Somerset 9-16 July 2021

My now annual holiday to Nettwood Farm in East Harptree, Somerset was delayed because of a sad incident. The Viewing Platform burned to the ground at Christmas 2020.  This was doubly sad because it was the last remaining WW2 cabin in Britain.

Debbie and Jeremy worked wonders and got Lookout Lodge, pictured above set up for my holiday, which was delayed until July. It will be a lovely holiday destination being very comfortable, modern and having a hot tub outside on the decking.  And of course it has the wonderful views over Chew Valley and north towards the Mendips.

Pictured in my home village of Timsury are, top to bottom, the Congregational Church on North Road, a shop on South Road and High Street, looking towards St Mary’s Church.

Having read Bernard Cornwell’s Last Kingdom series, starting in King Alfred’s reign, I confess to previously being a bit ignorant about this period of history until I read these wonderful books.  So I visited King Alfred’s Monument in the Isle of Athelney, which was once a very low isolated island in the ‘very great swampy and impassable marshes’ of the Somerset Levels.  I walked through a field and then a couple of styles and through a herd of cows (luckily I am a country lad from Somerset so was not scared of them) up a hill to the monument, which as pictured and is in a railed off compound.

I could also see Burrow Mump – the ruined St Michael’s Church on top of a hill (mump means hill) – from Althenly, pictured from a distance as well as close up.

As usual I had a lovely day out visiting my cousin Terry and wife Margaret in Somerton, which was for a period the capital of the acient country of Wessex. I picked up another of  my cousins Lynne from Staple Hill and we both enjoyed a lovely day at Terry’s.