Village legend has it that a tinker who travelled through the woods (to the rear of the church) that still contain a roman bridge to this day, carried the plague. What is clear is that inhabitants of the village were all but wiped out & the settlement abandoned. This clump of weeds is in fact the buried ridgeline of the houses. This was much more pronounced 20 years ago, but recent ploughing has made the line much less prominent. Those few who escaped, established a new village that survives to this day approximately half a mile away, further up the hill.

In the corner of the churchyard, is the village yew tree. Whilst the presence of yews at places of worship dates back to a pagan age, perhaps its most well known use was as the material of choice for longbows. 5' or more in length, with a flat back & round on the belly, for hundreds of years, the weapon of choice of stout bulldogs when administering a beating to the perfidious French.

On the subject of taking a beating, in the picture at the top of this post, you will see part of a tall tree to the left of shot. There are 2 columns of 4, in the churchyard, planted in memory of the 8 men of the village who were killed during the Boer War.

Staying on the subject of a glorious death, to the rear of the church is the small grave of the Scott family. The family moved to the (new) village in the 1830's. The most famous descendent, was one Robert Falcon Scott who led his ill-fated expedition to the South Pole & died on his return journey. To this day, the current villages sheltered housing for OAP's is known as Scott's Close; built on land that the family formerly owned before falling on hard times.

There used to be a church bench to the front of the church built from deck timbers salvaged from HMS Hood, the British battle cruiser sunk with all by 3 hands, by the Bismarck, in the Denmark Strait in 1941. The bench was donated by Vice-Admiral Beaver, who is buried in the graveyard. Rather sadly, I hear that this bench was stolen 15 years ago.

So there tucked away in a field in Somerset is maybe a thousand years of village history for all to see - & I haven't even touch upon the Saxon windows & the original Georgian pews inside. However, whilst the church has been deconsecrated, it is still used 3 times a year for Evensong in the summer & for the village carol service at Christmas. Happily at these services it is packed; it would be a greatest of crimes for it to fall into disuse & disrepair because it is little places like this that represent the real England