Avalon Marshes Centre – Hands on Heritage

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Alfred the Great, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Avalon Archeology, Avalon Marshes Centre, Bacchus, chi-rho, experimental archeology, Flora, Glastonbury Lake Village, Hands on Heritage, hypocaust, Iron Age roundhouse, King Alfred, Long hall, mosaic, Roman Villa, South West Heritage Trust, starboard, SWHT, tesserae, The Newt in Somerset, Viking ship, Villa Ventorum

The first time I went to the Roman villa, ‘Villa Ventorum’, at The Newt in Somerset – I have now been four times, each with a different friend – I felt rather sorry for a bunch of volunteers, the Avalon Archaeology’s “Hands on Heritage” team. These, I knew from their blog, had been slogging away for years, every Wednesday, at a project under the auspices of the South West Heritage Trust, a not-for-profit whose work was formerly part of Somerset County Council’s responsibility, and which is now still mainly financed by Somerset and Devon councils.

At the Avalon Marshes Centre those volunteers are now creating one room of a Roman villa, on a limited budget. Although the aims of the project are very different from those of the villa at The Newt, I was concerned that they might be rather envious – to put it mildly – of the millions poured into the extremely rapid and professional job just 20 miles away.

On subsequent visits to the Roman villa at The Newt, I was delighted to learn that the SWHT had played a large part as consultants in the planning and execution of the Villa Ventorum. They also wrote almost the entire text of a beautiful book about the new villa, which covers the background history of Roman presence in Somerset (there were loads of villas), the decision to imagine a brand new villa, and enormous detail about the planning, sourcing, and construction of it. I can only hope that, given the millions that were poured, evidently, into The Newt’s project, the Trust benefited financially to a very substantial extent!

The Avalon Archaeology project has this month started offering guided tours to the public, and I joined a small group last week. It was a bitterly cold day, and I had not covered myself sufficiently, unfortunately, but the visit was still very enjoyable.

I was early, and studied the map of where I was. The area is principally known for its wildlife.

There were four items to see, and we were guided around them in chronological order, before being left to explore individually and take a longer look at various aspects. The following pictures consolidate the two ‘tours’.

The visit started with the early work by the volunteers of an Iron Age roundhouse. Natalie, of the SWHT, explained that the Hands on Heritage project is not designed to build exact replicas, but that what they carried out was experimental archaeology, that is, in this case, trying to find out by experimentation what building methods were and might have been used at the time. Although many roundhouses have been found, none has left traces much above ground level, so reproduction can only be conjectural. It was known that short stouter posts were first inserted, some weaving done, and then longer uprights added. Wattle and daub was applied, finished with a wash, and then a roof extending well out would largely protect the walls. But rot would set in from the ground, and the life of a roundhouse was only about ten years. The model for this one was those of the Glastonbury Lake Village, just a few miles away.

It was not known, because of the limited height of remains, whether roundhouses had windows, but boards of this size had been found near excavations, so these were included, in accordance with the experimental archaeological approach.

To illustrate a Roman villa, a typical dining room (triclinium) and anteroom were being built here.

Only those rooms and the bathhouse would be heated, by means of a hypocaust. This fire (the opening is about 12 inches/30 centimetres high) would heat air that would be spread underneath the rooms and through their walls.

The roof’s end tiles are purely decorative, and are based on found examples. The part of wall is left unfinished so that internal construction can be seen. It is not wattle and daub but not dissimilar. The two dark plates serve to prevent the smoke from the fire from being blown back into the house. The need for them was discovered in accordance with the experimental approach.

Laying the mosaics is slow painstaking work, and not without the occasional error – itself authentic.

Each section is shaped with a temporary ‘form’. Without such, chaos would result. The small oblong section had taken two or three people the whole of the previous day to complete.

A modern dish provides useful separation of the tesserae, made of local stone and (red) brick.

Among the wall decorations would be portraits of the mistress and master of the house.

