Kilve and East Quantoxhead

Tags

Acanthus, ammonite, Court House East Quantoxhead, East Quantoxhead, elm, flax, Hinkley Point C, Kilve, madder, National Gardens Scheme, Nigel Phillips, Quantocks, wave cut paltform

The last time Zoe and I had been out for our monthly walk and pub lunch had been early March. We met up again last Friday, for a socially distanced walk. This included some of Somerset’s dramatic coast, and ended not at a pub, but with us sitting on a church wall eating a packed lunch. Zoe’s husband Bruce joins us sometimes, and he did so this time. That was fortunate, because, although the walk was a straightforward one, and I had its broad outline in my head, I was not familiar with the area, and I had managed to leave the plan at home. Bruce using the OS map on his phone was able to sort out the occasional detail.

The weather forecast was for sunny intervals and a moderate breeze. In the event, the sun was not around, and the breeze certainly was, along with a sea mist. But it was great to see my friends again, and the sea. The last time I saw the latter was the Atlantic Ocean, off the Moroccan coast, early in March. How long ago that all seems now, yet how grateful I am to have had that holiday which set me up so well just before lockdown.

It was only a short walk, along the coastline from Kilve through Quantock’s Head and on for a further kilometre, inland for a kilometre, and then back, parallel to the coast through East Quantoxhead, back to the Church of St Mary the Virgin at Kilve, and thence coastwards back to our cars. No prizes for guessing that the range of hills around there are the Quantocks.

Zoe mentioned that there was a wave-cut platform here, sadly covered by the high tide. Nigel Phillips has written a wonderful book called Somerset’s Coast, a Living Landscape, in which he says that this particular area is well-known for the ammonite fossils which can be found here. He also mentions the birds and flowers to look out for. Indeed the whole book is a guide to the geology, fauna and flora of the coastline, lavishly (as they say, and it’s true here) illustrated with his own photos.

We stayed up on the clifftop, buffeted by the strong breeze, which fortunately was not too cold.

From here on, we were sheltered from the breeze by a blackthorn hedge

An inlet,

… which turned out to have some interesting sedimentary geology.

I had to look this up when I got home. It is wild madder, relative to the plant the roots of which used to be used to make red dye.

Court House, East Quantoxhead. It (or rather the land on which it stands) has been in the same family since around 1070. They used also to own Dunster Castle, further west along the coast. The present building is mainly 17th century.

Looking back from near our highest point, one can make out…

… the construction of Hinkley Point C, nuclear power station.

How to open a kissing gate when you don’t want to touch it with your hand

As we turn inland we come across a family picnic, next to the stile.

How to open a stile gate when it has a latch and you don’t want to touch it with your hand..

A row of elms, a rarity these days.

The wild flowers of the outward walk were replaced inland on the walk back with farm crops. Here broad beans

The back of Court House. I see its gardens were due to open under the National Gardens Scheme on 19th July. I wonder whether that will go ahead.

Nigel Phillips mentions that swallows are to be seen around here.

Approaching East Quantoxhead village

All proper villages should have a duck pond.

And the parish church nearby. 14th century Grade II listed building.

The stables of Eric and Nell.

Acanthus, aka Bear’s breeches, alongside the stream. A garden escape?

From the coast we had been able to see this vast flat area, that looked sort-of like a lake but clearly wasn’t as it didn’t shine. It turned out to be this field of flax, impressive but dead to wildlife.

That’s more like it.

And we arrived at another 14th century church dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, the parish church of Kilve, where we ate our lunch – very socially distanced. The wall was warm to sit on, having held on to, and releasing to our benefit, the heat of previous days.

Hopefully it won’t be another four months before we meet up again.

Barrington Court

Tags

Barrington Court, Bustall, Gertrude Jekyll, Lockdown, Mark Rylance, National Trust, Strode House, Wolf Hall

I’m not complaining, but there is just one problem in having to book a time in advance to visit a National Trust garden (because of totally reasonable social distancing precautions). It is that you can’t decide to go spontaneously, depending on the weather. But I was lucky last Friday. I had not been able to get a ticket for Barrington Court in the morning, when I had originally wanted to go, and the only spot available was mid-afternoon.

In the event it poured with rain in the morning, was dry, if pretty overcast, in the afternoon, and started raining as I drove home. As I say I was very lucky. Moreover, as a member of the National Trust, I would not have suffered if I had decided not to go, as my visit was free of charge. I wonder if they refund paying non-members who on the day choose not to go because of really bad weather?

