Somerset

Any way will be interesting

We’ve just come back from a long weekend exploring the lanes in Somerset with my sister and brother-in-law Gail and Janos. The motorways are a great means for getting to, or returning from, an area quickly (especially when you can sit on 70mph for hours on end) but are unpleasant and you miss so much of the countryside. And that is what this trip was about, exploring the numerous back lanes and villages.

Our first stop was a return to Frome (pronounced Froom and rhymes with groom). Its big attraction is several streets full of interesting independent shops, many of the women’s clothing variety (sigh).

Nunney castle and moat

We wandered off and happened across a typical little village in the middle of nowhere – Nunney. Not only did it have a “gastro-pub” (ancient on the outside, very modern and smartly decorated on the inside), it also had the remains of a castle surrounded by a little moat. Very picturesque. Of course it wasn’t a very successful castle as the Royalists took cover here but then came along Cromwell’s men with cannon. That was the end of that. So it was time to head to our hotel via some lonely farmland on the Mendips (large hills or small bumps depending on which country you originate from).

Somerset farmland

Mendip village

Dinos on the rampage

We spent two nights at Wookey Hole – just a hamlet really – but famous for its caves and the legend of the Witch of Wookey. The attraction of the location was that it was just outside our favourite small city – Wells. And that the hotel was dirt cheap good value! Sadly this great natural attraction was blighted by dinosaurs.

Our second day out was spent mostly in Glastonbury, a very mystical town famous for a lot of events:

• Joseph of Aramethea supposedly visited twice – once with the baby Jesus! – establishing an early Christian church, looking after the Holy Grail, and planting his staff into the ground which then sprouted into a thorn tree (which remained till four years ago when a vandal cut it down with a chainsaw, though cuttings were taken so there are other thorn trees still living). All these myths evolved during the middle ages, though the thorn trees clearly exist - strangely they flower twice a year – and a sprig is sent to the Queen who has it near her when she reads the Queen’s Speech each year.
• Glastonbury Tor is a hill rising out of a very flat plain that used to be underwater, hence it is the mystical Isle of Avalon associated with King Arthur.
• The Abbey was the biggest and richest in England and was a clear target for Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries when it was destroyed, with everything of value taken for the royal coffers. Much of the ruins were then nabbed by locals for building their houses, so it is surprising that the remains are still impressive.
• The monks in the Abbey, no doubt as a money-raising exercise, declared that the remains of Arthur and Guinevere had been found in the graveyard. They were re-interred in the Abbey and the pilgrims kept coming. It all disappeared after the Dissolution.

Four month old Poppy in a motorbike basket

Vicki bracing against the wind at the Tor

Glastonbury Tor

These days the highlights are: the walk up the Tor to the tower, all that remains of a 12^th C  church, with wonderful views given how flat the land is nearby; the Abbey remains which are still very impressive; the annual Glastonbury Festival,; and the New Age hippies. The town is full of hippies and shops selling crystals, alternative medicines, hippy, witchy and steam-punky clothing, and New Age books, ornaments, wands and other paraphernalia. Fascinating, but no doubt dreadful during the peak of the tourist season.

Glastonbury Abbey

The following day we drove home the slow way. Above Wells on the Mendips is a radio/TV mast. After half a day of driving around little lanes in the vague direction of home we could still see it! At long last another gastro-pub loomed in the middle of nowhere. Literally. But with views across the fields to the Wells TV mast and also to Downside Abbey and School. The Abbey is the home to the Benedictine Order of monks in the UK and the attached school is a very exclusive private school (called Public Schools here, presumably because anyone can go as long as you can afford the £9,700/term fees). It has wonderful old buildings and extensive grounds in a tiny village miles from anywhere (at least by the lanes that we took).

Lacock Abbey

A modern version of this 1835 original

Last stop before tearing back on the motorway was Lacock Abbey. A nunnery since medieval times, it is now being promoted as one of the homes of photography as this is where Henry Fox Talbot developed the negative process and created some of the earliest prints. Like many of these stately homes it has changed owners and purposes many times in its history so suffers a little from a personality crisis. And, like many estates that have been handed over to the National Trust, most of the furnishings have disappeared and the Trust has to buy in a selection of suitable (to a particular era) items to stock the place. Hence the interior is a mishmash of ancient abbey (the cloisters were used in Harry Potter), Victorian, and mid-19C alterations. But the best part is the attached village which is all historic and original – with buildings still lived in, but no TV aerials or the like in view as it is often filmed.

Lacock village

Lacock village

So the end of another break and a reminder that England is full of little surprises in odd corners.