Odds and Sods August 2025

Gethin Thomas
Sep 15
6 min read

Apologies for the late arrival of August 2025. Too much going on lately, not the least of which was making the most of the great summer weather, which is already seeming like an aeon ago. Battening down the hatches today with a storm arriving soon.

A mixed bag of Odds and Sods this month, or should that be last month. This is the ceiling of a room in the base of a church tower.

The church is ancient and sits on an island in a small village in Somerset. The island caused by an ancient mill pond and water race that surrounds it. The church is not open, as it is now a private home, but the tower remains publicly accessible.

It is another St. Thomas à Becket Church, I seem to be finding several of those lately. This one is in Pensford, Somerset. It dates from the 14th century and documentary evidence shows it was active as early as 1341. Only the tower dates from that far back. The main church was rebuilt in 1868.

In 1968 the river Chew, running past the graveyard flooded, and destroyed most of the interior. It remained disused until 2008. The restoration of the church interior as a home was featured in a BBC documentary, Restoration Home.

There is a memorial plaque to the flood just outside the front gate.

Here is that memorial plaque. You can just make out a white line marked on the plaque. Astoundingly, that was the level of the floodwaters. 14 cms of rain fell in 5 hours. Even with the nearby reservoir being very low, and catching huge quantities of water, the deluge was a record breaker.

This mural can be seen opposite the pub in Pensford.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, the main industry was coal mining, with Pensford and the surrounding area forming a major part of the Somerset coalfield. Pensford and Bromley Collieries Ltd opened Pensford colliery to mine the Pensford syncline in 1909. By 1947, the mines output was 70,000 tons per annum. The colliery was connected by a spur of the North Somerset Railway . Wikipedia

An impressive railway viaduct frames the backdrop of the village.

The flood swept away the bridge over the A37 and damaged the railway viaduct so badly that it never reopened.

The viaduct was built in 1874 to carry the Bristol and North Somerset Railway over the valley of the River Chew. The last scheduled passenger train to cross the viaduct was the 9:25 a.m. from Frome to Bristol on 31 October 1959; after that there were only goods trains (mainly bringing coal from Radstock), which ceased in 1964, and very occasional excursion trains. It officially closed after the Chew Stoke flood of 1968 which damaged the viaduct and other buildings in Pensford and the wider Chew Valley.

In 1984 the viaduct was offered for sale for £1. There were no takers, the maintenance costs being prohibitive. It is a Grade 2 listed building, and is currently in the care of the Highways Agency.

Construction is of stone piers and spandrels with red brick soffits. The viaduct is 995 feet (303 m) long, reaches a maximum height of 95 feet (29 m) to rail level and consists of sixteen arches.

In nearby Barrington stands this former toll house. More on the Round House here.

Barrington is a conservation village with houses built mainly of local stone or cob and many with a thatched roof. Barrington is home to Barrington Court which celebrated its 100th anniversary as a National Trust property in 2009 and featured in the BBC's production of Wolfe Hall in 2015.

Barrington Court is a Tudor manor house begun around 1538 and completed in the late 1550s, with a vernacular stable court (1675), situated in Barrington, near Ilminster, Somerset, England. Like many Elizabethan mansions, Barrington is built in an 'E' shape with large projecting wings with square projections that contain staircases.

The stables – built in 1674 by William Strode III – were converted into a separate house around 1920, under plans drawn up by the architect J.E. Forbes, when the building was given a new west front. The two-storey brick building has Hamstone dressings and a hipped tile roof. Wikipedia

The interiors of what was a stable block are finished with antique reclaimed features including panelling and fireplaces. Mr Lyle bought up architectural salvage from the many country houses that were being lost at that time.

Barrington Court is noted for its Arts and Crafts-style gardens for which garden designer Gertrude Jekyll provided planting plans. The gardens were laid out in 1917 by J. E. Forbes, of the partnership Forbes & Tate, for Lieut-Col. A. Arthur Lyle. There are a series of walled areas that include a white garden, a rose and iris garden and a lily garden. The gateways to the east of the forecourt and to the east of the south lawn have wrought iron gates. Wikipedia

The Church of St Mary the Virgin in Barrington, Somerset, England dates from the 13th century and has been designated as a Grade I listed building. St Mary's Church has a three bay nave two bay chancel. There is an unusual octagonal tower, which includes a bell dating from 1743.

So to Perry's Cider Farm where the bottles are awaiting the brew.

This is one way to chew up apples if you want to press them for juice.

E. H. Bentall & Co.Ltd. was a British company, that primarily made agricultural equipment in Heybridge, Essex before moving for a short period into automobile production. The company's cars were manufactured between 1906 until production stopped in 1912, with a total of 100 cars made.

This was a very bridgey sort of day. We were on a pilgrimage to find an ancient bridge which you have to walk to, following the river Bovey. It is a bridge that never witnessed a wheel. It made a lovely late summer walk, away from roads and with some beautiful riverside ancient woods.

This first bridge was the Wilford road bridge, by the car park, itself very old, although not what we had come to see. It has a carved stone in its side. The stone reads,

“1750

THIS

BRIDG WAS

REPARED

BY the

COUNTY

1914″

Just across that bridge and we stumbled upon this old railway viaduct.

The "Wilford railway viaduct" is a former railway bridge, the remnants of a bridge carrying the old Bovey Tracey to Moretonhampstead railway over a road near Wilford Bridge and the River Bovey in Devon. Although the line closed to passengers in 1959, parts of the route have been converted into the Wray Valley Trail, which follows the former railway line.

This is the bridge we were looking for and I'll tell you more about it in a separate post. You can probably imagine why it never saw a wheel.

........and this is a clue.

Another church, this time in Stanton Drew, where we went to see the great stone circle. The Anglican Church of St Mary the Virgin in Stanton Drew, Somerset, England, was built in the 13th century. It is a Grade II*

In the north aisle is the Norman bowl of the font and further east the small turret steps behind a glass door that in earlier times led up into a rood loft. A small plaque explains that the more recent font cover was made by a local enthusiast from wood pruned from the ancient yew tree opposite the main door.

After the Norman Conquest the Lords of the Manor took their name from the village. In the reign of Henry II Robert de Stanton was succeeded by Geoffrey de Stanton. One of the family Drogo or Drew gave his name to the place to distinguish it from Stanton Prior and Stanton Wick. It subsequently came into the possession of the Choke and then the Cooper and Coates families.

The Coates family lived at Stanton Court, which was their ancestral home, for nearly 200 years until 1937. The present house was built by Peter Coates on the foundations of an older, fortified manor.

Always wander into small country churches, as you invariably find something you never expected. In this case a beautiful set of Art Nouveau stained glass windows.

The rest of my August collection are a selection taken from two coastal walks on the South West Coast Path.

This is my favourite, showing the direction of the normal default westerly wind, filling a sail and also creating a more permanent feature in the form of this aerodynamic tree on the exposed hillside.