There are two main buildings at Barrington Court, a sixteenth-century house, built to a characteristic Elizabethan E-plan, and, immediately beside it, a seventeenth-century former stable and coach block, in red brick, now Strode House, which normally includes, among other things, the restaurant. The gardens still show much of the influence of Gertrude Jekyll, in Arts and Crafts style. There are in addition various 1920s outbuildings.

From the car park. Reception is closed, but two ladies check your ticket, explain that there is a one-way system, and remove the barrier.

On the way to the kitchen garden

Moreover, with no restaurant functioning at present, there is no outlet for the crops.

There is no explanation of who this is, nor of the owner of the head he has (presumably) just removed.

Hopefully the restaurant will be open again, and able to use these pears before long.

These buildings in normal times are used by craftsmen and women to display and sell their wares, and to run workshops.

Two-way system along this avenue. The house lies outside the plan of the visitable part of the estate.

Swinging right, to go over the moat, and approach the back of the magnificent Tudor house.

Strode House to the right

This is just the ‘dreary’ back of the house.

Before going round to the front, I am tempted by this gateway to go into some parkland.

This gateway leads me back into the formal area of lawn in front of the houses.

I dutifully follow the mapped one-way system, and walk round the lawn before approaching first…

… Strode House,

then the west wing,

and then the (south) front door, through which one would normally be able to pass. But never mind the 500-year-old house. The thought that the fabulous Mark Rylance was passing through this door just a little more than five years ago (for the filming of Wolf Hall) was enough to give me the shivers.

Gables, finials, twisted chimneys and mullioned windows.

After this I had to retrace my steps along the broad avenue. At this point I had an unfortunate encounter with a silly woman and her jumping up dog. ‘Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you, he’s very friendly.’ Never mind that he was indeed jumping up at me, obliging her to come close to me, that she still didn’t manage to control him and the only way he would remove himself (his name was Watson) from me was to point hard at his owner, who had by now withdrawn herself from my immediate space when I protested, and shout ‘GO AWAY!’ What is it about such owners who think it’s OK for their dogs to jump up, that you shouldn’t mind having your clothes mauled, and that you should love the antics of their dogs as much as they do?

I was quite discombobulated by all this and had to take myself in hand as I made my way to the formal gardens.

Until 1920 this area was a cow yard, and these were calf sheds, aka (I have learned today) bustalls.

On my way back to the car park, one of several lions guarding the outbuildings.

As a coda, I just have to share my huge pleasure at having been able recently to get together twice, with different sets of friends to make music, live. Not over Zoom, not joining in someone else’s recording, but actual live music-making as it used to happen BC. Well, not quite exactly as it used to happen, because this was al fresco. On Sunday we were five, that is two singers and three viol players. On Monday we were four singers, this time gathered in my garden,

and I have a brief video record of it here.

Lytes Cary Manor

Tags

Lytes Cary, National Trust

In England, many National Trust properties – gardens only – are now open to the public once more. You have to book, they only allow a few people in at a time, two-metre social distancing, the current regulation for the whole of the UK, is insisted upon, and one-way systems are superbly organised. Booking is opened on Fridays for the following week, and to book for Lytes Cary Manor I logged on at 9.00 on the very first day that booking was open. I was held in the ‘virtual waiting room’ for 80 minutes. But I got the two tickets I wanted for the day and time I wanted.

Lytes Cary is only a few miles away from me, and is my nearest NT property. The house is consists of two parts. The older part, mainly Elizabethan plus a 14th century chapel, is open for visitors (normally, that is). It is a only small, but delightful. The larger part, now mainly in Arts and Crafts style, was added in the eighteenth century onwards, and is available for lettings. Indeed, in both 2013 and 2014 I hired it in early spring for four-day music-making house parties. One evening in 2013, Geoff (2nd left) took this photo of us all at dinner.

Back to the present. Thursday was overcast, but the 30% chance of rain worked out according to the odds. That my bridge partner, Daphne, and I had brollies with us must have done the trick. There were very few people in the grounds – the National Trust is being very cautious! They made it impossible not to follow their one-way system. Almost without comment, here are the pictures I took.

Much of this is the holiday let.

The general public do not normally have access to his part of the garden as it belongs to the let.

But they do to this.

Identification of this in comments would be appreciated. Even Daphne, a very keen gardener, did not know.

The drawing room

The visited part of the property.

Looking back at the younger part

The two parts of the house are clearly identified here. The very oldest part, the chapel, is the part jutting out towards the left-hand side

My next NT visit will be to Barrington Court, on Friday next. Logging on at 9.40 this morning (Friday), I didn’t have to wait, but all the slots bar one had gone, so it will be an afternoon visit for me. Daphne and her husband are planning to go there the following day. They managed not to have to wait – by logging on at 6.00 this morning!