South Petherton, Somerset

B. J. Saunders

My father was born in South Petherton. I think his father's name was Charlie Potts, they lived in Compton Road as far as I can remember. I used to love visiting Somerset as my uncle and aunties had farms where I could help (or hinder) my uncles on my summer holidays. One was called Ron and Doris Rowswell who had Hill Farm in Shepton and John and Marjorie Hebditch down at New Cross Farm at West Lambrook. Does anybody have any memories of my father or uncles?

South Petherton Family

I was born at Harp Road Garage, the eldest of 4 boys. I was educated at boarding schools and played cricket for South Petherton. My grandparents and great grandparents owned the original Wheatsheaf Inn opposite the Blake Hall.
My grandmother left the Wheatsheaf to live in The Little Thatch, St James Street. My father, Ernie Giles, was born in 1901 and died in 2003 at Hayes End, having lived all his life in South Petherton.

Glastonbury Photographic Memories

To reach our final village, Pilton, we must leave our straight route at East Pennard and travel almost due north for a couple of miles or so. Pilton is a large but quite dispersed village beside the Glastonbury to Shepton Mallet road, and we are now some six miles from the former. The parish church, dedicated to St John the Baptist, developed from the Norman period onward through the Middle Ages, and is down in a dip at the junction of several streets. The church has an attractive Norman south door, with corbels with heads of a bish- op and two angels inside the porch. Inside there is an Easter sepulchre, and the nave and north aisle have Somerset-style timber tie-beam roofs with carvings of angels. Next to the church there is the manor house. It was established in the 13th century as a residence of the Abbots of Glastonbury and added to by them for the next couple of hundred years. After the Dissolution, it passed into private hands and what we see today from the outside is the result of various alterations made during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, including some by one of the Earls of Hereford who owned the place in the 17th century. In the yard at the back there is a rare survival, a dovecote dating from the 13th or 14th century.

Glastonbury Photographic Memories

An intriguing photograph - are the men beside the pile of stones carrying out repairs or new construc- tion? It looks as though they may be finishing work on the wall in the foreground, perhaps linked to the new frontage for the main building constructed around this time. The wall was probably demolished when the factory was extended in 1933.

Glastonbury Photographic Memories

Now around to the south-west side of Glastonbury, where Wearyall Hill lies between the town and the river Brue. The name is a corruption of ‘Wirral Hill’, a deer-park established by the Abbots. This view, from the north, is across country- side, whereas today the foreground is occupied by housing and an industrial estate. The Glastonbury Thorn on the hilltop left of the wood is missing from the photograph. Although this is said to be the original Thorn, the photograph shows how it needs to be re-grafted every century or so.