Flora, goddess of flowers

Bacchus

The chi-rho sign would indicate that the house had adopted the new religion, Christianity.

Part of the ceiling in the ante-room left bare to show construction technique

The third building was Saxon long hall, home to the local lord perhaps, and also used as (my term) a sort of community centre.

Showing two kinds of wall construction

Natalie is disappointed that the fire she laid for us before our arrival has gone out. So are we – its freezing!

Gives me goosebumps to think that we can copy King Alfred’s own handwriting!

There were seven panels altogether.

I think the dark blue triangle, centre-right, may be Glastonbury Tor, with perhaps a holy thorn planted on it.

After the tour, Natalie got the fire going again. But before that there was one more thing to see.

This is full size waterline replica of a Viking trading ship from Denmark. It was built of oak by a specialist team of Viking boat builders from Roskilde. It was originally displayed in the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth. See here for a photo of it being delivered.

Finally, we learnt some etymology. This is the stern of the boat. On its side – and always on its right-hand side – is the steering board. Thus ‘starboard’. And ‘port’ is because a ship was always moored at its left-hand side, in order not to damage its steering-board. (And come to think of it, so did MS Trollfjord on my recent trip up the coast of Norway.)

Taunton – journey home

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Burrow Mump, Burrowbridge, drainage, East Lyng, Glastonbury Tor, Greinton, Poldens, rhyne, River Parrett, Somerset floods, Somerset Levels, Somerset |Moors and Levels, starling, Taunton

The bus I took to Taunton last Friday was a single-decker one. On the way home the 29 was a double-decker, and I was fortunate to get an upstairs front seat.

Allowing plenty of time at the bus stop, as it was only a two-hourly service, I had seen the Market House, a Grade II listed building now housing a variety of bodies,

and that the Dragon would be visiting Taunton this weekend.

Once we had left the outskirts of the town, I couldn’t resist taking a few photos with my phone. The majority of the route was across the moors, along a road that had been closed because of floods – a not unusual occurrence – a couple of weeks ago. Traffic has to go a longer way round by motorway when that happens. But now it was a pretty, if mostly dull weather-wise, journey across the Somerset Moors, through countryside and villages.

Given the grubby state of the windows, and the fact that the bus was moving, I am amazed that the photos are this clear.

East Lyng

Burrowbridge in the distance

The bridge goes over the River Parrett, and Burrow Mump is behind.

The Somerset Moors (the correct name for most of what are commonly called the Somerset Levels) abound in ditches, rhynes and canals, not to mention remote-controlled sluices, all part of the water management system. The initial drainage was by the Romans, much extended by mediaeval monks, and continues to this day. It’s when nature wins that roads are closed.

The Polden Hills, the lowest range in Somerset, coming into view.

Greinton church

The bus passed nearby starling roosting grounds, and this is just a part of the flock which flew across the window at 16.20, on its way to join millions of other birds converging for the night.

Not too far from home now, the pimple of Glastonbury Tor coming into sight.

Taunton – Minster Church of St Mary Magdalene

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angels, Brian Bone, Father Willis, King Ina, Robert Key, Somerset Light Infantry, Susan Hutton, susanpoozan, Taunton, Taunton Minster, Tracy Sheppard

Last Friday, 3rd February, having spent a couple of hours, and taken lunch, at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton Castle, about which I blogged yesterday, and with a couple more hours before my bus back home, I decided to visit the beautiful church of which I had caught just a glance in the morning.

At 50 metres, 163 feet, the tallest tower in Somerset. Peregrines have had a breeding station at the top since 2017.

I paused to look at what I imagined to be the four Evangelists – they were not accompanied by their normal symbols – at the west door, and was struck by the humanity written on the face of whom I took to be St Luke.

I stepped inside. Susan!

Susan. Susanpoozan, loyal reader and commenter on my blogs, sister to two other loyal readers and to two other siblings, died just two weeks ago. I had seen her in November on my last trip to London. My next visit will be to attend her thanksgiving service later this month.

