’s bombing campaign in Kosovo had been successful, Blair led Britain into the disastrous invasion of Iraq.  Yet the reality in Kosovo was very different.  At the end of 11 weeks of the most intensive bombing by Nato since the War, the Serb army in Kosovo emerged undefeated, and peace only came about when Boris Yeltsin withdrew his support for the Milosevic regime.  Furthermore, it was the people of Serbia who removed Slobodan Milosevic from power in a democratic election nearly 14 months later – not Nato as Hague implies.  Surely the true lesson we can draw from the crisis in Afghanistan is that if strategy is not based on reality, then disaster will surely follow.

General Sir Michael Rose, former commander of the UN forces in Bosnia.

 

Building a road tunnel for the A303 at Stonehenge. Would it be cheaper to move Stonehenge?

I was pleased to see my letter to the Western Daily Press regarding the proposed road tunnel at Stonehenge was published on August 5.  I reproduce it below.

Why not just move historic Stonehenge?

It appears the government’s plans for a road tunnel in the vicinity of Stonehenge have been ruled unlawful.

Be that as it may, I am not convinced it is worth spending £1.6 billion, in order to cut 15 or 20 minutes off the journey times of those in London and the South East who feel the need to hurtle through Wiltshire and Somerset on their way to and from their holiday destinations in Devonshire and Cornwall.

Furthermore, it does not seem fair to disappoint those travellers on the A303 who wish to catch a glimpse of England's most historic monument.

However, as such eye-watering sums are involved in the tunnel project, I cannot help wondering if it might be less expensive to dig up Stonehenge and move it instead.

S. W. 

Ilminster, Somerset.