South Horrington

Tags

Albert Memorial, Care in the Community, Friends of the Mendip Hospital Cemetery, Gilbert Scott, Mendip Hospital, Mendip Hospital Cemetery, Reading Gaol, Somerset and Bath Pauper Lunatic Asylum, South Horrington, St Pancras Station, Tone Vale Hospital, Wells

Christmas Day 2020, and for the first time in my life I was going to spend the whole day alone. Not a problem – but I did want to do something a bit different.

For months I had been wanting to take photos of and write a blog post on a beautiful complex of buildings a couple of miles east of the lovely cathedral city of Wells, and just 20 minutes from where I live. The sun god gave its blessing in the morning, and I drove to South Horrington, a village centred around a converted 19th century mental hospital. The hospital’s principal architect was the prolific Sir (George) Gilbert Scott, 1811-1878, known mainly for his ecclesiastical work, but who designed many workhouses and asylums in the early stages of his career. Reading Gaol, St Pancras station and the Albert Memorial all appear in his portfolio of more than 800 buildings, designed or altered.

Later known as Mendip Hospital, this complex opened as the Somerset and Bath Pauper Lunatic Asylum on 1st March, 1848. It soon filled beyond its capacity, attics were turned into dormitories, and its principal psychiatric function was transferred in 1897 to the Tone Vale Hospital near Taunton. But it continued to house long-stay elderly and mentally infirm patients, until 1991 when it was closed under the Care in the Community policy. It was then converted into ‘luxury’ flats and houses, which I discovered in 2011 when I was about to return from France and looking for somewhere to live. I did not pursue the idea of living there for a number of practical reasons, but aesthetic distaste was not among them!

I had driven round the grounds on a few occasions since, but this was the first time I had got out of my car. I parked in:

(A strangely tatty entrance panel for such a beautiful and prestigious site)

(I took this photo towards the end of my stroll, my car being parked by the ‘D’ of ‘Road’, bottom right.)

I have not been able to find the significance of the various colours, and indeed I have been able to find very little detail, historic or otherwise, about the buildings as a whole, apart from the links I have indicated. Given that Gilbert Scott designed so many such, perhaps this is not so surprising.

Looking back from where I parked,

and walking on.

The splendid entrance to the building. An apartment in here is for sale at the time of writing.

I walked clockwise around the complex.

This corner particularly appealed, though I imagine it gets little, if any, sun.

The part jutting out on the left is opposite the main entrance.

The chapel’s spire appears over a collection of houses

One of the reasons I did not, ten years ago, pursue the idea of living here was the assumption that I would not be allowed to have a cat flap in my front door. The building is Grade II listed. But, although I saw several of these notices, I saw people out walking their dogs, always on a leash.

To the Chapel without getting wet

The residences on the right appear as old as the rest of the complex, but…

The Chapel also is converted into accommodation units.

Well, maybe catflaps are allowed…

I should love to know more about the arches below, and hoped to find that there was some society interested in the history of the place. All I have found is the Friends of the Mendip Hospital Cemetery. [Later edit. I have since come across this: https://www.countyasylums.co.uk/mendip-wells/ ]

The cemetery is a mile or so away towards Wells, and I did look in 2011 at a property, the back garden of which abuts on to it. I was tempted. To have a nature reserve at my back garden would have been wonderful. There was just a lovely low stone wall between the bottom of the sloping garden and the cemetery, and wonderful views beyond the it to distant wooded hills. But the house needed too much work.

Towards the end of my walk, I got chatting with this couple (with dog!). They had lived in South Horrington, at three different addresses, for 20 years. They loved it, and they particularly extolled the walks there were in various directions, including Wells city just 20 minutes away.

Completing the circuit to my car took me along a footpath and past Fire Engine Cottage.

And for some silly reason I took a selfie.

Here’s wishing you a much happier New Year!

A concert in Wells Cathedral

Tags

Hassler, Jacquet de Mantua, Morales, Pepylling Wynde, Peter Leech, Renaissance, Sheppard, Spem in Alium, Striggio, Tallis, Tallis Voices, Wells, Wells Cathedral, Wells Museum

Last Friday I sang with a large group of musical friends from near and far, calling themselves Tallis Voices, in a rather special concert in Wells Cathedral. It was to celebrate ten years of having done so, just once a year, usually on just a day and a half of rehearsals.  This time we had two whole days to rehearse, a real luxury. The main work was Tallis’s wonderful 40-part ‘Spem in Alium’, to which were added works by Striggio, Morales, Hassler, Jacquet de Mantua, and Sheppard, all renaissance masterpieces.

We met mainly in Wells Museum’s meeting room, but we spent a few hours in the Cathedral itself, and I managed to dash around and take a few photos before, and even during that time.

It was a grey afternoon as I firstly wandered around outside.

Vicars’ Close

North door

Here are some general views inside.

From the west end

The famous ‘scissors’ were added a century or so after construction to stop the tower falling in.

From behind the altar

The organ and half the choir stalls

Sorry about the musicians’ clobber

The famous steps, leading up to…

… the Chapter House

Some details.

A clock in the north transept even more splendid than the one outside

Singer’s eye view

This half of the choir sang the Morales in the south transept.  My half sang the Jaquet de Mantua in the north transept.

Our conductor, Peter Leech, showing us something on his score of the 40-part Tallis piece.

The instrumentalists, Pepylling Wynde,  played in some of the works, and performed on their own as well.

The sun came out at the end of the afternoon.

No pictures of the concert for obvious reasons. Thank you Chris, Sue, and Peter for a thoroughly enjoyable two days.

Romulus and Remus

Tags

A 39, Amulius, Bristol, Faustulus, Gaetano Celestra, Mendips, PoWs, Remus, Rhea Sylvia, Rome, Romulus, Wells, wolf, World War Two

It is very easy not to notice Romulus and Remus at the side of the busy Wells/Bristol road, at one of the highest points of the Mendip Hills.  I drove by in ignorance for months after I moved to Somerset, until someone pointed them out to me.  But only today have I actually found parking and visited them on foot.

It’s a sculpture created and given by some grateful Italian prisoners of war as they were released in 1945.

As I stood and read the plaque, I couldn’t help by be moved, even though I already knew the story.  Perhaps it was learning the name of the sculptor that got to me. He settled in the area and continued working as a builder and stonemason.