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.

 

August cloudscapes over South Somerset.

 

And below on the last evening of the month.

The Parish Church of Ottery St. Mary in the neighbouring county of Devonshire.

I recently passed through the Devonshire town of Ottery St. Mary and stopped to take a few photos of its Parish Church.  The Church, which Simon Jenkins in his England’s Thousand Best Churches (Allen Lane, 1999) describes as being a miniature Exeter Cathedral, sits on a hill dominating the town.

The Parish Church of Ottery St. Mary in Devonshire.

The inside of the church, just as impressive as the outside, had a large display celebrating the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge who was born either in the vicar’s house or the schoolmaster’s, for his father was both.  John Coleridge was, according to Arthur Mee in his The King’s England, Devon (Hodder and Stoughton, 1938) “an absent minded vicar who married twice and had 13 children” – the 13^th was Samuel the poet.

As is usually the case when I visit a church I came across an interesting commemorative plaque.  On the north wall of the nave is one dedicated to Clement George Whitby, the son of Charles and Beatrice Whitby, who was 25 years old when killed at the Battle of Maiwand on 27^th July 1880.

The battle took place during The Second Afghan War of 1878-1880.  The Collins Encyclopaedia of Military History, R.E. Dupuy and T.N. Dupuy (Harper Collins, 1993.) informs us that:

“Ayub Khan, brother of Yakub, had seized control of Herat early in the war.  Now claiming the throne, he marched on Kandahar with 25,000 men.  Lt. Gen. James Primrose, commanding at Kandahar, sent an Anglo-Indian Brigade, 2,500 strong, under Brig. Gen. G.R.S. Burroughs to Maiwand, about 50 miles northwest, to oppose the Afghan advance.

Burroughs attacked the Afghan position, but the British artillery expended all its ammunition and a flanking movement by Ayub then shattered the Indian troops, who fled.  The one British infantry battalion present was surrounded and practically annihilated; about half the remainder of the command escaped.”

Clement Whitby was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 17^th Foot.  He was attached to the 1^st Bombay Native Infantry, and commanded the baggage guard at Maiwand.  After fighting off two attacks he joined the survivors retreating to Kandahar.  When within sight of the walls he was shot and killed.

Just a few steps below the church is a prominent, but austere, column commemorating Queen Victoria’s 60 years as monarch.  The monument was restored by the town council to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth ll. 

Ottery St. Mary's monument to Queen Victoria.

The plaque on Ottery St. Mary's monument to Queen Victoria's 60 years as monarch.

I had been able park right outside the church gates, otherwise it would have meant a steep walk up the hill from the town’s car park – something my none-too-fit lungs would be reluctant to attempt!  The Parish Church of Ottery St. Mary is well worth a second visit, which I will certainly make if I am lucky enough to find the same parking space free again.

My thoughts on Will Iredale's 'The Pathfinders', a story of Bomber Command's No.8 Group in World War Two.

Just read The Pathfinders by Will Iredale (W. H. Allen, 2021).  It tells an all-round story of RAF Bomber Command’s No.8 Group during World War ll. The why, how, when, who and where are all meticulously researched. In addition the reader is given a sense of realism by excerpts from diaries and letters from those who were there, and their families. 

The Pathfinders C.O. Air Vice-Marshal Donald Bennett, and his crews, not only had to confront the German flak, nightfighters, and the weather, but also had to deal with sniping and obstruction from senior Bomber Command Officers, and even ‘Bomber’ Harris himself.

The book is an absorbing tribute to the crews, scientists and senior officers who made the war-winning success of No.8 Group, and Bomber Command, possible. 

It does for The Pathfinders what Iredale’s The Kamikaze Hunters (Macmillan, 2015), his previous work, does for the Fleet Air Arm squadrons serving with the British Pacific Fleet.  Both books make extensive use of eyewitness accounts which gives the reader the feel of being in the air, and the action, with them.

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 English Democrats Party view on the war between Ukraine and Russia - and my thoughts.

 It seems the English Democrats National Council has recently voted unanimously to “oppose the giving of any further weapons of war or subsidies to Ukraine . . . as a combatant in the war with Russia”.

A recent press release concludes: “We also wish to express our disapproval of the step taken by Lithuania to block Russian access to the Russian enclave in Kaliningrad.  This is a dangerous and irresponsible step which escalates the risk of war between NATO and Russia.”

As a former member of the Party I find this attitude a little disappointing.  Although the English Democrats may have a point over Kaliningrad, Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe by land mass and could become an important and powerful military and economic ally in the future as Poland is, in a similar fashion, today.  England should be giving Ukraine all the financial and military help possible short of our armed forces active participation.

Even those who may advocate, including myself, a “fortress England” policy should realise we need friends in what is a becoming an increasingly hostile world.

Below is the full English Democrats press release re. Ukraine:

"The English Democrats National Council voted unanimously on Saturday, 25^th June to oppose the giving of any further weapons of war or subsidies to the Ukraine. 

 We oppose Boris Johnson’s and the “Conservative” Government’s programme of subsidies and weapon supplies to the Ukraine as a combatant in the war with Russia. 

 As English nationalists we are concerned about England’s and our English Nation’s interests.  To the extent that England has any interests in this war it is that it should be short and involve the least disruption to supplies of agricultural products and of oil and gas. 

 Boris Johnson is embattled at home and increasingly seeking to distract attention by involvement in the war with Russia.  His actions presents a serious threat to England’s interests. 

 We support the call from Nick Baines, the Bishop of Leeds of the Church of England that the war should be brought to a close by the concession by the Ukrainian Government of those territories which are Russian ethnic majority. 

 We also wish to state our disapproval of the step taken by Lithuania to block Russian access to the Russian enclave in Kaliningrad.  This is a dangerous and irresponsible step which escalates the risk of war between NATO and Russia."

Summer Skyscapes over South Somerset

Below are some pleasing late evening skyscapes over South Somerset.

30th June

8th July