Today we planned to drive round the main sites of the Somerset Railway so after breakfast our first stop was Bishops Lydeard, we started at the railway line, where we saw a couple of the steam engines which despite the fact they are not running today were being worked on, they were filling the coal bunkers with coal and one of the engines seamed to be powered although it wasn’t clear why. From here we walked up the road towards the village. First stop was the Lethbridge Arms, which was originally called the Gore Inn, it was a coaching inn during the 18th & 19th centuries as it is on the corner of the East West road between Taunton and North Devon. Next to the pub there is a wall that looks like the side of a house, but it was actually the North wall of the church tower, where a game of fives was played, apparently the blank wall of the church and the side buttress formed an excellent court. Fives was a popular game during 17th and 19th centuries although apparently it caused damage to the church and there was “much wickedness, searing, quarrelling and fighting in the churchyard” so Sir Thomas Lethbridge built a Fives Court behind the Lethbridge Arms and the Fives wall continued to be known as the tower. We continued up the road passing the Church of St Mary the Virgin which dates from the end of the 13th century. The tower was added in 1470 and apparently inside you can see the Royal Charter dating from King Edward I but we didn’t go in. Instead we continued up the road past the War Memorial which was erected in 1921 to record the names of the 39 men who were killed in the first world war, later the names of the 8 men killed in the second world war were added, there is a Tramway post but Trams never came to Bishops Lydeard, this was probably brought from Taunton to support the the ’new’ electric street lighting when it replaced gas lights in the 1930s. At the top of the village are the Almshouses which date from 1616 and were built by Sir Richard Brobham in memory of his father, wife and their five children who died in infancy. The Grobham family are buried in the family vault by the south porch of the church, we then turned round and walked back through the town to the Mill but unfortunately it was closed and hidden behind big gates so we headed back to the car to continue our drive around the villages our next stop was Watchet where there was a heritage walk around the town. Watchet has been a sea port since the 1800s and in 1860 the harbour was enlarged to handle the increased trade. In December 1900 a gale destroyed part of the harbour and wrecked many ships, the harbour was rebuilt and trade resumed. In the middle ages Watchet was the hub of cloth manufacturing, milling of grain, sale of fish and a market plan, by the 19th century there were foundries, sawmills, a shipbuilding yard and a paper mill, in 1797 Coleridge visited Watchet and it is believed that the harbour is the port from which “The Ancient Mariner” set sail on his fateful voyage, however the towns most famous sailor was John Short nicknamed “Yankee Jack’ who sailed the world, running the blockade during the war of independence (hence his nickname) but also was interviewed by Cecile Sharp in 1914 who recorded the words and tunes of the many sea shanties that John had sung during his time as a mariner. There is a lighthouse on the west pier which was erected in 1862 at the same time as the harbour was enlarged. Finally we looked at the old Lifeboat station which was built in 1875 and closed in 1944. This area is known as the Fossil Coast as the so many have been found in the area which also has veins of alabaster. Our final stop of the day was Dunster, we drove to the castle which has a big national trust car park, then walked into the town to get something to eat, we found a nice pub which at least got us out of the rain and luckily by the time we finished lunch the rain had eased off so we walked back up to the high street past the Yarn Market which is said to have a hole in the roof which was made by a Civil War cannon, although we couldn’t actually see it! The town has been a market town for over 1,000 years but the most spectacular part of the town is Dunster Castle, it was built as a Saxon stronghold and developed into a comfortable Victorian country house. The 13th century gateway is the oldest surviving part of the castle, part of the curtain wall was partly demolished in 1650 following the English Civil War, the current building was remodelled between 1868 – 1872 by the Luttrell family who lived here for 600 years. We went for a walk round the castle, which actually feels more like a country house than castle, and looked at the spectacular views as the castle is on the top of the hill looking over the Bristol Chanel on one side and the town on the other. In the early 1900’s the kitchens were moved from the old Victorian kitchens in the basement to the first floor nearer the dining room, the kitchens were turned into the ‘Gentlemen’s area’ with the kitchen becoming the snooker room and the pantry the gun room, apparently the gamekeeper would brief the Gentlemen of the game they could expect to shoot as they went out to hunt! Once we had finished walking round the house we walked to the Water Mill, which is being restored and it actually two wheels we walked round the mill, we hoped that walking through the gardens we would get a view of the castle but it is pretty much hidden by the trees so we didn’t. We thought about having a cream tea but decided that we were still quite full from lunch so in the end we walked back through the gardens and back to the car to head into Taunton, we had thought that we would have a walk around Taunton but it was raining really hard when we got to Taunton so we decided to head back to the hotel before going out for a drink this evening then packing up and heading off to Penzance tomorrow.