Susan herself wrote a weekly blog, She loved travel and she loved churches, especially their ceilings. One of her last posts was of her trip to Exeter, when its cathedral figured largely in what she wrote about the city. In the early months of 2021, when we were all unable to get out and about, she wrote up 21 ‘Tales from a mid-life gap year‘ about her travels in Europe in a van, in 1984/5.

I felt Susan was with me all the time as I explored this beautiful church.

The minster was founded by the Saxon king, Ina, when he founded the town of Taunton early in the 8th century. It became a parish church in 1308, and once more became a minster in 2022, ‘to reflect its ‘widening work engaging with civic life, as a hub in the west of the diocese…; as a major heritage attraction; and in serving the community and business life of Taunton’. The present church was completed in 1508.

West window

‘The nave is one of only five in England with double aisles and divided into five sections – the nave being almost a square of 26 metres.’ [Leaflet]

A glance up at the ceiling over the nave …

… and at the ceiling over the chancel. Susan would have loved both.

The Father Willis organ was built in 1882. ‘Look for ‘Alleluia’ angels on the pipes!’

Soldiers’ Corner. The Minster is the regimental church of the Somerset Light Infantry. The bell is the treble that was replaced along with the minster’s entire peal, in 2016.

‘The 1902 window features historical figures associated with the church.’

It was time to look more closely at those angels. These were gilded in in 1968, and are among more than 200 of the beings to be seen somewhere in the church.

‘Where is one for Susan? She was a music teacher. Found it!’

And here’s her angel, facing the west door.

These were commissioned in 2008, designed and engraved by Tracy Sheppard.

I walked round the outside of the minster, clockwise.

Silhouetted against the sun

In the sun

The south porch and that tallest tower

With the permission of the two of her siblings I know best, I am dedicating this blog post to Susan Hutton, 1934-2023. I have in mind also RK, 1945-2023, with whom I sang in a London choir in the 1970s. He was very closely involved with Salisbury Cathedral. I lost touch with him when I left the great wen. He made contact again in 2016 and I have learned of his death just this morning. Also Brian, 1923-2023, a dear friend from Reading and in recent years Yorkshire, whose thanksgiving meeting for worship I was able to attend virtually last week. May they all rest in peace.

Taunton – The Museum of Somerset

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Bloody Assizes, Boudicca, Bugle, CountessSpencer, Dido and Aeneas, Florentia Sale, Frome hoard, Great Exhibition, James I, John Locke, John Steevens, Judge Jeffreys, Low Ham mosaic, Monmouth Rebellion, Museum of Somerset, Raine McCorquodale, Second Legion Augusta, Singer sewing machine, Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, South West Heritage Trust, Taunton Cabinet, Taunton Castle, Thomas Lyte

I’d visited the Museum of Somerset, run by the South West Heritage Trust, which also runs the Somerset Rural Life Museum, just once before, very shortly after it had reopened in 2011. For over a hundred years the museum has been housed in the 12th century Taunton Castle, rescued and restored in the latter part of the nineteenth century by the still flourishing Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society

When I visited early in 2012, I had been waylaid by a large and very comprehensive ground floor geology room in the Grand Hall of the castle, and seen almost nothing of the rest of the museum. I had never been back. Now I was aware that a temporary exhibition that had caught my eye had only a few more weeks to run, so, my regular first Friday walk having been cancelled yesterday, 3rd February, I seized the opportunity to use my bus pass to get to travel free for 80 minutes (50 minutes by car) to the county town, and spend a few hours there.

After an obligatory coffee, I popped out to the courtyard for a photo,

then made straight for the room showing the display previously advertised as:

In Fashion: How a Changing World Shaped What We Wear

‘In Fashion’ explores how changes in society have shaped fashion from the late 1700s to the present day. Long-lasting traditions, social status, new technologies and media influence have all had their part in shaping what we wear. So too have the disruptions of war, the landmarks of birth, marriage and death, and the human desire to escape from old constraints.

Sadly, I felt it did not live up to its promise, so it was as well that there was no charge. From the description above, and that of the welcoming volunteer, I was expecting a chronological display and information covering more than two hundred years of developing fashion, and explanations of why. Instead, in only a certain discipline of chronology, the story was that of 20th century fashion with a few other items tacked on. I could remember three-quarters of it myself – and it was, to be fair, quite nice to nostalge.

Afterwards I had plenty of time, so spent the rest of the morning walking round at those parts of the museum I had not seen on that one earlier visit, and after lunch in the café, I went to visit the splendid church I had noticed (I don’t know Taunton well) on the short walk from bus stop to museum.

Here then is a selection of the photographs I took on my way round, of a large proportion of the items in the fashion exhibition (in the order they were displayed) and then a small selection of those I took in the rest of the museum. The splendid church will be the subject of my next post.

19th and 20th century christening and wedding garb

Three-year-old boy’s silk mourning dress, c. 1860. Singer treadle sewing machine, early 20th century. My grandmother had one just like this well into the1950s. This one is displayed the wrong way round – c.f. the name in wrought iron below the table – or for use by a left-hander.

I can remember the times when making one’s own clothes was quite normal, and much less expensive than buying them ready-made. And this mid-fifties shape is very familiar.

Mass production and standardised sizing came in during WWI and requisitioned manufacturers continued to use the methods they had learned during it. Far end, cotton motoring dust coat, 1920s.

Rayon and crimplene dresses, 1940s and 1960s respectively.

Glass beaded silk chiffon dress c.1926

Silk evening dress 1950s, and Teddy boy suit 1959

Mini skirt and hot pants, late1960s. I wore both to work in Whitehall, and was the first to wear a trousers suit in H M Treasury. Nothing was said, and it was pleasing to see much more senior women follow suit – in trousers that is, not the hot pants.

Silk sack-back dress, c. 1760

Embroidered waistcoat, c 1760

Silk crinoline dress, c 1860 (( think)

Cavanagh evening dress, faille and tulle, c 1959, worn by Raine McCorquodale, later Countess Spencer

I spent just a few minutes in the military history part of the museum.

Bugle, 1888. ‘The bugle has long been the symbol of light infantry and rifle regiments’.

I was interested in the fate of this woman. Florentia, wife of General Sale, was taken prisoner during ‘the British Army’s disastrous retreat from Kabul, 1840-41’, and suffered much hardship thereafter.

There were many more rooms to the museum than I had realised.

The Frome hoard

The Low Ham mosaic, c 359 AD/CE telling the story of Dido and Aeneas

Taken from the upper gallery of the Great Hall

Capricorn, emblem of the Roman army’s Second Legion Augusta (in Britain during Boudicca’s revolt), found close to the Roman lead mines on the Mendip Hills, 50-200 AD/CE

Every now and then, a reminder one was in a very old castle.

Thomas Lyte of Lytes Cary, 1558-1638, jewel given him by King James I in thanks for having traced his ancestry back to the Romans

Virginals, 1675

The philosopher John Locke, born in Wrington, Somerset. Studio of Sir Godfrey Kneller, c 1704.

A small, beautiful, very high-ceilinged circular room was decorated with many sayings associated with Somerset in some way.

This saying was one of four, each for a season, on the huge Taunton Cabinet, made by John Steevens for the Great Exhibition, 1851.

A few things were ‘discovered’ by Somerset people.

Silver Amulet, Naples, c. 1900

A room was devoted to the Monmouth Rebellion. Some of Judge Jeffrey’s Bloody Assizes were held in this castle in 1685.

List of 514 rebels tried at these Assizes, of whom 144 were sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered

This was the church I had already decided to visit in the afternoon, the, now Minster, church of St Mary Magdalene. There’s very little greenery around it now.

And I left via the castle’s courtyard.